As I've mentioned in previous blogs, list quality plays an enormous factor in our ability to drive leads to sales and build forecast (Are You Giving Your Inside Sales Reps A Good Quality List?) Ideally the time should be taken to weed out the inaccurate contact info, current customers and the independent consultants or students who download a whitepaper for "educational" purposes. What's the point of putting our inside sales reps at an automatic disadvantage before they even pick up the phone?
We often debate if we would prefer to target the individual that raised their hand or a clean list of high level contacts at your top 200 accounts. My two cents is that we would rather start from scratch with a list of companies and target contacts that have never been touched. The primary reason behind that is that I have complete control over the title and the organizations that I want to talk to. Don't get me wrong, a mixture of scrubbed leads with the low hanging fruit combined with clean target lists is the ideal scenario, with the obvious caveat that I don't have to deal with the time sink of scrubbing off the bunk data.
So let's assume you are working with this scenario. What titles would you typically target? Most of us are trained to call high into every company on every list, right?
Well, I'm not sure if I entirely buy into that on every list you're calling on. With your cold lists it's pretty typical to only have a VP or C-Level contact to call, but if you can, try to find multiple contacts since you're unlikely to get a response the higher you call. Tracking down those director and manager level titles make sense for a couple of reasons- 1) Working multiple angles gets you to an evaluator/decision maker much quicker to gauge interest 2)Most of the time the Director/Manager titles are the people you generally end up getting forwarded to anyway.
A majority of the leads resulting in closed business for our clients began with a conversation with those director level contacts or below. It's pretty rare for us to see inbound lead from a CIO who downloaded white paper....as most of us know he/she tasks others to do the preliminary research before they get involved.
We've struggled with a few of our clients who use lead scoring through their automated marketing platform to rate their leads, with a large percentage of scoring weighted heavily on the quality of the title. Unfortunately there were very few leads that scored high enough because most of the leads were directors, managers and analysts downloading the info. We've also learned (the hard way) that just because a lead receives a high score out of your marketing platform doesn't always mean they're the right person.
Eventually what we recognized with the inbound marketing lists was that it would be best to follow up based on the company vs. the title. Rather than just calling into a VP downloading info, we took the time to also contact the business analysts as well. Generally what we discovered was the analyst actually picked up their phone and more often than not, played an integral role in the decision making process. At the very least they could provide us the intelligence we needed to have a very healthy conversation when we DID get the big boss live.
The point is - don't neglect the little guys. Just because a lead didn't receive a 100% from your fancy marketing automation tool doesn't mean it should be ignored.
A big focus for the AG team last week was simple enough: talk to more people to get more quality conversations in, and the leads will come as a result. I think this was the perfect reminder of what the team needed to hear to really increase their productivity, and the resulting conversations and opportunities prove it. Every sales person knows this theory is true, but sometimes all of us need a gentle reminder to stay persistent and not to become lazy. In a note to the team last week, Pete Gracey, the president of AG said, “You have not done your job if you hang up the phone before you get someone live when prospecting into a company.” I found it interesting how the reported conversations doubled last week after he made this comment.
The theme here boils down to this: Persistence, or what we like to call at AG, “Polite Persistence.” I think that sales people tend to get a bad reputation for being too forward, which is why we train our reps to be persistent in the nicest way possible. We accomplish this in many ways, from our tone and messaging to the amount of times we contact prospects throughout our call plan. There are two examples that really stand out in my mind and exemplify how we really go above and beyond to get the most meaningful conversations and quality opportunities possible without giving up.
- When it comes to calling into a company, we are hunters! A lot of companies out there will only talk to C-level contacts, and ignore the rest of the organization. We make it a point to not only reach out to the C level contacts and their assistants to get passed down, but then we contact managers and directors below them until we get the answer we are looking for. We may not always have the information available to us, so we utilize contact databases to find more people to call and never forget to use 0# to talk to as many people as possible. An interesting point here is how to incent inside sales people to have these quality conversations, and to stay persistent on those lazy days - what better way than to incorporate number of conversations into their compensation plans.
- We don’t stop at phone communication - we compliment it with immediate email follow ups. We realize that most of the executives we reach out to barely have enough time in their day to finish their work, let alone take a call from someone they don’t know. Because of this, we send brief, to the point emails to make the best use of their time. If they respond to us that they aren’t interested, we don’t stop prospecting them until we know why. The best example of this was seen through an email exchange between a insides sales rep and a prospect a few days ago. The inside sales rep emailed a prospect and the prospect said “I’m not interested. We already have a specific package for our industry that meets our needs.” Typically, I think someone might give up on this prospect or maybe even the company all together for the time being. Instead, this inside sales rep followed the email up by mentioning that many other companies like his were looking into this type of software and that if it was interesting to him now or in the future, he’d like to have a brief conversation now. The prospect replied by sharing more information about his environment, and referred him to their CFO, and the inside sales rep passed over an opportunity with the CFO the next day.
Sometimes we tend to become lazy about being persistent, especially when we get shut down by prospects when cold calling every day. Always remember that persistence pays off and not to qualify out a company until you know exactly why they aren’t interested.
Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you another guest entry from one of our BDRs, Jill Ryan.
Recently I was getting extremely frustrated with the concept of “maintenance mode.” How long can some one “maintain” contact with a person that has never answered before? I can’t stand calling someone for 6-12 months and leaving them voicemail after email, getting nothing in return. Part of this job is to gather market research on why someone isn’t answering so we can make the best use of our time. Personally, I pick up and hang up every time I see a surveyor on my caller ID. That person could be giving away the hope diamond and I would have no clue because I don’t feel like listening. Even after being in this business for a while and having countless conversations about the difficulties of cold calling, I still never throw the receiving end a bone.
So that leads me to this thought- why do I have no interest? I think the reason why people have no interest is because we are constantly on the defensive. “What are you trying to sell me? I have no money!” We are all guilty of assuming that the person on the line is on a mission to cram product down our throats. In my case, I’m not, hell I couldn’t sell you a CRM if I tried. All I want to do is see if you have a problem and if I can help solve it. So why not just say that directly? An email or a voicemail is not a close, an info commercial, or an opportunity to recite the year your company was most profitable. It is an opportunity to invite a person to have a quick conversation, point you in the best direction or tell you when to follow up. In the business of “Business Development”, we need to open the gates to new business in order to do our jobs.
Here are some ways I conquer my “maintenance mode” and get more people qualified in or out:
- Write new “maintenance mode” emails: Send your prospects a quick note with an updated case study, or some interesting new literature on your company.
- Call them during a holiday season or the summer and see how everything is going. The more memorable you make yourself, the better chance you have of building a relationship with that person.
I have had an outstanding response rate to this new email and I think it’s worth a shot to send it out to those people that declined your invitation 3-6 months back. Let’s face it, these people are not thinking about our products as much as we are. It’s our job to drop in and say hello and not lose to opportunity to share our story. Working on new personable attempts to make contact with your prospects will keep them out of the dreaded “maintenance mode” and place them into your pipeline.
Try this email:
Following up on information from XYZ Company—Jill Ryan
Mr Prospect,
I wanted to follow up on some information I have sent you over the past couple of months. I understood at the time, it did not make sense to connect. I wanted to touch base and see if you had any active goals regarding ____________ and ___________ at this time.
My role is at the very front end of the sales process; I just want to engage you early on with information regarding how we enhance ______________________.
Please let me know the best time to follow up, as I certainly do not want to bother you unnecessarily.
Hope all is well,
Jill Ryan
XYZ
000-0000-0000
Fill in the blanks with the problems you are looking to solve and see if you can conquer “maintenance mode”.
Over the last 5 years or so I’ve interviewed a wide range of candidates for our business development role here at AG. They all have a variety of backgrounds from 10+ years of inside sales experience on down to a recent college graduates anxious to get their feet wet in the sales world. What I’ve discovered is that nothing surprises me anymore.
Now I wouldn't consider myself to be the toughest person to interview for. I usually try to play the role of good cop and allow the other folks I work with make the candidate squirm with the extra tough questions. My goal is to get a true understanding of whether or not the person is interested in working on my team. And are they someone that I can see myself spending 40-50 hrs a week working with. I recognize that I can't expect every solid candidate I interview to be someone that I want to head out and grab a beer with, but at the very least will they add value to AG? Could they challenge me to be better at my job? My president made a good point recently ..."If I'm thinking at any point during an interview that I want to "help" this person, then I probably shouldn't hire them. We’re not offering charity here; we're trying to bring in people that will help to grow the business."
Usually I try to set the scene by being relatively laid back in an attempt to draw out the interviewee's personality. Our culture is extremely important so I want to bring in people that I know can add to our work-place and co-exist peacefully with others. After a little small talk like ... any trouble finding the office? where are you from? ..I'll start with my first softball question to get them comfortable... So what interested in you the Business Development Representative role here at AG? Well apparently that isn't the easiest question for some candidates. A couple of my favorite responses include.. "Well if you worked at my current company then you would probably be looking for a new job too" or another beauty "The summer was over and I figured it was time to look for a job. Your company just happened to be the first company to call me back." Both true stories.
C'mon people since this is a sales job you need do a better job on selling ME on why YOU want to work at my organization.
Here are 6 warning signs to look for when a candidate comes in to interview for your company. Yes they may seem like interviewing 101 to some of us...but I've been unpleasantly surprised.
1) They trash their current or previous employer:
My first thought when people get into this is “ hmmm well golly, what will they say about me if they don’t agree with a decision I make?”
2) No research has been done on the company or the role they’re applying for:
If I’m going to spend a half hour of my time with you …then come PREPARED! I’ve fielded some interesting responses to my question asking them to explain to me what they understand that the job will entail. My favorite was “I’ll be selling office furniture here, right?” Nope sorry buddy…you might be confusing us with your last interview. Another true story.
3) They have little to no questions regarding the role they are applying for or on the company itself:
As with #2 above come prepared, surely there are a few things you would like to know about the role and the company.
4) They make their first or second question about the sales compensation plan or better yet vacation time:
I can respect that people are interested in what their compensation will look like, especially since they are applying for a sales job and all….but at least butter me up with questions about the job and AG Salesworks. And the vacation time question speaks for itself.
5) They never look you in eye:
At this point I’m thinking..”You got something to hide partner?” I understand they may be applying for a teleprospecting job that doesn’t require eye contact, but quite simply I’m not going to hire someone that I feel I can’t trust off the bat.
6) No follow-up email is sent after the interview thanking the company for their time:
Seems to me that this is common courtesy these days, if they want the job badly enough, they should go through the effort of typing up a simple thank you email.
From my experience as a hiring manager this has been a great way to identify a legitimate candidate from the rest of the field. It can at least be a better way of weeding out the folks that you are on the fence with. If they exhibit any of the warning signs above it may be time to remove them from the pool.
Happy Friday Everyone! This week we offered some answers and tips for some popular questions out there: How effective is hiring inside sales reps with no past experience in inside sales? What is the importance of providing your inside sales reps with a quality list to call into? How are you insuring that your reps are on track to meet their numbers for the month? And what are your thoughts on cold calling introductions?
Before I give a detailed recap of everything, I’d like to highlight a blog by Ardath Albee B2B Marketing Strategist. Here she had a great entry asking "Is Sales Stepping on Your Marketing Dialogue?" It really touched on the importance of communication between Marketing and Sales, and the importance of having them work together as a team.
Monday July 19th
The Benefits Of Hiring An Inexperienced Sales Rep – Chris Lang offers his take on the benefits of hiring someone with a clean slate:
“Our sales process is a bit unique and more than a couple of reps have come to us thinking they were going to crush their number only to leave with their tail tucked between their legs. As these inexperienced new hires grow into their roles, I am always pleasantly surprised with how fast they pick things up.”
