Sales Prospecting Perspectives

How fast summer goes by.  Now we’re back to autumn-scented Yankee Candles and Halloween costumes. I wonder how many Miley Cyrus bear costumes and Robin Thicke “Beetlejuiceâ€? outfits will be out trick-or-treating?  

Before I entered the world of sales, I worked as a preschool teacher for a few years.  I truly enjoyed being a teacher and loved spending my days reading stories and singing songs.  Sometimes I miss it, but I do like to go home at the end of each day without someone else’s boogers on me.  

Teaching preschoolers and working in sales may seem like very different worlds, but there are many things I learned during my time as Miss Colleen that I can apply to my current job as an inside sales rep. Here are some sales tips from a former preschool teacher.

I woke up early over the holiday weekend and found myself immediately thinking about an annoying/stressful situation that took place the day before. At that point, I had to stop myself and wonder what the hell I was doing. I was on the Cape, enjoying what was otherwise a wonderfully sunny few days off with my family. Why did I have to wake up thinking of something that’s bringing me down to negative town? I've always been intrigued by people who seem to have life figured out. For some reason, they manage to navigate the same waters we are all floating on, but somehow they always seem to come out clean with little to no stress slowing them down along the way. From what I've seen, most of these people always take the necessary step back from a situation and look at the big picture. The existing task they are consumed with could potentially overwhelm them with stress, but they have the ability to recognize that what may seem like a big deal now is generally insignificant in the big scheme of things. 

It’s Monday morning. You sit in your chair and elbow over a stack of papers in order to reach your keyboard. You open your email and check if your prospects have responded yet. If they don’t answer in a week, you’re just not going to contact them again. You think you might have a call scheduled today, but you aren’t sure what time. Maybe your prospect will just call you. Your thoughts are scrambled between big projects – meeting with the sales team to follow up on passed leads or working on a new script – and small projects – leaving 15-second voicemails and filing papers. It’s been 15 minutes, and just thinking about the work you have to do in the next 8 hours is making you stressed. 

Last summer I wrote the post 3 Sales Prospecting Tools You Can’t Live Without, where I discussed the top necessities every inside sales rep should have in order to be successful on the phones. One of the points I focused on was having a structured call plan methodology to follow, and the idea that there is a science behind how many touches prospects need to receive before they turn into a qualified lead.

The office is teeming with people moving between desks, rushing to write information down or share something with a co-worker. Phone conversations can be heard from every corner of the office, and the voices mingle to produce one low drone, a din heard throughout. In one corner of the office, a man hangs up the phone and emits an exasperated sigh. In the other corner of the office, a woman jumps up for joy, pumping her fists in the air. There’s an air of excitement in the office: success could happen for anyone; anyone can make a difference. It’s a wild house of ambitious thrill-seekers; it’s a jungle in there.

“Please place me on your no-call list.�

This is the phrase I’ve learned to repeat whenever someone calls my house during dinner time. Some anonymous person is always trying to solicit my money for products I definitely don’t need. A Shake Weight? No thank you! A subscription to Martha Stewart Living? Certainly not! A common misconception about these calls is that anyone who uses the telephone to increase revenue for a company is an annoying telemarketer. But that’s simply not true.

Several months ago, while shopping at my favorite clothing store, a sales associate approached me asking if she could help me find anything. She eagerly greeted me by the door, as it was slow and I was only one of two customers at the time.  Normally I would probably pass up the help and say I was just browsing, which is usually the case when I go there. I like to look around and see what’s new, what’s on sale.  However, that day I had gone in there with a purpose; I was looking for a particular pair of jeans that I was unable to find online.

Few would argue that many accounts and prospects that need to be nurtured can often be overlooked.  In the stream of advice and information discussing the inside sales process, I feel that lead nurturing is neglected.  These nurtured accounts could very well be your future customers. 

A nice benefit of working with a wide range of clients over the years has been the exposure we've had to the unique approaches in presenting a service or technology. Working with some of the brightest sales and marketing minds out there has helped to provide us fresh perspective on how to differentiate your product from the masses.