Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Father’s Day is coming up this Sunday, June 15th. If you haven’t already planned something for your father or bought a card yet, the stores are still open. My dad and I haven’t always seen eye to eye on everything, especially during the dreaded angst-filled teenage years. But he managed to put a roof over my head, food on the table and helped support me to get a degree.

Let’s face it: Not every cold call campaign is created equal. Data integrity and relevance vary with each purchased list, and these new lists are far from free. In a sales world that’s becoming more social, it’s more important to target and personalize your messages to prospects, setting yourself apart from the rest and refusing to provide "another sales pitch." Below are 4 ways to quickly find and engage more relevant contacts, building a warmer pipeline for prospecting. 

With a family background in sales, it’s no wonder I love competition, organization, and numbers. I like that every month your slate is wiped clean and you have another 30 days to crush your numbers. But not only is sales a month-to-month game; it's also quarterly and yearly. The cycle in which we work in inside sales is organized and allows you to plan your time accordingly.

There’s an old adage in sales about sales encounters. It goes something like this:  

You should always go into a sales situation prepared for a no but hoping for a yes.

It’s important to remember that each new opportunity you come across will have its own unique challenges and advantages. Though it’s hard to stay optimistic when objections crop up, bringing baggage from one sales call to another will not help you close. The longer you work with a product or solution, the the more confident you feel in your abilities to sell it, and the more assumptions you may make in regards to the outcome of each business engagement.

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: 

Having the know-how to find the right contact could be one of the most underrated functions of the prospecting process. This ability separates someone who is average and someone who excels. It sounds easy enough until you actually sit down and try calling into a company like Microsoft or IBM to see who handles some niche area of technology operations.

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt of a chapter from our recently published eBook, The Ultimate Inside Sales Prospecting and Management Success eBook. If you're interested in reading the 35-page handbook, click the link above.  

There are 5 important categories to measure from a reporting standpoint to ensure top performance from your inside sales team. The goal is to push your reps to excel in all 5 categories to guarantee their optimal success. The most important categories to pay close attention to are:

Happy Friday, Sales Prospecting Perspectives subscribers! We hope you had a terrific Thanksgiving, feasting with family and giving thanks. Today is Black Friday, but in between your online shopping for deals, you might want to check out some of our favorite sales and marketing articles this week!