Mid Month Inside Sales Diagnostic Check-up
It's a little past mid month. Time to give each one of your inside sales reps a mid month diagnostic check up. There are many different keys that make up a successful month's prospecting and it's important that you check in with your people mid month to see how they are doing with each.
When Laney and I evaluate and review our inside sales reps mid-month, we look at their performance in three separate areas. We don't just look how they've done, but we all look at whether or not they have what they need to finish strong for the last 2 weeks of the month.
1. List: I'm not talking about the quality of the list. I assume that if you read my blog you may also read that of our resident list expert Craig Ferrara. If you are a disciple of Craig, then your list is fine from a quality standpoint. What we focus on mid month is whether or not the inside sales rep in question actually has enough people to call. How big is the list of suspects? In order for a teleprospector to be optimal and meet the metrics of his\her call plan they need a minimum of 500 companies in play at all times. If you are short of that number mid month....then you better find some more or your inside sales rep may not hit their goal.
2. Lead Quality: When you are managing people making outbound dials you've got to find a delicate balance between volume of calls and quality of the opportunities passed to sales. Take some time mid-month to review the quality (assuming you have a closed loop feedback process in place) of the leads passed by each inside sales rep and make sure they aren't playing too much of the volume game. If you see their quality score is low, have a sit down and review each lead with them. Gently reinforce that quality is just as important as quantity. You'll see immediate refocus.
3. Moral: When your occupation involves as much daily rejection as teleprospecting, you can get a little down. Don't ever forget that your guys and gals on the phones take a lot of heat over the course of a day and may need a little pep talk now and again. Run your Leads Passed List by inside sales rep and start at the bottom. The folks having the slowest month are most likely to need a little reenergizing. Take them out to lunch, review the good things they've done, sing them a song...it doesn't matter, just make sure you let them know you understand their job is tough and that you are there to help them get back to a high level of performance.
These are just a few nice and simple ways to reconnect with your team and make sure you are all on the path to a solid month. Good Luck!!