Sales Prospecting Perspectives

I've been thinking lately that life is kind of like a series of sales situations, and if you never ask for the sale, you're always going to get a "no."  So, I think that not only in life, but in teleprospecting, we should always strive to be initiators and be proactive.

For any inside rep, it is extremely important to convey all the information that you are provided during your qualification conversation to the Outside Rep receiving the opportunity. This week Jaime, Nicole and I conducted a workshop to help reinforce the listening and note taking skills of our BDRs to strengthen the quality of our leads.  Now, I can't divulge all of our secrets, but I will let you know of some of the key areas that are important to gather during your initial call to help arm your outside rep for their follow up conversation.

So you have a talented teleprospecting team in place.  Your reps all accomplished an extensive training period.  You helped them grow through a magnitude of call training sessions and workshops.   You conveyed your knowledge and "tricks of the trade" to your reps, and they've taken those skills and are cranking on the phones.  As a trainer, job well done, right? Wrong.
 
The key to a successful teleprospecting team is fostering an encouraging environment.  As part of the training department, it is my belief that our most important job is ensuring that our team is constantly motivated.  Here are three ways to make sure your team is always motivated:

Recognition - Your most cost effective tool can be a simple "pat on the back."  An even better "pat on the back" is one the whole company can see.  Create public recognition such as a company mass email, visible name plaques, or recognize a valued rep during a company wide meeting.

In today's internet, blackberry, and wireless driven society, the most effective, and in many instances, only way to grab a prospect's attention is via email.
 
In my previous blog, I discussed the importance of your window of opportunity when you get someone live on the phone.  A cold caller's time is typically 10-15% live communication.  It is just as important to ensure the 85-90% of "non-live" messaging is effective. Today, we are all faced with information overload. In response, we have become experts at being our own personal spam filters - constantly hitting the delete button.  Here is how to separate yourself from the crowd with effective email communication:

Subject Line:  This could be the most important part of your email as it determines if the prospect will even open your message.  DO NOT use spam words or sales and marketing jargon.  A referral is your best friend and should always be present in the subject line.
 
Make the Connection:  After leaving your voicemail, send your follow-up email within the next 5 mins.  In your voicemail, always refer to your email and visa versa.  Let's face it, we don't have time to free write every email, it is important to avoid any evidence of a template while personalizing your message as much as possible.
 
Problem and Solution:  Always tie the message to their business needs.  Sometimes, prospects need to be reminded of their day to day headaches. Illustrate an industry pain and how your product/service has helped others to solve them.  As in your live communication, same holds true to email, do not information dump!
 
It's all Visual:  Keep the message short.  Most likely, they will decide to read it after the first couple sentences.  The prospect must be able to read it at a glance.  Use bullet points and sentence breaks.  Test your email and send it to yourself first.
 
Always End with an Action Step:  Great, you gave them some info.  Now, tell them to get back to you!  Let them know, if they don't respond, you will reconnect in a couple days.
 
As always, revamping and refreshing your message is crucial.  In my next blog, I will discuss the importance of refreshing your team's techniques by consistently bringing new ideas to the table.

Here at AG, we achieve our goals by setting the expectations for our business development reps to deliver consistent quality.  The following are just a few suggestions on ways to motivate and reinforce these goals. 

One of the toughest struggles when presented with a marketing/trade show list is that not all of the contacts may be the appropriate person to speak with or that the company is outside of our targeted market. Now that does not mean that the list is a total washout. When handed a dilemma, one needs to make "di-lemonade".  If I was asked to describe AG Salesworks' BDR's with two adjectives (and an adverb!), it would be "professionally persistent" and "resourceful". I would like to elaborate a little bit more about the importance of being "resourceful."

Some say being successful in sales is luck.  But as the old adage goes - "Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity."   Being prepared will make you confident to actively listen for the window of opportunity during each cold call. 

I've learned from my experience that ‘product dumping' is not always an effective way to generate interest with a prospect. If you are constantly leaving voicemails with all the highlights of your product and how you've set yourself apart within the market, you may be losing the opportunity to generate interest from the prospect. Based from the sales highlights and elevator pitches that you've left the prospect, they are going to assume if they have a need or not without knowing what to look for. The prospect can't find a need unless they have discovered the pain.

We have taken the personalities of our unique professional s and mixed it up a bit.  We are all so very different and have so many unusual styles and approaches that make us distinctively exceptional.  I am confident in stating that we are all good at what we do.  One of the reasons that we are as successful as we are is because we want to be.  It's all about attitude and being positively persistent that constantly keeps us working at ways to keep us staying great! People that feel good about what they do are good at what they do. As my colleague Ilona stated, "It's not ‘what' we do, but it's ‘how' we do it!"