Sales Prospecting Perspectives

If you’re selling something, you need to be persuasive. But you don’t need to be annoying.

Case in point: I was at the gym the other day, in the middle of a sweaty elliptical workout, when a trainer came over and asked if my name was Christine. Apparently he was asking every woman in the gym because Christine did not show up on time for her appointment. I told him that my name was Allie, and expected him to mosey along, but instead he struck up a conversation with me. While I was out of breath. And - it bears repeating - extremely sweaty. He wanted to know how often I came to the gym, when I’d be coming in next, whether I was making any fitness goals in the New Year, and then he had the audacity to ask if he could make an appointment with me for next week. Even though I made it clear that I “like to do my own thing,” he insisted, so I told him I’d be back next week and I’d find him then.

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!

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing. 

Who is responsible for qualifying inbound marketing leads and identifying new, short-term sales opportunties for senior sales executives in your company? Whether they're Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), Market Development Representatives (MDRs), or simply inside sales, their role is a critical and strategic part of an efficient, scalable sales process.

Whether you’re launching a new SDR effort for your company, or seeking to improve its effectiveness and success in the New Year, here are five steps to get you off on the right track.

Historically, the typical sales rep thinks that prospecting and December do not mix. The mindset is that generally the last month of the year should be spent getting deals in and preparing for the following year.  No one really picks up the phone this time of year, right?

Wrong. And I'm not just saying this from the perspective of AG Salesworks, a B2B lead gen company that prospects year round. 

With social selling gaining momentum for sales professionals, inside sales reps are making their presence known in the digital sphere, specifically on LinkedIn and Twitter. Unfortunately, that presence isn’t always positive. Many social selling guides tout real tips and strategies for sales reps to stand out in their prospects’ busy social feeds, but unfortunately often don’t give away social selling templates which sales reps can customize for their own needs.

The result? Sales reps appear to overly curate content, never share their personal opinions, and if they ever reach out to someone one-to-one, they lead with their pitch and immediately turn off potential prospects.

“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: