Sales Prospecting Perspectives Weekly Recap - Week of October 18, 2023
Happy Friday, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! We had a busy week here. We celebrated a few birthdays and an awesome week for sports, all while continuing to converse with prospects throughout the week. We also found blog posts we liked:
- A panel of creative experts discussed how data might benefit and burden creativity. The discussion, which establishes the meaning of "creativity," and then takes a balanced view of both positions, is very illuminating, especially in the context of content marketing.
- Speaking of content marketing, Ardath Albee, one of our favorite bloggers wrote about the differences between content marketing and publishing. She wrote that there needs to be a strategy behind the content: when to publish it, how to orchestrate buyer response, etc. She continued by addressing a few of the main pitfalls in published content we see today. Content is conversation, not just propagation.
- In her article, Marisa Kopec at Sirius Decisions asked, which buyer personas do we choose? She acknowleded that, however many buyer personas an organization has, they always have to choose which to focus on in their content. When making these decisions, ask yourself the questions Kopec asks in this article.
- Once again, we have an Inside Sales Power Tip from Lori Richardson, this time titled Quick Wins. She recommends to set small goals to accomplish to energize yourself for bigger goals. Read the article for some of her ideas of different sales activity goals for yourself or your team.
- Mark Gibson of Advanced Marketing Concepts wrote for Hubspot about the importance of responsiveness in sales. The faster responses are, the more dramatically improved contact rates are, where contact rate is meaningful, qualifying conversation with prospects. This article shows sales reps how engaging prospects in a timely follow up is essential to thrive (and survive), and it was a great read.
And here are some posts you might have missed from Sales Prospecting Perspectives this week!
Monday: On Monday, Samantha wrote Slow and Steady Makes for a Successful Teleprospecting Pipeline. Passing leads is a process, and you can't expect to hit all your goals and numbers in a short period of time. Therefore, she gave advice for building a good pipeline which allows you to plan ahead and navigate your goals at a consistent pace, rather than with short spurts (or sprints) of energy. The tortoise had it right: slow and steady really is the best process!
Tuesday: We often hear objections described as "hurdles" for sales reps. However, our new blogger Tiffany Fenore has a different idea for how to view objections. In her blog, How to Handle Objections as Opportunities, not Roadblocks, she speaks about how sales reps can use the four most common objections as impetuses for discussion with prospects about their pains and needs. A very different type of view for objections as opportunities, this advice will hopefully help sales reps facing these objections every day.
Wednesday: On Wednesday, guest blogger Michael Powers, Events/Buzz Coordinator for NetProspex, wrote The Importance of Clean Marketing Data for Higher Conversion Rates. He offered advice for how to maintain a dynamically changing database of contacts and information. He even included which items to consistently check that could throw off your CRM's credibility. With illuminating stats about data quality and great advice for maintaining a healthy database, this guest post is a must-read.
Thursday: Our other new sales blogger Josh Zielinski wrote a post on Thursday titled, How to Hit Your Sales Goal No Matter What -- and he really means "no matter what." He is of the belief that you can always meet or exceed your sales quotas. You just need to use some tactics to make the best of your sales week. He offers 4 pieces of advice including, "Come in early and stay late" and "Evaluate progress constantly." Following these tips will ensure that you hit your sales goal no matter what!
And that's all, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! Join us again next week for some more quality blogs!