Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a post from Michaela Cheevers, Business Development Representative at AG Salesworks.

As a business development representative, it is important to make every contact attempt count in order to provide your client with the best information possible. Inside sales reps have the same imperative: maximize time by qualifying prospects creatively. That being said, it’s crucial to be prepared when communicating with anyone in your quest for information. No matter who you get live on the phone, chances are they can provide you with some information; you just need to be equipped with the right questions to ask. Here are some ideas for inside sales and business development reps to find opportunities for quality conversations, no matter where you find yourself in the prospecting trenches.

If you are a company just starting out with your teleprospecting strategy or you are looking to revamp your methods when it comes to questions to ask during the lead qualification process, you've come to the right place. One of my favorite aspects of my role as Director of Customer Success is working with organizations just like yours. You have a blank canvas to work with, and you might not be exactly sure where or even how to start.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a post from Patrice Morrison, a Business Development Representative at AG Salesworks. 

As an inside sales rep, the majority of my prospecting has been encompassed around cold calling. But as of recently, my client has been having my team follow up with warm, inbound leads. My role is to connect with recent trade show attendees, webinar attendees, prospects that have responded to email promotions, or downloaded whitepapers from my client’s website. Many of the "prospects" I communicate with are already my client’s customers. My goal is to follow up with them and find out what their current IT initiatives are and if they are evaluating my client’s additional solutions. When prospecting warm leads, the strategy and process is much different from the typical cold calling campaign. Therefore, here are few tips for prospecting inbound leads.

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.  

Lists and data go hand in hand. Some types of data can inform the way you develop your list, while other types of data are gleaned from already existing lists. According to NetProspex, more than 60% of B2B companies rely on “unreliable” data to fuel demand generation. In fact, bad data or poor data quality costs US businesses $600 billion annually. We want to show your company how you can prevent wasting money and use data to your advantage.

It’s the second full week of 2014 and our client implementations are in full effect as we kick off the New Year. As you can imagine, one of the biggest components to ramping up these implementations is script development. The creation of scripts is key to making any teleprospecting campaign successful and is the first thing we look at when it comes to ramping projects. There are a ton of questions that arise throughout the scripting process, so I thought it would make sense to address some of those concerns.

One of the first things we train new hires on is how to navigate a list in Salesforce. The reasoning behind doing this in the beginning of training is because Salesforce is something inside sales reps use every day. Knowing how to work a list will help you pass qualified leads easier than calling straight down a list of hundreds of names.

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.

You've read the quotes: 

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“If you don't know where you are going,

you'll end up someplace else.”

― Yogi Berra  

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

― Warren Buffett

Yet so few of us plan adequately.  And of those of us that do, many don’t execute effectively.  Over the years, I have witnessed the power of a well-executed plan many times.  Unfortunately, I have also seen the results of either a poorly executed plan or no plan at all.  Not pretty.  There is always a detailed explanation as to what went wrong.  The marketplace, competition, not enough marketing support.  The list goes on and on.  

Over the summer, the AG team created a list of 50 traits an inside sales rep should have.  Number 43  was that an inside sales rep should be invested. Being invested has always been something that I relate to as a Senior Business Development Representative here at AG.  The main traits and skills that I feel an inside sales rep should have to be invested are: Devotion, Persistence, Active Listening.

Do you wish more of your qualified opportunities would move farther down the sales pipeline?

I would assume the answer is yes.  

Part of the sales process for most technology companies is to conduct a web demonstration to a prospect or a group of prospects.  In my experience, this demo usually happens very early in the relationship building stage, at a critical time when the two companies are still rather unfamiliar with each other.