Sales Prospecting Perspectives

AG Salesworks is pleased to bring you a guest post from Janelle Johnson, Director of Demand Generation at Act-On Software. 

In B2B marketing, sales and marketing emails play different but equally important roles in a successful communication strategy. Marketing emails lure the leads, and sales reels them in. But if nobody ever opens your messages, they won’t do your organization much good. Getting a prospect to open an email can be extremely challenging in today’s crowded marketplace. Many of us get hundreds of emails every day. Which ones make you click? Which ones make you hit delete?

You wake up in the morning and check your email on your phone, tablet, or laptop. You get to work and you check your work email. You delete some emails, save some for reading later, and reply to others right away. But what makes you stop and read some emails versus saving them and forgetting to come back to them until a week later? There are a few things you can do to help your emails get noticed by prospects.

Ah yes, it’s that time of year again. Lines at the mall are out the door, parking lots are jammed, and calories don’t matter (right?). With the holiday season comes the end of the fiscal year for the majority of companies. And for inside sales reps here at AG, it can be a stressful time, as they try to pass qualified leads while prospects are taking vacation time to spend with their family. We can use this time to plan for the New Year while also nurturing accounts and catching prospects live. Last week, Craig gave some tips from a director’s point of view, and this week I’m giving some tips from a sales rep standpoint.

Most if not all inside sales reps have a CRM that they work within, but not many sales executives create and/or enforce any sort of process for how their reps should be operating and logging information within that CRM.

The other day someone said to me, “When it comes to cold calling, it’s really just a numbers game. By reaching out to 100 people per day, there’s bound to be someone who says yes.” The comment took me by surprise and I thought to myself, "Wow, do people really think that’s all there is to cold calling? Do they really think of it as 'mindless' dials that will eventually lead to someone who says yes?"

It’s nearing the end of summer. Sales reps might think that making cold calls to prospects will now be easier, but lately, it's becoming harder and harder every day. Why, you may ask? For the same reason leads were down in the middle of summer: Vacations.  Not only do individuals inside sales representatives call go on vacation, sending us automatic out-of-office email replies or recording voicemails that state "I will be out of the office until...", but us cold callers luckily get some time off as well.  The problem is that, as prospects are finally returning from vacation, they're pushing sales reps away. I have called many a person in the last few months who has said to me, "I just got back from vacation and I have a backlog of emails and voicemails to get through.  Can you call back in two days?"

Going through a slump? Feeling like this fat cat?

Whether it's that time of the year, or your pipeline is looking depressing, or your personal motivation is lacking, there are endless reasons why you might be having a difficult period for passing leads. But this is not a bad thing. Since there are many reasons for a “sales slump,” this means that there are endless ways to escape it!

Here are some tips for getting out of a sales slump and back into doing what you do best:

Happy Friday, readers. At AG, we kickstarted this week with sales training for our inside sales reps at the Four Points Sheraton. Our reps spent four hours in the trenches with a professional sales trainer, practicing brain exercises, focusing on teambuilding, giving each other advice, sharing ideas and role playing specific sales scenarios. They came back to the office refreshed with information and ready to conquer more leads!

No matter what time of year it is, it’s important to stick to your company’s call plan. Of course, variation is fine depending on projects and clients, but it is best to try and keep the call plan on track. At AG, we have found that our call plan works for most projects and receives many responses from prospects at all levels and in many different departments.

It’s finally August, the Sunday of summer. The scorching heat brings with it a bittersweet reminder that summer won’t last forever, and that fall is just around the corner. At AG, we’re celebrating the beginning of a new month with a company cruise in the Boston Harbor. We’re ready for a beautiful day on the water, filled with games, dancing and fun. I hope you’re embracing this month as well!