Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Happy Friday Everyone! 

I hope you're all keeping cool in this insane heat!! We touched on some great topics this week that includes avoiding getting the "just send info" brush off, how to maintain lead momentum in the summer, and also a great piece written by our CEO Paul Alves! 

Happy Friday, everyone!

We have a great little recap for you this week. I found a couple blogs that are well worth noting. One of which I highlighted in my first non-weekly recap post! I was very excited to be able to weigh in and share my experience as an inside sales rep with all of you so I hope you enjoy it. The blog I'd like to highlight for this weeks highlight is by Colleen Francis, titled Don't Lie to a Sales Prospect. Ever. End of Story. I'm sure it's happened to us all. Someone asks what you do for a living and the moment you mention Sales...you immediately get this vibe that they want to leave the conversation. It’s as if you're about to sell them this insane product that they clearly don't need, but somehow you'll talk them into buying. Colleen explains why folks feel that way but also brings up a good point. Half the time, the negative things said about sales professionals...are said by other sales professionals! She also notes that it's not just the salesperson that's being untruthful. It can be the clients/prospects as well. She points out key reasons and explanations as to why both sales professionals and their prospects are dishonest. So check it out and see if your guilty of any of these fibs, or maybe it'll help you understand why one of your prospects has been untruthful to you in the past.  

Aside from "using a competitor...", the "no budget" response is one of the topobjections that I had to deal with in my cold calling days. It's also one of the toughest to overcome. If someone tells you they are all set be cause they are using "xyz" instead...you most likely have ways to combat that by describing what differentiates your product. However, when it comes to no budget...how do you help them justify purchasing something when they claim the funds don't exist? The answer: you keep asking questions.

Happy Friday!!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Monday off, for the 4th! It was a short week for us too,  here at AG, but we were still able to put together some great blogs for you to enjoy along with uncovering a few that we felt were well worth mentioning. A blog post that I found this week that I wanted to share is Dave Green's B2B Lead Generation: 4 ways to use teleprospecting in your next pilot (and 2 ways to measure it). It's a wonderful piece as it  really explains all around why teleprospecting is so important in your lead gen efforts. There is nothing more efficient then picking up the phone and getting to the bottom of what people want and are looking for in new solution. Social Media and Digital Marketing are great, but neither in my opinion, will provide as much information in as short amount of time as picking up the phone and speaking to prospects directly.

Happy Friday Everyone!

I can't believe that 4th of July festivities are already upon us! This summer is going by WAY too fast! Luckily, I have the perfect thing for your relaxing, long weekend. A quick recap to catch you up on all of our great posts this week! Additionally, I combed the Internet to find an interesting blog that I want to highlight. Kelley Robertson put together a wonderful piece entitled "Call Me Next Week". Kelley describes a situation we've all experienced. You get someone on the phone (finally!) and the conversation is going great then they tell you "send me info and follow up next week..." and of course when you do reach out...they're MIA. His solution is a perfect way to get around this common setback. It's a method that I actually used myself and it really does work, so check out his post. Great advice, Kelley! 

Happy Friday, everyone!

Welcome to another weekly recap! We only have two of our blogs this week to recap, but that's OK because it was a very busy week for us. (The good kind of busy!) So rather than just highlighting one blog post that I found this week, I have a couple that I want to mention. 

It's actually a two in one deal as I found the second one within the first. The first post I want to mention is short but to the point. The (Increasingly) Not-so-Secret Reasons You Need a Better Lead Generation Team written by Ken Krogue, offers great quotes and statistics from sales and marketing experts explaining how important it is for you to have a well trained inside sales team in order to succeed in the market today. Whether you've been toying with revamping your current team or have considered outsourcing your team to companies like AG it's important for you to know and understand the value of having an inside sales team that's well trained in getting you the most qualified opportunities. 

Happy Friday Everyone! 

As I'm sure many of you are aware, our beloved Boston Bruins are FINALLY Stanley Cup Champions! As you can imagine, it's been a pretty exciting week for Bruins fans everywhere! With that said, AG had a great week as well. A few of our Sales folks here were able to attend the MarketingProfs 2011 B2B Forum in Boston. Thanks to great work by the folks over at MarketingProfs, attendees were provided with great content. For more information about this year's event, check out Mack Collier's review. He really sums it up perfectly! 

Monday June 13th

Happy Friday Everyone!

Well it's the second week of June and I don't know about you, but the last thing I thought we'd be doing is watching the Bruins in the STANELY CUP PLAYOFFS! Growing up, part of my life in Boston and having family born and raised there, you can imagine this is a big deal to us. Which is why I couldn't pass up highlighting this blog this week. Marta Kagan put together 5 Stanley Cup-Worthy Marketing Lessons from the Boston Bruins. Here he explains what we Marketing professionals could learn from the Bruins this year. Thinking as a team and learning from your mistakes are just a couple ways that can help you in your marketing efforts. Great blog Marta!! 

Happy Friday Everyone! 

It was a short week for us this week, but none the less we stayed busy. Before I get into highlighting out blogs, I wanted to point out one that I found this week, that I felt was worth mentioning. What Does Your Customer Really Value by Mark Hunter was great as it really points out the importance of listening...no REALLY listening to what your prosepcts wants and needs are. When doing what we do everyday it's easy to fall into rythem and just assume that you know what they are looking for. But taking a step back and really hearing what they are asking for will really help your sales conversation go in a much more positive direction. 

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another weekly recap!

Memorial Day Weekend is finally here! The unofficial start of all things summer. We had some great entries this week but as always before I gush about what we've done, I'd like to highlight a blog I found that was very popular on the twitter feed this week. 

Mark McCarthy put together a great piece titled: An Open Letter From Your Headset. I couldn't help but giggle as I read along, but even with the lovey dovey humor, there are some great sales tips hidden inside as well. It can be hard to keep picking up the phone, especially once you've moved to an outside sales role. However, every good sales person knows that it's critical to maintaining your success.