Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Employee retention seemed to be a taboo subject at my old sales jobs. If sales managers didn’t speak about it, the problem would simply not be a problem. Unfortunately, they seemed to be conditioned to accept that attrition was inevitable with a team of people making cold calls all day. It wasn't uncommon to see about 50% of new hires exit the organization after 6 months. Why? You've taken the time to interview, hire and train a rep, but once they're at altitude, they leave. No one should be OK with that.

The hardest transition I've found when moving into a manager role is the change in relationship between you and former colleagues that you've once worked with. This changeover generally tends to be the biggest challenge for most new inside sales managers, whether they're responsible for training the inside sales team or for managing the managers.

Some folks would describe me as a bit of a hippy in my office. I'm fairly laid back and try to remain as even-keeled as possible. My disposition could have much to do with the amount of times I was hit in the head throughout my younger years... but I guess I have to roll with it. 

A word I have seen pop all over the business blogsphere these days is “gamification.” Gamification in the workplace in the simplest of definitions is making a game out of employees' day-to-day activities. In the various articles I have read on the topic, the opinions seem to be split on the overall effectiveness of gamification.  Farhad Manjoo of The Wall Street Journal feels that it has the “potential for stifling creativity and flexibility in the workplace, and the growing sensation of being watched, and measured, in everything we do.”  Others believe that creating a game out of an everyday work task increases competition and therefore productivity.  Now I can’t speak for the larger companies (the AMEXes, IBMs and Googles of the world) who leverage a gamification strategy to increase productivity, but I can say that at AG we like to keep it simple and effective.  I’ll share with you an example.

I know a lot of people who go to the gym regularly after work, and I myself have always followed that familiar routine. It wasn’t until I started reading over all the benefits from exercising before work and talked to friends who were doing it that I decided to give it a fair shake. There are many benefits for inside sales reps exercising before work.  In inside sales, exercise before the beginning of the work day can motivate you to put your best foot forward. 

On New Year’s Eve, I posted a blog on the 7 Things I Want My Inside Sales Team To Know for 2014. Now that we're already days in to the last week of February (bring on spring please!), I want to double check that list to ensure I was actually following through on the characteristics I felt separated good managers from not-so-good ones. Of course it's a continual work in progress, but I feel like I've mostly stuck to the expectations I've set for myself. 

It’s the middle of the shortest month of the year, and between calls I hear the familiar orchestra of different off-putting sounds from other cubes: wheezing, coughing, sniffling, sneezing, and zombie-like groans of inside sales reps plagued with cold and flu symptoms.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Damian Davila, Content Marketing Consultant at idaconcpts.com.

In my experience as a marketer, I’ve only seen one way to establish yourself in the field. You have to develop a wide range of many personal connections who value what you do and to whom you provide added value.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I am absolutely addicted to the Winter Olympics. Every night when I am relaxing at home, I get sucked into the speed skating, skiing, and of course curling competitions! After watching the first few nights of events and discussing with coworkers throughout the day, I started to think about how our office has the same qualities that the Olympics in Sochi have. 

Happy Valentine's Day, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! We hope you're doing something special with that someone special or treating yourself to something that makes you happy today. On Valentine's Day, some people may feel down if they don't have a Valentine, just like in inside sales when people can feel slighted if they don't have a prospect. Therefore, we've compiled some helpful content about how to better market and teleprospect to these potential clients. Check out our favorite articles we shared on Twitter this week: