Sales Prospecting Perspectives Weekly Recap – Week of August 23, 2023
The AG Salesworks marketing team had a busy but extremely illuminating week at HubSpot's Inbound 2013. The conference provided some excellent content, motivation, and ideas. We heard from distinguished speakers like Seth Godin, Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff), Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) , Ann Handley (@marketingprofs), Rand Fishkin (@randfish) and of course Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh) and Brian Halligan (@bhalligan), all very unique and motivational. Mike Volpe (@mvolpe) and his team at Hubspot did a wonderful job putting on this informative conference that taught so many marketers how to think more innovatively! These conferences remind us to do a marketing and sales tune-up: are you really reaching your ideal target audience, are you closing the loop with sales, or are you efficiently nurturing leads down your sales funnel? Of course these types of questions shouldn't be brought up only as a result of attending an event or meeting, we should always be fine-tuning our processes and finding what works best, but events like this certainly spark a flood of ideas.
Instead of sharing a few articles from this past week, we are going to one-up the sales and marketing metrics by sharing a very touching charity to be on the lookout for - Charity: Water. Charity: Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. This year Hubspot is supporting this amazing charity and welcomed them to speak throughout the conference, educating thousands of marketers on their unbelievable endeavors to help change the world by providing clean and safe water to one village at a time (click here to read their mission statement). To date they have funded 8,944 water projects, have helped 20 countries, and have brought safe water to over 3,400,000 people worldwide! Take a moment to think what it would be like to only have enough water a day to either cook a meal, or wash your clothing, or water your small garden for food, or drink the contaminated water and take the chance of getting ill in order to survive. To provide a village with safe water means eliminating disease, saving women hours of time that was used to travel to obtain water that can now be used to grow food or spend time with their children, give girls the opportunity to attend school with their extra time, increasing the village's education level, and restoring a basic human value of dignity by enabling a village to clean themselves. Please take the time and read up on their efforts and surely you will also be amazed on how this charity is revolutionizing humanity, one village at a time.
Now, on to the weekly recap.
Monday: On Monday, Sam Goldman shared advice for what to do when going through a "sales slump," facing a decline in quality conversations and a depressing pipeline, in 5 Tips for Getting Out of A Sales Slump. Some of her tips included switching up your timing, and changing and being more creative in your messaging. Read the rest of the post for more tips.
Tuesday: We collaborated with Kyle Porter of SalesLoft and released an eBook entitled Top of the Funnel Field Guide to Sales Prospecting Success. This eBook will equip you and your team with the core fundamentals to succeed in inside sales. In addition to delivering the best methodologies and best practices for sales prospecting, this eBook discusses a few very helpful tools. Once decided what tools suit your company's needs best, they will enable you to provide your inside sales team with a proficient sales process and will set yourself and your business apart from the pack.
Wednesday: On Wednesday, guest blogger Damian Davila wrote 4 Steps to Shorten Your Sales Cycle. Did you know that, according to the Aberdeen Group, 56% of sales managers who responded said they weren't converting enough leads to sales, and 27% claimed they had insufficient knowledge of prospects already in their sales funnel? Davila gives strategies to eliminate this problem, such as empowering your staff with anywhere-access to contracts and taking advantage of e-signatures featured. He also included links to helpful tools to make each step easier. Read the post for more tips to shorten your sales cycle.
Thursday: Maureen Wall, an inside sales representative who has had long, profitable relationships with several clients over the years, wrote 4 Ways to Maintain and Retain Inside Sales Client Relationships on Thursday. She imparted in-depth tips such as how to communicate openly, honestly and clearly and how to be flexible, willing to stick with what works and avoid what doesn't. The key to retaining clients is to treat them not only like clients, but also like work friends, constantly maintaining a successful relationship with them. For more tips, read the post above.
Friday: On Friday, Allison released an eBook review of How to Communicate with Influence for Sales Pros & Leaders by Craig Wortmann at Sales Engine. A regular guest blogger of ours, Craig shows us once again how great of a writer he is in this book. He focuses on 7 of the many qualities necessary to be a better influencer, and provides practical advice to sales professionals in the trenches. He also challenges readers to think differently, deconstructing ideas they may have once thought pat. Read our review, and if you liked it, download the eBook!
As you can see, we have a lot of lists this week. Readers: Do you like or dislike this format? What was your favorite blog post this week?