Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Lisa Fugere, Content Marketing Strategist at Radius Intelligence a company that offers sales prospecting software powered by big data. You can find her on Google +!

As a neighbor to the Radius sales team, I overhear a lot of phone calls. I was recently going about my business when a sales rep halfway through his first week of his first sales job slammed down his phone in such frustration that a few rogue papers flew off his desk.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Craig Wortmann, CEO and Founder of Sales Engine, a company that helps firms build and tune their sales engine(s). You can find him on Google +, LinkedIn, & Twitter!

The best sales leaders I’ve ever worked for had three traits in common that made them powerful leaders.  Like all great leaders, they model the behaviors they ask for from their people. 

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Damian Davila, Content Marketing Consultant at idaconcpts.com.

Back in May 2010, the Aberdeen Group released an important report on how to shrink the sales cycle and focus closers on sealing more deals. "We don't convert enough leads to sales," said 59% of respondents in the report. 27% claimed they had insufficient knowledge of prospects already in their sales funnel, and 26% indicated they lost efficiency when they recreated proposals or contracts.

While converting leads into sales is a skill that I could write a book about, I would like to take this opportunity to focus on taking 4 specific steps to shorten your sales cycle. You still have to convince your clients to close on the deal, but these 4 strategies will bring you to that point faster.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Adam Becker, Director of Sales at Tinderbox.

As a sales manager, I spend a great deal of time creating and implementing effective work practices in the sales process to make sure my team knows how to get organized, develop a call plan, and use tools to keep track of their notes and appointments. You can’t cater to the laggards in this business; as a colleague of mine from AG, Craig Ferrara, once said, “Bad oysters equate to lost time and money.” That’s why creating processes for the high performers to accentuate and try to replicate success is so important.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Christine Rochelle, Integrated Marketing Manager at lotus823.

Each and every work week at lotus823 is kicked off by a roundtable staff meeting and of course plenty of Diet Coke to go around.

Once our co-founder David Hernandez is able to bring the buzz of the room down, he walks us through each of our current business development opportunities for the agency.

Instead of jumping to discussing brand strategy or services, David always gears the conversation into a discussion about our personal relationship with the potential client contacts and what they would like to accomplish for their team and for the brand.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Damian Davila, Content Marketing Consultant at idaconcpts.com.

While your grandpa’s idea of the ultimate account executive might be Clark Gable in the 1940s movie The Hucksters, there is little doubt that our era’s idea is more in tune with Don Draper. Partially based on the life of Draper Daniels and the track record of Rosser Reeves, the “mad man” is capable of everything: writing copy, directing visual, planning media, managing the client relationship, and getting the big accounts . As he has said more than once, “You didn’t want it until I told you you wanted it.” 

Still, this “modern” idea of the account executive (AE) or manager (AM) is outdated. Given the growth of specialization in ­­the field, the AE’s role and importance is diminishing. The rise of agencies dedicated solely to digital projects further complicates the role because the faster pace demands a higher focus on client project management.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Chris Snell, Inside Sales Manager at Care.com.

When I was an inside sales rep, I was always concerned about who I thought was performing better than I was.  It’s not really the best way to be.  The greatest runners in the world don’t ever look over their shoulders to see who’s gaining on them, because they know that if they take their eyes from their goal, someone right behind them will be ready to overtake their lead.  Your sales career is similar.  Keep your eyes focused on whatever prize (bigger commission, promotion, whatever it may be) you’ve set before yourself, and keep running.  Here are five things you can own to help you become a better inside sales rep:  

...And How to Spot Them Before They Burn Up Your Time And Money

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Chris Croner, Principal at Sales Drive, LLC.

Have you ever felt burned by a sales candidate who looked great in the interview but failed to meet your expectations?  This is one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating experiences for sales managers and business owners... And, unfortunately, it is also one of the most common.  Many candidates come with seemingly ideal experience and potential, and yet the best sale we get out of that candidate is their interview performance.  Although these situations can be very discouraging, we can avoid them by looking beyond the candidate’s demeanor, experience level, and even track record, and instead into the most important non-teachable predictor of success: the candidate’s innate level of what psychologists call Drive, a critical personality trait and key aptitude that research shows must be in place to succeed in “hunter” type sales positions.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Jamie Shanks, Social Selling Expert at Sales for Life.

Last week, I was speaking to a client who was really down in the dumps. He had just found out minutes before our training session that a multi-million dollar engagement had fallen through.  They had been selected months before hand, and now it was T&C’s time, but their prospective buyers’ inner circle was just too indecisive.  Our client was extremely frustrated, as the ROI was there, the discounts in place… but their prospective buyer just couldn’t make up their mind.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Craig Wortmann, founder and CEO of Sales Engine.

“First we make our habits and then our habits make us.” – Anonymous

All of us have habits which lead to routines.  Once in awhile, it’s good to stop and recognize the routines that are running our lives. As professionals, salespeople are as susceptible as anyone to bad habits.  

Here are 5 things that we should all stop doing: