Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Oh lists…lists are great! Lists keep teleprospectors and inside sales reps busy and within those lists hold the potential for qualified opportunities and sales pipeline. Getting a fresh new list can feel like Christmas to a teleprospector. On the other hand, sometimes the size of a new list (3000-5000+) can seem like a daunting amount of data to deal with, like finding a needle in a haystack.  All the preparation, training and role playing won’t do a teleprospector any good if they are not equipped with the knowledge of how to properly manage and refine the data to get to decision makers faster. One of the mistakes I see teleprospectors make is what I refer to as “thoughtless dialing.” This is when a list is imported and the rep just goes down the list one after the other, voicemail/email, voicemail email…and so on. Knowing how to properly manage/refine that data and research contacts helps to provide purpose to those dials.

My husband and I have been considering purchasing a new home. Every Sunday we go to open houses and review our “must haves” before entering each house. While we are realistic that we may not get everything on our list; when we do end up buying, there are certain characteristics of a home that we just won’t budge on – one of them being a walk in closet for me, of course.

As a Business Development Rep for our clients, I’ve worked on a variety of projects in which I have had to support a variety of sales reps. For a few projects, I’ve worked mainly with a marketing point of contact and not directly with sales, while on other projects I speak with the sales reps on a weekly basis, if not more. It is important to have a strong relationship with the outside sales reps you are supporting to understand if the opportunities being passed are progressing down the pipeline and to get feedback on those opportunities.

Okay, okay - before you disagree with me, hear me out. Last week I was battling with a horrible thought – I questioned whether or not my team thought of me as a micromanager. We weren’t trending in the right direction as a team to reach goal, so I honed in on some details much more than usual. Historically, micromanagement has been known as a “bad word” but sometimes there is a time and a place for it, especially when managing an inside sales team. What I’ve found is that it’s okay to point out areas of improvement for your teleprospecting team and guide their behavior in the direction you are looking for. After all, you are in a management role for a reason. The key is to lead and coach your team while reassuring them you aren’t tracking their activities and looking over their shoulder because you want to make them miserable; you are doing it to help them grow as a sales person.  

One of my biggest goals with any new rep on my teleprospecting team is to establish appropriate habits. There have been many times that I've worked with insides reps with a  few years of experience teleprospecting and find that within the first  month of their employment at AG I have to undo much of what has already been ingrained into their sales approach. Problem is, if we condition our reps to just get a list of questions answered on a cold call that is exactly what they are going to do because that is what they have been trained to do. 

It's reasonable to assume that when kicking off a teleprospecting campaign, the primary focus is going to be on the desired result: L-E-A-D-S. But what we often lose sight of is all the valuable data that can be collected as a by-product of your calling efforts. 

Typically I reserve this space to share a piece of great content I have found throughout the week. Today, I wanted to share something a little different. When the calendar turns at midnight on October 31st many men embark on a mission for raising donations to help fight against prostate and testicular cancer by growing out their mustaches.  This phenomenon, known as Movember, has gone on for a few years now and I wanted to take a moment to recognize the cause. A bunch of men at AG have all taken a break from their razor for the month in the hopes of raising donations to help prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. If you are participating in the cause, that's great and many people will thank you. Should you want to make a donation to help support the cause, here is a link to their team page and thank you in advance.

A colleague of mine recently discussed the 7 bad habits inside sales people practice.  So in this edition, we’ll flip the coin and take a look into the actions and habits that make Business Development Reps successful.

The countdown to my wedding on November 24th is officially here. I’ve got 6 months to make this thing happen and hope that it goes off without a hitch. Just thinking about the venue, flowers, caterer, band, photographer, invitations, etc. is overwhelming, and it’s hard not to feel nervous that it won’t all come together in the end. The overwhelming feeling I have right now is a lot like the feeling that inside sales reps have as they enter the first week of a new month. New goals and quotas have been assigned to sales reps for June and some might be feeling overwhelmed with the tasks at hand, worried they won’t reach their goals by June 30th. Just like I need to step back, organize, and take the appropriate steps to ensure a fabulous wedding, sales teams need to take a step back, plan for the month, and take the right steps throughout the whole month in order to achieve their quota. If executed properly, there will be no need to work all hours of the night at month’s end to try to reach your numbers. 

I have recently become enamored with Social Media and the impact it is having on business, from the small Mom and Pop shops, to large Multi-national Corporation.  It is hard to argue against its benefits for business, but what place should it rightfully take?  After reading Chris Lang’s blog on integrating social media in your inside sales program, not replacing it, it got me pondering what type of overall impact does Social Media have on us in the sales industry. Chris’s argument was valid, that social media cannot replace cold calling or teleprospecting programs, but must be used to take advantage of the “real time” access to business information.  I think we would all agree that using social media to generate leads, become relevant in your industry, brand yourself, gainmore exposure for your business/product/service, etc… is becoming more and more vital for business, but at what cost?  As we continually look at faster ways for instant gratification, is social media another avenue contributing to the widening disconnect of human interaction and leading us into a more secluded “social” lifestyle.