Tuesday July 20th
Are You Giving Your Inside Sales Reps A Good Quality List? – Craig Ferrara discusses the importance of having a quality list for your reps:
“If you are dumping a list of marketing leads on the inside sales team that is filled with incomplete contact information, or is chock full of duplicates, then you are you putting them at an automatic disadvantage before they even pick up the phone. Have you taken into consideration how much that can negatively affect the progress of your campaigns or the growth of your pipeline?”
Wednesday July 21st
Mid Month Inside Sales Diagnostic Check-up – Pete offers some great tips to make sure your team is on track to have a great month:
“We don't just look how they've done, but we all look at whether or not they have what they need to finish strong for the last 2 weeks of the month."
Thursday July 22nd
The “Introduction Debates” of Cold Calling – Laney Pilpel talks about the repeated debates of Cold Calling Introductions, and offers some great suggestions:
“Over the past several years, I have spent a lot of my time studying different selling techniques, from Sandler to the SPIN selling model. Personally, I think the best method to use is a combination of all the selling methods out there – but most importantly, making sure to add a personal touch to your communication with a prospect, especially during your introduction. In thinking about this, I was reminded of a constant debate that goes on here at AG, but also for many sales organizations out there: Is there a proper way to engage a prospect when contacting them and how personal can you get?”
Friday July 23rd
Are Your Inside Sales Reps Good Detectives? – A new guest in our blog this week, Stephen Wolff discusses the importance of getting as much information as you can out of a prospect.
“I think of my job as a detective. When I call I try to use every minute that I am on the phone with someone to get as much out of the call as possible. This can be tough with time constraints, meetings and people who just really do not want to talk to people taking up their time with sales calls."
That wraps it up! We wish everyone a happy and safe weekend!
It's a little past mid month. Time to give each one of your inside sales reps a mid month diagnostic check up. There are many different keys that make up a successful month's prospecting and it's important that you check in with your people mid month to see how they are doing with each.
When Laney and I evaluate and review our inside sales reps mid-month, we look at their performance in three separate areas. We don't just look how they've done, but we all look at whether or not they have what they need to finish strong for the last 2 weeks of the month.
1. List: I'm not talking about the quality of the list. I assume that if you read my blog you may also read that of our resident list expert Craig Ferrara. If you are a disciple of Craig, then your list is fine from a quality standpoint. What we focus on mid month is whether or not the inside sales rep in question actually has enough people to call. How big is the list of suspects? In order for a teleprospector to be optimal and meet the metrics of his\her call plan they need a minimum of 500 companies in play at all times. If you are short of that number mid month....then you better find some more or your inside sales rep may not hit their goal.
2. Lead Quality: When you are managing people making outbound dials you've got to find a delicate balance between volume of calls and quality of the opportunities passed to sales. Take some time mid-month to review the quality (assuming you have a closed loop feedback process in place) of the leads passed by each inside sales rep and make sure they aren't playing too much of the volume game. If you see their quality score is low, have a sit down and review each lead with them. Gently reinforce that quality is just as important as quantity. You'll see immediate refocus.
3. Moral: When your occupation involves as much daily rejection as teleprospecting, you can get a little down. Don't ever forget that your guys and gals on the phones take a lot of heat over the course of a day and may need a little pep talk now and again. Run your Leads Passed List by inside sales rep and start at the bottom. The folks having the slowest month are most likely to need a little reenergizing. Take them out to lunch, review the good things they've done, sing them a song...it doesn't matter, just make sure you let them know you understand their job is tough and that you are there to help them get back to a high level of performance.
These are just a few nice and simple ways to reconnect with your team and make sure you are all on the path to a solid month. Good Luck!!
Busy week for us at AG!
We discussed how feedback and collaboration are important for success in inside sales, and learn some tips on how to be Proactive as opposed to Reactive in order to have a successful Teleprospecting Campaign. We also released our 3rd Viral Video that shows a bit of the unusual yet interesting “pre call” rituals we’ve discovered in our BDR’s.
I’d like to thank Mike Damphousse from Green Leads for highlighting our post from last month in his blog this week, B2B Lead Generation Can Take The Heat Of Summer. In his entry he raises some great points on having a different mindset for lead generation in the summer, and that it’s not as slow as you may think!
Monday, July 12th
Feedback is the Key To Inside Sales Success! – Chris Lang offers great advice on the importance of feedback survey’s to measure the success of the meetings/appointments that your inside sales team is setting you up with.
“After a sales rep has a discovery call or introductory meeting that was set up by your inside sales team, send them a quick email. The email is going to gauge the quality of the opportunity sent. I list 3 questions that the sales rep has to reply to:…”
Tuesday June 13th
Collaboration Is Key With Your Inside Sales Team – Craig Ferrara discusses the usefulness of getting your team to work together and offer their thoughts and opinions on the work they do every day.
“The beauty of an exercise like this is you are encouraging individuality and creativity with your inside sales team AND their ideas are being exposed to both their team members and management.”
Thursday July 15th
Avoid Being “Reactive” For A Successful Teleprospecting Campaign – Nicole Puddester addresses the importance of being proactive as opposed to reactive in order for you to have a successful teleprospecting campaign.
“To ensure the success of a project, everyone has an important job to do. Communication can be so important to get this job done. If you are picking up on one of these “red flags,” it is important to address this immediately.”
So there you have it! Please be sure to check out our latest Viral Video: "AG’s Got Talent…” and enjoy a laugh get a taste of some of the culture we have here at AG. Have a great weekend!
Working in the world of sales I have sympathy for my brethren slogging away in the trenches trying to pull down a deal. With all of the calls I receive each day, I feel obligated to at least hear the sales rep out before I determine if their offering is something I may or may not have interest in. The same goes for the email solicitations I receive. I’ll take a minute to read (or at least skim) through their pitch to feel out whether or not this could be something that would benefit AG.
By taking the time to absorb the various solicitations we receive on a daily basis we accomplish a couple of things:
1) The product/services they are offering COULD actually be of great benefit to our business
2) It allows us to analyze/ critique how other organizations approach their cold calls and messaging
Over the years we’ve recognized that our approach needs to continually evolve. We can’t allow ourselves to rest on our laurels. And while you can say this about most any business, this should be an absolute requirement if you cold call. One of the better ways we feel to execute on this is through collaboration with your team.
A perfect example occurred today when AG’s president shared an email solicitation he received from a vendor interested in partnering with our organization. He was drawn in by the simplicity of the subject-line which prompted him to open the email, but he felt the content needed a little tweaking after reading through it. He asked that everyone to share their individual input. We evaluated the positive and negatives, recognizing that there isn’t always an absolute right and wrong way to communicate with a prospect. As a team we pin-pointed some of things we felt worked well along with the things we felt could use a little adjusting.
The beauty of an exercise like this is you are encouraging individuality and creativity with your inside sales team AND their ideas are being exposed to both their team members and management.
If you’ve conditioned yourself to just delete an unsolicited email you receive or cut the sales rep off while their halfway through their pitch - then you might be missing out. For those of you in the sales/marketing game, I suggest appeasing the karma gods by giving a minute of your time to the teleprospectors reaching out to you daily. Not that I have any intention of sounding like my mother but… how would you like it if someone did that to you? In the one minute you are allowing to listen/read the solicitation, you are also educating yourself on how others are getting in front of their prospective customers. As we all know-your message needs to evolve. Hey, some approaches may not work for you, but at the very least it gets you and your team continually thinking of how your messaging should be positioned.
Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you another guest entry from one of our BDRs, Jill Ryan.
Out of the 12 month year, these next 3 months are going be the hardest for inside sales reps. Sure, all year long our friends and family that are Firefighters, Nurses, Police Officers, EMTs, bartenders and servers have envied us for our guaranteed weekends off. Now the tables have turned, I know some of us were wishing we could catch a mid week beach trip, but we have a job to do. I am the first one to say that AG has a culture like no other and we are lucky to have such a good time at work, but let’s face it, cold calling while its 85 and sunny out isn’t the best.
I am the kind of person that cares about my performance all the time. I am obnoxiously competitive and work the best under pressure, so go figure, I love contests. What better way to honor the cube dwellers during the next couple of months then to roll out some new incentives. Here at AG, we are lucky. We have an incentive in place that if we exceed production standards for the week, we can have a half day on Fridays. A lot of businesses are gone early on Fridays, so it makes for an effective work week. But what else can we do to spice it up during the summer?
- One thing I know my coworkers and I enjoy is time off. A monthly incentive to get some time off is most definitely something people will work towards. Everyone has trips they would like to take over the summer, and a chance to bank some days for the beach or lake is an expense most organizations can manage, and people would appreciate.
- Team contests! In sales, we all do a lot for each other in a pinch, why not have contests within your teams to boost the spirits and give each other that extra push. Some of the previous contests that have been great were a mix of meeting inside sales related benchmarks with a fun skills contest to cap it off. For example, our last contest combined meeting certain goals with a putting contest – the teams who had the best results towards these goals, putted from a shorter distance. These contests get people to work hard to meet the goals and have fun in the process.
- Something affordable but fun for the entire group. Whether that be a summer party, a day to head to a Pawsox game, or just the beach. Make it something the management can budget for and the company as a whole has to work hard to obtain, whether that be through lead goals or call expectation.
Let’s face it, we all work hard, but it can get difficult to stay focused in the summer when nothing changes in the routine. Summer is a time to throw the routine out the window, get outside, be active and enjoy each other. Why not continue that theme within the office to keep everyone on their feet, willing to work hard to play hard.
To be aggressive or not be aggressive. That is the question. You've just had a wildly successful Webinar. It was a packed digital house full of your hottest prospects and you are certain you'll get some new forecast from it.
The first instinct of every inside sales organization is to begin their follow up calls in earnest with a dedicated and regimented calls plan the day after the event. I applaud your energy and excitement as well as the fact that you've got a call plan, but I will caution you on one thing. Following up too aggressively and too quickly with your sales pitch after a webinar can be a great turn off to your prospects.
I'm not saying you don't want to reach out to them right away, but you want to be very careful about how you reach out to them in the immediate time following the event. We have found that the best way to turn webinar attendees into gold is to hold off on our politely persistent teleprospecting plan until at least a week after the event.
Instead of immediately turning the leads over to your team, set up to send them two emails over the course of the first week following the event. It is most important to have the presenter (s) of the event be the people that send the intitial email. This email should be nothing more than a "thank you" for your attendance and a link to the presentation that was given.
At the end of the week, the second email should be sent by the presenter(s) again and be very quick and to the point. It should thank them again for attending and then let them know that one of you your colleagues will be following up with them via phone next week to determine whether or not your organization can be of more help....and example of that email could be...
John,
Thanks again for attending our recent webinar "Building a Reliable Sales Pipeline in 30 Days". I wanted to let you know that one of my colleagues here at AG Salesworks will be following up with you next week via the phone. It will be their goal to discuss, in more detail, how we may be of assistance to your company.
Regards,
Pete
Once you’ve sent your two emails, the gloves come off and your inside sales reps should begin following their call plan with your prospects. I know that this may sound counterintuitive to what you've typically read or thought, but much of our techniques are derived from how we like to be dealt with. There is nothing I dislike more than getting a call the day after an event. Give me some time to digest what I've seen.
Of course you need some stats to feel better about what I'm saying. Here is the only one that matters. The Lead rate (% of conversations that turn into leads passed) increases by 2% when employing this non-invasive follow up approach. That is a huge difference.
How do you follow up on your webinar attendees?