The Laser Focused Teleprospector
I'll be the first person to admit that cold calling was not first on my list of priorities during my days as an inside sales rep. Working on an RFP, doing an on-line demo, assisting in a presentation with an outside rep, sending the appropriate materials out to interested prospects, finalizing a proposal...the daily tasks are unending. So where should cold-calling fall? From my experience it generally tended to land last on my list of priorities for the day. The problem was if I didn't put in the appropriate time into cold calling during the current quarter, my forecast typically suffered for the next 6 months. A scenario like that ironically doesn't surprise the best inside reps, but we still can easily find a way of putting it off.
So how do we force ourselves to do something that we traditionally gravitate away from? I've discovered the hard way that a half-hearted effort with sporadic calls throughout the day generally did not get me my desired result. What seems to work is taking the time to carve out at least two hours during your day to make dials, otherwise the sporadic and unfocused effort will yield marginal results.
It may sound cliché, but you really need devote 100% of your attention to each cold call. From my experience it took a good amount of effort to get myself into a groove, so I generally tried to remove anything that could have disrupted my rhythm. I tell my teleprospectors to get their pre-call planning done early, sign out of IM for two hours, only check their email twice an hour, don't be afraid to tell a co-worker that they're doing a daily call burst and that they'll circle back with them when they're done. These may seem like simple suggestions, but you'll be pleased with the output after a few hours of focused calling. Your BDR's should be able to string several of these call bursts together each day.
Another question to ponder is - what should be my call goal for the week? Every good rep has a call number to shoot for on a daily basis. At a minimum you should be shooting for a minimum of 60 calls a day, collectively 300 over the course of a week. While those numbers may seem aggressive to the average outside rep I've worked with, it is the only way to put yourself in the best position to build a reasonable forecast.
We've found that the only way to be truly successful at cold calling is by being laser focused on that task alone. Someone has to do it. Not that I want throw in a shameless pitch here, but that was how AG was born. As our CEO always says, "Leave it up to your sales reps to sell and leave it up to us to provide the quality meetings for them to sell to."
What do you think? How do you get your teleprospectors to focus?