Sales Prospecting Perspectives

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.

Let’s face it: As of today, we have four "real" business days left in quarter. Sure, if you happen to be in the office next week, you may be lucky enough to get your target prospect on the phone since they may have only a few meetings going on during the holiday week. Problem is, most of us I assume want to be with our families, and there is a good chance your prospect wants that as well. Since we all have aggressive goals, I think we all need to get in the mindset that next week doesn't exist and the month/quarter end is Friday. 

With only one full week left before the holidays are upon us, it's important to ramp up your sales efforts to meet quotas for quarter 4. This week, we've curated articles about how sales and marketing can succeed in this final quarter. The reward? Spending time at home with the family during the holiday season. 

Here are some of our favorite articles from this week. Remember, we share around 10 articles a day on our Twitter as well. 

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Jamie Shanks, Social Selling Expert at Sales for Life.

We are about to close out an incredible year.  Whether my understanding of Social Selling’s capabilities has hit Dali Lama levels, or the buyer has changed that much… Social is now a force!

As a sales professional, you can’t deny the changes.  Whether or not you’ve embraced Social for sales, the world interacted at a staggering pace online in 2013.  What I want to share with you are tips, tidbits and insights I’ve learned from training thousands of sales reps around the world this year.

Good morning, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers, and Happy December! The holidays are upon us, as is the ending of the fourth quarter for sales. This week, we've curated articles focused on best ways to hit your sales and marketing goals. We hope they're helpful in these final weeks. May the odds be ever in your favor!

When I meet with the newest additions to the AG family, I always make a point to let them know that we're not looking for a cookie-cutter employee. Everyone here has their own unique traits and a certain style that works for them. Using some creative license here or there is necessary when you cold call and keeps reps engaged in what many would consider the toughest part of selling.  

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.

One of the things I enjoy most about working for AG Salesworks is that we're a people-first company. I know it sounds hokey, but it's true. If we didn't take care of the things that make us go, then we would have folded up shop long ago.  

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Michael Powers, Events/Buzz Coordinator for NetProspex.

What good is data if you can’t properly use it?

You work hard to collect your marketing data. But sometimes, you collect so much data that it’s hard to make sense of all of it. In these instances, there’s a lot going on in your database, and it’s up to you to get a handle on it to ensure a good return on investment on all of that data.