It’s Fall – and Time to Spice Things Up for Your Inside Sales Team!
Last week on my way into work, I made my usual coffee stop at a nearby bakery. Just as I was about to place my typical order at the drive thru window, an ad on the menu caught my attention that read, “Try our new Pumpkin Spice Latte!” I was immediately intrigued, but a bit hesitant to actually make the switch from my daily order of a medium, hot, toasted almost coffee, skim milk, and one sugar. I never stray from this coffee order, so the thought of trying something wild and new like a pumpkin spice latte really made me nervous. What if it was too sweet? What if I didn’t like the consistency of the latte? I decided to jump in and try it, even though it felt different. After trying the new beverage out, I realized I actually really enjoyed it. This feeling reminded me a lot of the way I have been feeling at work recently. Management has been pushing the idea of tweaking some of our processes to “spice up” our inside sales methodology in order to produce better results. Although some of the changes (which are now improvements) felt different and uncomfortable at first, it’s definitely proving to be worth it, despite the initial uneasiness that I felt.
If you are an inside sales manager that doesn’t always like change, try to get in the mindset that although it might make you uncomfortable at first, making small changes to your process can often make you better. Here are a couple of ways you can spice up your inside sales team’s Fall calling efforts that have worked for my team already:
- Seek out new lists. Try out a new list vendor even though you are used to using one provider. When my boss told me to try out a new company to purchase lists from, I was skeptical. I thought to myself, “What I am doing seems to be working pretty well, so why would I change it?” Well, he sent me a list from a different provider to incorporate into the existing database, and the combination of both data sources had an immediate impact and the amount of qualified leads increased within one week. I am not suggesting you get rid of the list provider you are using now that you like, but I am suggesting that you spice things up a bit by using other sources along with it to gain the best results.
- Alter your call plan process. Like the Inside Sales reps here at AG Salesworks, your inside sales team probably follows some sort of call plan as they work through their calling efforts each day. If your inside sales organization has been following the same call plan for a number of years, then it is really hard to make a change. Clearly, this process has worked for so long, and that is why you use it. It was because of this reason that I was very skeptical at first about the idea of considering changing ours slightly. However, after speaking with upper management about it, altering things a bit sounds like it could amount to more conversations each day, resulting in more qualified leads for the outside sales teams we work with. So, for example, if you are calling through lists each day without leaving voicemails or sending emails, I would try to switch things up a bit and try doing these things – remember, if you keep doing what you are doing, you’ll get the same results. However, if you change your methodology, you might get something that will increase your results dramatically, so why not give it a shot?
- Give your office a make over. I came to work this morning and was welcomed by dark blue and bright gold-colored walls – quite different from what our office looked like last week! The energy of the BDRs increased immediately when they saw their new space. Two qualified leads were uncovered by 8:45 this morning – pretty good for a Monday, and I am pretty sure the new feeling in the office might have had something to do with it. Try spicing up your office space and see if it has an effect on your inside team – I think you will be surprised by the impact it may have!
Making changes to your inside sales process isn’t always easy, much like what I experienced when I changed my morning coffee selection last week. Just keep in mind that in order to improve your inside sales team, you have to be open to making some changes to spice things up, even if it makes you feel uneasy at first.