Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Context is an important part of any conversation, as it directly correlates to the potential of a sale. With 54% of sales reps not making quota this year according to SiriusDecisions, it’s imperative that you teach your team to make the most of Sales Context, the information that can influence a sale. My job as an SDR is to extract these essential pieces of Sales Context for my clients while also nurturing a relationship with my prospects so they feel comfortable discussing their current environment and any pains they may be experiencing.

Here are 5 prospecting strategies that I employ to obtain Sales Context during every conversation I have.

I was having an interesting discussion with my Director of Marketing the other day about her perspective on hard vs. soft sales skills. From what she has seen working with experienced sales guys and gals over the years is that they rely far too much on their hard skills to get them by. They’ll consistently depend on their hard skills because it has worked for them in the past rather than truly engaging with their prospect audience. Talking about the sporting event from the previous weekend is a great way to apply your soft selling skills, but it generally tends to be the only one that old school sales folks pull out of their hat.

Soft skill selling has become ever more important, especially now that the millennial audience is carrying more influence and decision-making power... And they definitely like to be heard. 

This past weekend, a certain sports team challenged me to be optimistic.

You guessed it: The Patriots.

While I’m not a fervent football fan by any means, I grew up in the New England area and have an avid sports fanatic of a father. After many years questioning what this or that meant, I’ve finally reached a point where I not only understand the rules of the game (well, most of them), but where I also can get worked up and over-excited by certain plays.

You know the plays I’m talking about. This Superbowl, there were plenty: interceptions on both teams, crazy catches that seem more luck than skill, and insane rushes that are simply unbelievable. This year, I wasn’t scrolling through my iPhone throughout the game (I wasn’t even tweeting), I was paying attention. And that cost me some energy.

As sales development reps, our time is precious.  It is essential that we manage our time in the most productive and efficient way possible in order to hit our goals, stay organized, and keep our clients happy.

The following are some tips I‘ve found make my day run smoother and allow me to make the most out of every day in the office. 

1. Lay out your day; have a plan.

Planning out your day as a sales development representative is a must, especially if you are working on multiple projects. I like to start off the day after my morning meeting by checking my inbox for each project and responding to any emails that I received after hours the day before. Responding first thing in the morning also gives prospects the whole day to get back to you. Creating a morning routine like this one is a great way to be productive while your cup of coffee wakes you up!

After a long hiatus, #ProspectingChat on AG Saleswork's Twitter account is back this week! We'll be discussing how to perfect your response rate, replete with with Donato Diorio, CEO of RingLead.  

Today we'll be discussing best practices for perfecting your response rate over email, voicemail and social platforms. We'll share creative sales prospecting techniques, ways to make the "follow-up" more effective, some bad habits and good habits to follow, and more. 

It’s January 6. Do you know what that means? It’s the second day of the first full week of 2015. Yesterday, you were most likely scrambling to answer all those emails you missed over vacation, rushing to meetings about your sales pipeline, and scrambling to write down your new sales goals.

The holidays are behind us, and the New Year has begun! It is a season of resolutions, many of which focus on bettering yourself, living a healthier lifestyle, achieving financial goals, and spending more time with family. Although resolutions are key to personal growth and success, they can also be used in the workplace to motivate and encourage success for the upcoming year. Here are a few resolutions to help kick off your B2B sales prospecting on the right foot in 2015.

It's hard to believe that we're already at the end of December. A few weeks back I talked about the importance of continuing to prospect during this critical month and I'm hoping you listened to me.  

In the event that you don't have much scheduled for January, I think it's fair to say that what you do have going on next month carries that much more importance. 

Here are three trends I see in the sales world, paired with predictions on where those trends will take us. I welcome any feedback in the comments, or via Twitter at @davemacboston.

TREND #1: Content Fatigue / Focus

We’ve learned our lesson that so-called snackable content does not create any value, and all those empty content calories are killing the platforms that previously served as places to identify compelling new ideas. Twitter used to be rich with rewarding content, but now I have to scroll for several minutes before I find anything worth dipping into. And LinkedIn blogging went from sharp and provocative to “look at me” noisy in less than a year.

B2B sales and marketing leaders will need to decide whether they’re going to invest in content creation as a way to make noise or as a way to add value for customers.

In terms of the social activity of sales reps, it’s worth noting that being good and thoughtful curators of content allows individual reps to help advance their organization’s content marketing goals.

December is not only the “happiest time of the year;” it also be the most hectic, stressful time of the year for those at work. It is not uncommon to hear salespeople complain about the month of December. Common gripes are that everyone is too busy to add anything new to their plate, or all decision-makers are away for the holidays. With this kind of attitude, they may as well not even try, right?! What if you were armed with some strategies for connecting with your prospects and opening up new relationships and opportunities for the New Year? We already have the statistics from Craig in his blog post, Why is December a Great Month for Sales Prospecting? Here are my five tactics to leverage holiday cheer in the month of December and have better quality conversations when B2B teleprospecting or cold calling.

1. Ask the question, “How are you positioned to improve in the New Year?”

A great way to start a teleprospecting conversation at the end of the year is to encourage your prospect to start thinking about how they can improve their operations in the New Year. As the year winds down, most likely your prospect will begin to think about how they can improve their processes and perform their job responsibilities more efficiently and effectively. The end of the year can also include many process improvement board meetings. Start filling your prospect’s mind with great ideas to start the New Year off strong and help them look like a genius in their meetings!