Sales Prospecting Perspectives

I love social media. I love to browse photos of my friends, family and strangers on Instagram, I love to read pointless status updates on Facebook from people I haven’t seen since 2004, I love to scroll through movie stills, silly GIFs and quotes in clever typography on Tumblr, and I love to read jokes and random thoughts consisting of less than 140 characters on Twitter.

It’s the end of May, and the long summer months are approaching. Instead of forlornly staring out the window at the blossoming trees swaying in the sun, why not read our Weekly Recap to learn more about how to nurture your sales campaign or how to be a better boss?

The AG team impresses me every day with the amazing work they do for our customers, uncovering and delivering qualified opportunities.  But yesterday they took my respect to a whole new level.  They stayed late, and made additional calls to help the Dana Farber Institute raise money to fight cancer.

I was able to get some quality time with my old man down the cape over Memorial Day weekend. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily describe him as a big fan of idle chatter, but if he sees a chance to impart some wisdom on his son, he usually isn’t afraid to share. 

The countdown to my wedding on November 24th is officially here. I’ve got 6 months to make this thing happen and hope that it goes off without a hitch. Just thinking about the venue, flowers, caterer, band, photographer, invitations, etc. is overwhelming, and it’s hard not to feel nervous that it won’t all come together in the end. The overwhelming feeling I have right now is a lot like the feeling that inside sales reps have as they enter the first week of a new month. New goals and quotas have been assigned to sales reps for June and some might be feeling overwhelmed with the tasks at hand, worried they won’t reach their goals by June 30th. Just like I need to step back, organize, and take the appropriate steps to ensure a fabulous wedding, sales teams need to take a step back, plan for the month, and take the right steps throughout the whole month in order to achieve their quota. If executed properly, there will be no need to work all hours of the night at month’s end to try to reach your numbers. 

Today, on this lovely Friday, I was inspired by a song a fellow cube neighbor was playing.  The song was the ever popular, “Stand by me”.  Now you may find this sappy, and call it what you may, but I am so lucky to have a group of co-workers that do just that.  The crazy cats I sit with at work lift me from my lows, lend a helping hand and make my victories feel that much more victorious.  Without them, I wouldn’t be the teleprospector you see before you, or the woman I am today.  Okay, I think I took it a little far with that one. Anyway, the point is that the people you surround yourself with can make or break your job, and I am fortunate enough to say they make it for me.

“Too many cooks in the kitchen” is a metaphor used often in sales.  Just as if 6 people were trying to season the same meal, similar chaos can exist on client calls and in a marketing database.  In the past, I have discussed utilizing the 30 minutes with your clients in an organized fashion when on weekly client calls.  That same attention to detail and organization needs to be present in your outbound marketing campaigns.

All too often sales reps try to fit every prospect into their sales process, without realizing that every prospect has their own “sales cadence”.  There are many variables that come into play with each and every sales cycle:  title, the level of need, whether the prospect is even aware they have a need, where the prospect is in the buying process or how they approach a purchase. All of these variables can make the difference between success and failure.  It’s not just about a lost sale (which is all about you), but the lost opportunity to help the prospect realize a goal or solve a problem (which is all about the prospect).

Over the last month I’ve had the pleasure of leading a team of AG employees focused on figuring out better ways to motivate the folks who we have making dials.  Although we feel that we’re in a good place as an organization, we recognize that we can never be complacent.  Ultimately, being a services company, our most precious asset is our people and at the end of the day we need to take care of the people that make us go.

Every year on Memorial Day weekend it's tradition for my family to go to the town parade and every year it concludes with the top three elementary school winners reading their “What Memorial Day Means to Me” essays.  Most of them reveal that it's not just the candy and cookouts that make Memorial Day special to them.  With this event fast approaching, I’ve figured out what Memorial Day means to me, so what does teleprospecting mean to me?  Something that is very much a work in progress… so here goes!