Sales Prospecting Perspectives

I have always been a firm believer that there are two types of people in this world: those who have children and those who don’t. The reason I differentiate between them is that those who don’t have children tend to think they are the best parents in the world, and some insist on telling you how to raise your kids.

Now, a bit about me: I am a father of three with a boy and two girls.  I have had my share of experiences with people saying things like, “I would never do that with my kids,” or, “You’re doing that?”  I have to admit, there was a time, before I had children, that I remember saying, “Oh my, I would never feed my kids french fries.”  Friends and family fall into one of these two groups. But when or if they have children, their opinions about parenting usually change, and they start to understand how difficult a task it is and stop judging others for their choices. The same can be said regarding outsourcing lead generation for sales and marketing.

Over the summer, the AG team created a list of 50 traits an inside sales rep should have.  Number 43  was that an inside sales rep should be invested. Being invested has always been something that I relate to as a Senior Business Development Representative here at AG.  The main traits and skills that I feel an inside sales rep should have to be invested are: Devotion, Persistence, Active Listening.

It’s nearing the end of summer. Sales reps might think that making cold calls to prospects will now be easier, but lately, it's becoming harder and harder every day. Why, you may ask? For the same reason leads were down in the middle of summer: Vacations.  Not only do individuals inside sales representatives call go on vacation, sending us automatic out-of-office email replies or recording voicemails that state "I will be out of the office until...", but us cold callers luckily get some time off as well.  The problem is that, as prospects are finally returning from vacation, they're pushing sales reps away. I have called many a person in the last few months who has said to me, "I just got back from vacation and I have a backlog of emails and voicemails to get through.  Can you call back in two days?"

Every day as a teleprospecting representative we make outbound calls to engage in conversations with prospects.  The goal is always the same, find out more information about the environment and any pains or needs the prospects may be experiencing. We want to know who the proper decision maker is and determine if there is enough synergy between their organization and my clients to move to the next step in the buying process.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from one of our BDR's, Stephen Wolff 

This is a question that I have asked myself and many others who have been teleprospecting over the past 4 years.  Most of the scripts I have seen and used were for voicemails that are left as a message to a prospect. I have received a lot of feedback regarding scripting and have found that while some people dislike having or using scripts, it may be a necessary evil for others in the early stages of their teleprospecting tenure. Many people have thought that leaving a voicemail is second nature; hey we talk on the phone every day, but usually with friends or family who know who we are and we feel extremely comfortable with. Teleprospecting is a different animal all together. With teleprospecting, we are calling people that we have never talked to before and some people who have no desire for us to call them in the first place.

I was browsing Facebook and a friend of mine mentioned that she was severely lacking in mojo.  She polled her friends and colleagues (social media is great for many things) about what people do when they lose their mojo or are in a funk.  She combined some of the responses with her own suggestions in her blog post The Ultimate Guide To Finding Your Mojo.

I began to ponder that thought; what do I do when I am in a funk or have lost my mojo? There are going to multiple factors that may come into play when looking at how or why your mojo has been lost.  Here are three tips that will help you get it back.

For those of you who are not aware, or have not read my spotlight on AG’s Tumblr account, I am the proud father of three incredible kids.  The other day I was reminiscing with my wife and some friends about all of our kids and the antics they try to pull off and over our eyes.  Then it hit me…  They are just trying to maneuver through the bureaucracy in our family dynamic to get to the proper decision maker, and also get the response they want.  Like in many businesses there is a hierarchy to follow and people who are delegated to evaluate certain things and refer to others to get the final decision.