Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from James Hutto, co-founder of Valeo Marketing.

In an ideal world, we’d all have 100% email open rates. After all, they signed up, so they want to see what we have to say, right? If only things were that simple... Even if you’ve crafted the perfect squeeze page, written amazing content, and gently encouraged your readers to sign up via email... It’s all for nothing if they don’t read those emails. What must be done next—and arguably just as difficult, might I add—is to write subject lines that get your subscribers to actually open your emails. But don’t fret! With the right approach, you can craft email subject lines that will leave your readers hungry to discover what’s inside.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Helen Nesterenko, founder of Writtent.com.

One of the biggest reasons that companies fail is that entrepreneurs don’t ask for help. This concept is so well-known, it inspired the best-selling book The E-Myth. CEOs shouldn’t spend their days acting as a “technician,” when they need to focus on innovation and orchestration. If you’re spending your days  immersed in the nitty-gritty of deliverables it’s time to take a few steps back and learn how to ask for help:

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Erica Bell, Marketing Management writer for business resource site Business.com.

Conflicts – all offices have them and all employees will encounter at least one during their working days. Economics and cultural differences between sales and marketing departments can cause conflicts in the workplace that ultimately hinder your profits and the performance of your business. Don’t let your business become a victim to the clash of the department titans. Get your sales and marketing teams working together effectively for greater success and a boost in your bottom line.

Last week, I was thinking about how much time I spend making dials and speaking with prospects, talking with my team, and corresponding with clients via phone and email. As a business development representative at AG Salesworks, I work closely with my director and manager on my team to ensure that I focus my time on the most important tasks. In a normal day, I communicate with my manager, director, other business development representatives, and other key players in our organization. I also speak with my client almost daily to make sure I have the most relevant contacts at the top of my list. In order to maximize time on the phones passing qualified leads, it is essential to have meaningful conversations with the other people that are important to speak with on a daily basis.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Dan Vuksanovich, the Website Traffic Increaser Guy. 

We all want leads. Better yet, we all want qualified leads. A sales rep’s first duty is usually to ask some probing questions of a new lead in order to determine if the prospect’s interests are aligned with whatever that sales rep has to sell. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if leads would pre-qualify themselves? With Integrated Marketing Communications, they can and will.

Last week I attended the AA-ISP Leadership Summit in Chicago.  While I was there, I noticed some interesting behaviors and practices by some of the vendors who were exhibiting.  Many of them seemed to abandon traditional prospecting strategies when the mask of a phone was lifted and confronted with face to face interaction.  Why would that strategy differ? The more I think about it the more it makes me laugh.

Sales 2.0 or social selling are the hottest topics at this years conferences and trade shows. Organizations of all sizes are finally realizing they need to have a social presence and some form of social strategy in place. The problem is, most organizations don't know where to start or what sort of process to have in place to best utilize the social intelligence these channels provide.

As a business development representative, I am armed with collateral to help prospects gain insight into my client’s products and services. This is part of our job- providing additonal information when we can’t qualify a prospect as a lead. But is there such a thing as ‘too much collateral’? The answer depends on a few things: your personal preference, how in depth your client wants to go, how many different solutions you have and the organization itself.

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend the AA-ISP Leadership Summit at the Palmer House in Chicago. It was a great event which was well attended by many great companies and thought leaders within the inside sales industry.  I came away thinking about two things: the inside sales role is truly evolving and many organizations realize they should have a social selling strategy, but most don’t realize how to do it or what to do with it.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Tom Knight, COO of SurgeryFlow.

Over the first quarter of the year, and in particular the last month, we have heard this question a lot.

For many, the question stems from doubt about the ability of Sales to produce replicable results, and for others it stems from a desire not to leave anything on the table. In both instances the answer is the same: