Sales Prospecting Perspectives

The day in the life of an inside sales rep is very active. It’s understandable that a representative would be put under a lot of stress. There is a lot of pressure to hit your monthly goals, stay on top of tasks and activity, update reports, and follow up with lead appointments. If you don’t stay organized, it's easy to fall behind and lose momentum. Here are a few tips to help you stay on task and manage your stress.

The hardest transition I've found when moving into a manager role is the change in relationship between you and former colleagues that you've once worked with. This changeover generally tends to be the biggest challenge for most new inside sales managers, whether they're responsible for training the inside sales team or for managing the managers.

When I was growing up, I was a non-stop talker. Some of my family and close friends might say I still don’t know when to stop talking. Well, most acquaintances would probably be a little alarmed about how energetic I can be and how much I can talk. This is part of the reason I knew I would be successful in sales. But, it could also have been the thing that hurt me the most. Learning how to control a conversation is an essential piece of every day in the life of an inside sales representative.

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.

When we start working with a new client at AG, we establish a time for all parties involved to have a conference call per week. We like to check in with our clients once a week to make sure everyone is on the same page and all teams are aware of opportunities and pipeline. It is also a good time for questions to be answered if schedules are tight during the week. I’ve found that most clients like to use this time to ask us questions and give advice on certain accounts.

Some people don’t always like the idea of summer ending and fall kicking in, but it is honestly my favorite time of year. Not only is fall a time for beautiful weather, apple picking, and pumpkin lattes, but it’s my favorite time when it comes to sales. With the summer months behind us, we are now well into the new season, everyone’s back and ready to close out the year strong. Directors and VPs are either looking to spend their remaining budgets for the year, or they are planning ahead for 2014. As a result, they are all willing and open to talking when they receive cold calls.