Sales Prospecting Perspectives

There’s been a lot of talk about millennials recently. In case you aren’t familiar with this term, a millennial is used to describe a segment of the population born between 1980 and 2000 (approximately that is - different sources tend to give slightly different date ranges). The term seems to be making its way into more and more conversations that I’ve been having with my peers when discussing managing inside sales teams. So many inside sales representatives out there fall within this generation, and a hot topic of conversation more recently is how to attract this generation from a recruiting standpoint and how to manage them once they join your team.

It is 9:27 AM EST and your phone rings.  The number is private but you’re in a good mood because your day isn’t as hectic as every other, so you answer, “Hello?”

The person speaks.  It’s someone named ‘Nick’ calling from ListenToThisSolution.com.  His voice is haggard and sounds more like he was hoping for your voicemail.  Out of habit you bring up your Outlook calendar for the day, its wide open. 

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Christopher R. Snell Jr., Inside Sales Manager at Care.com

The bane of a new sales rep’s existence:  the sales role play.  You can almost sense the perspiration forming in the palm of the hands and over the furrow of their brow, can’t you?  The heart beat that’s almost bursting out of their chest and loud enough to let everyone else in the office know what’s about to happen.  For a rookie business development rep, there’s almost nothing as scary, as training winds down, than the dreaded sales role play.  As managers, it’s our job to not only help them get over their fears, but to make the most out of the time that we’ve set aside for training.  Here are five tips that will improve the effectiveness of your sales role plays.

I hope everyone enjoyed their time with family and friends yesterday and nobody over did it too much with their turkey dinner. Today marks one of the busiest shopping days of the year, so avoid the stampedes and squabbling over this years "must have" toys. 

Within every company that is sales driven resides a varying amount of Business Development Reps that will come and go as the years pass.  These people are interviewed, and hired and then go through their training process.  Once they complete their training they’re unleashed and are handed a list of goals and expectations that they are expected to hit.  Now just because they went through a training regimen does not mean they are fully trained and armed with the tactics and strategies to hit these goals.

What does teaching someone how to ride a motorcycle and training a new inside sales rep have in common? On the surface they may seem worlds apart.

For many years I have been involved in training new motorcyclists, coaching them on the basic skills required to ride a motorcycle and eventually more advanced skills, but all built on a foundation of the basics. There are important things to know before a new rider begins to get the wheels rolling; like how to put the helmet on, what to wear while riding, knowing where the controls are, how to operate them and how to start the bike. There is a logical process and each skill learned allows the student to progress to the next basic skill. They’re building their foundation in a safe learning environment. The individuals who come to our classes range in age from 16 to 70 years old. They are all hungry to eventually experience the thrill of riding on the open road. As a rider-coach, I can only assist students in their learning, but it is up to the individual to use the information to be successful. Usually if a rider is having difficulty with a new skill it is likely they need some remediation and to remember the basics. It is easy to forget what they just learned because there is so much information to process. Usually a minor correction and they are on their way.

How many of you have prospected into a warm list of leads provided by a vendor or client?  We’re always under the impression that a warm list contains a higher accuracy rate that will ultimately result in forecasted revenue, and unfortunately, that’s not always the case.  In my experience, it’s not that often we end up passing the actual name provided on the warm list.  So it requires the expertise to gather referrals and find more, or higher up, decision makers.

I recently sat in on a meeting with a team of BDRs and Management that are re-vamping the new hire training program.  I was extremely impressed with their thought process and the amount of work they have put into a strong curriculum of training covering Call Strategy, CRM, Resourcefulness, and Client Communication.

I came across this topic recently on a LinkedIn discussion group and it got me thinking, is it really possible to "measure" how effective sales scripts can be? To me it would seem almost impossible to quantify. Sure, you could say it correlates to the output/ performance of the reps you have making dials, but from what I've seen it isn't that simple.

On my traffic jam drive home last week, I was shamelessly singing along to the wildly popular song, “Call Me Maybe?”, and a light bulb (maybe it was brake light) went off. I literally leave prospects my phone number anywhere from 50 – 100 times a day, and how many of those people get back to me; an embarrassingly small percentage. Outside of work, your phone number is regarded as a precious commodity and here I am doling it out left and right with very little success. So I made it my mission to further investigate the art of leaving a voicemail. What is it that gets people to call you back?