Sales Prospecting Perspectives

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.

Summer is upon us and so is the time of the year for weekend getaways. Before work this morning, I was preparing for a weekend getaway of my own to Cape Cod. I stood in front of my empty duffle bag and made a checklist of the essentials I would need to pack; toothbrush….check….sweatshirt…check, and so on and so forth. I have always been the type of person to make checklists in my head and I realized that I do the same thing when I tackle my day at work.

I have always really loved calling into/managing projects related to the Pharmaceutical Industry. The reason why, to be quite honest, is that this industry seems to grow more and more every day, and prospects tend to want to spend money to be the best option out there (and frankly from what I have seen, they have the money to do it ). Typically, prospects within this industry are open to hearing more about how they can run their operations more efficiently and effectively to get their drugs and other products to market faster. Based on my experience, here are my top three tips to ensure a successful teleprospecting campaign for the Pharmaceutical Industry:

I am the first to dodge an unknown number on my cell or abruptly end a call with someone I feel is, “just another person trying to sell me something.” During my conversations with sales and marketing professionals, it is unfortunate that many still don’t understand the difference between telemarketing and teleprospecting. Telemarketing naturally has a stigma, because one generally thinks of the person who calls during dinnertime with your family. It is typically a very scripted one sided pitch. Any questions a telemarketer has are typically in the form of a “read down the list” survey. Teleprospecting is a completely different animal conducted by business savvy, typically well paid inside sales reps. A teleprospector is good at working around an account to find key decision makers and having value forward conversations.  Teleprospecting is typically used for solutions with larger deal sizes and longer sales cycles as this method is ideal for focusing on the value of the opportunity as opposed to the volume of leads. Volume telemarketing is a better option for more transactional sales or a B2C sale. 

I have been inspired by a new client to talk about the importance of active listening skills in my post today. At AG, we always talk about the importance of open ended questions and active listening skills when prospecting. Listen! Listen! Listen! and find pain in the prospects answers. Sure, sounds easy, so why are we losing them? In spending time with my team and new client, we are taking a step back and relating a business conversation to a personal conversation. We are in sales and marketing, so we believe in our products. Our first instinct is to act on what the prospect has shared, and tell them right away about our solution and how we can fix their problem.  Sure we have it in the back of our minds that we can bring value, but that’s not what this job is about. Being an inside sales rep is about active listening and leading a conversation through pains and needs, in order to paint a distinct picture for your client on where their services may alleviate that pain. It’s the same as actively listening to a friend or family member. If I was talking to my roommate about my stressful day, and she “yes’d” me to death through the conversation and then suggested I needed an ice cream, I would probably say no thanks tell her I was all set and go in my room. She didn’t know why I was stressed, if I was tired, sad or even not hungry at all. She knew she had some delicious ice cream and thought that could be the perfect fit for a bad day.

Are you the type of person that walks into a restaurant, listens to the specials, browses the menu and makes a great decision on what to order in less than 5 minutes? Or are you the person that stresses out over the 20 options and ends up with the soup and salad disappointed?