Sales Prospecting Perspectives

That’s why, before I send our clients a list, I do a separate scrub of my own to make sure all criteria has been met and there isn’t any confusion. Here are the questions I ask prior to importing a list for a new client. 

It’s that time of year again, and the “new year, new me” attitude will be in full effect for at least another few weeks or so. It doesn’t hurt to also start developing steps to improve and enhance your performance at work to make this year even better than the last. One way to improve in the New Year is to start at the foundation, and for many of us B2B sales development reps, that means cleaning up the database. After all, quality data is the key to success in inside sales. Here are 3 steps to B2B data management:

1. Become familiar with your database system and its capabilities.

A huge overhaul of your entire database is both unnecessary and unrealistic as you start off the New Year. Just because you have a new goal to improve your organization and clean up your data does not mean you suddenly have all the extra time to do so. In order to effectively clean up your data, you have to start small and ensure that the process does not become overwhelming. No matter what system you use to organize your data, it is imperative that you become familiar with just what your system is capable of and develop a consistent method to use these features.

The best list is the one nobody else has. Gathering valuable information enables you to build targeted niche lists, track emerging companies in specific markets, and segment larger sectors or lists. 

Good B2B list building affects all aspects of business, including the funnel and pipeline. Collecting the names, titles, emails, phone numbers, and social data creates that holistic record.  However, building a quality, accurate, and targeted list requires planning.

Here are the key steps to keep in mind.

We all know how quickly B2B inside sales reps can get discouraged when the first few people they call on an inbound prospecting list end up being grad students doing research, people no longer working with the company, or contacts that don't exist at all. Although they may have worked through a small fraction of the list at that point, as many sales reps do, they've determined that the leads you've given them are complete junk.

I've received a wide range of sales prospecting lists of varying quality for each and every campaign we run for our clients. Over the last 10 years, I would like to assume that I've seen it all, but inevitably unique scenarios tend to pop up over and over. Point is, nothing surprises me anymore.

“I didn’t have a power dialing session on Monday, and I missed it,” said a B2B inside sales rep on my team last week. Ah – music to my ears. For the past year, I’ve spent a lot of my time investigating power dialing tools and methodologies. Everyone seems to have an opinion on power dialing versus traditional manual dialing. I understand where the naysayers are coming from – I had those thoughts when I first started, too. However, after I began adopting the technology, I had a change in mindset, and  my life is a heck of a whole lot easier. The same goes for my sales reps.

Here are three myths about power dialing  that we have squashed over the last several months: