Sales Prospecting Perspectives

AG Salesworks is pleased to present you with a guest blog post from Brian Serino, SVP of Sales and Business Development at NetProspex. 

We’re all familiar with the deep-rooted battle between sales and marketing. It goes something like this: sales blames marketing for their inability to produce quality leads, while marketers fault sales for their lack of lead management skills. In this battle, however, there is no winner, because when sales and marketing teams work individually, poor lead management results on both sides.

Beginning a career in B2B inside sales is a great way to build job experience and fine-tune your professional skills. If you are a recent graduate with a background in sales or marketing and are looking to get your foot in the door of the business world, inside sales may be the career for you.

I have always been a firm believer that there are two types of people in this world: those who have children and those who don’t. The reason I differentiate between them is that those who don’t have children tend to think they are the best parents in the world, and some insist on telling you how to raise your kids.

Now, a bit about me: I am a father of three with a boy and two girls.  I have had my share of experiences with people saying things like, “I would never do that with my kids,” or, “You’re doing that?”  I have to admit, there was a time, before I had children, that I remember saying, “Oh my, I would never feed my kids french fries.”  Friends and family fall into one of these two groups. But when or if they have children, their opinions about parenting usually change, and they start to understand how difficult a task it is and stop judging others for their choices. The same can be said regarding outsourcing lead generation for sales and marketing.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a post from Evan O'Toole, a Business Development Representative and social media team member at AG Salesworks.

The power of face-to-face interaction in sales should never be undermined. The experience gained while speaking with prospects on a one-to-one basis can be crucial in the skill development of inside sales reps, who will eventually strive to close deals. Getting in-person experience early on is invaluable.

AG Salesworks is pleased to bring you a guest post from Jeff Shore, an in-demand sales expert, author, speaker and executive coach. 

Learning to dance the East Coast Swing has long been on my bucket list. Because life is short and I’m not getting any younger, I’ve started chipping away at this goal. “Chipping away” is not the most elegant description, I realize, but given my diagnosable rhythmic impairment, it is accurate. Let’s just say that this is how I imagine I look when dancing:

I’m going to say a word. And immediately you are going to form an assumption, positive or negative, about this word. You can’t help it, because that’s how we react as humans.

The word is: Millennial.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from David Hazeltine, Director, Campaign Strategy at Fiserv.

Sales and Marketing integration. It’s such a nice theory, but yet in so many companies, the Sales team isn’t happy with the amount or quality of leads being generated by Marketing. Marketing is frustrated that salespeople won’t give them the time of day, never mind appreciate that Marketing exists for one reason: to support Sales. If sales are down, fingers point to Marketing for not providing enough leads. If there are no marketing campaigns in the works, fingers point to Sales for not clearly stating what they need.

Happy Friday, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! We hope you had a productive week; we sure did, and this afternoon we'll be having a contest between inside sales reps who passed leads this week. Despite the consistent snow storms in the Northeast (and there seems to be another on the way), we've continued calling across the country for leads. It's important to stay vigorous even through equally vigorous weather conditions.

Last Monday, January 6, was apparently the most depressing day of the year. I heard this on the radio as I was driving to work, trying to shake off the cobwebs from the holiday layoff.  It makes sense: I got used to the idea of kicking back, eating everything in sight, and spending some extra quality time with the family. Sure, I think many of us get used to the idea of living like a retiree. Unfortunately I'm about 20-30 years away from that... depending on how well the ole' 401K decides to perform.

In sales, it is crucial to not only sell but to leave a good first impression, sale or no sale. I've had interactions with sales professionals ranging from ignoring their insistent calls when I've already told them I'm not interested, to becoming best friends with someone who prospected me over six years ago.  For many people, their first interaction with your company may very well be with a sales member, and as the saying goes, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."