Sales Prospecting Perspectives

I seem to be talking to a lot of people that are in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to running new marketing campaigns, especially those that involve teleprospecting. The common theory is that during the last two thirds of FYQ4 people are not around, so why use resources calling people that aren’t even there? While there are some industries that you shouldn’t call during certain times, education in late summer, manufacturing during plant shut down, my house during “The Sing Off” (that show is awesome), the majority of industries are ripe to be prospected during FYQ 4. Here is why.

3 Ways To Pull An Inside Rep Out Of A Slump

Inside reps in a lead slump are miserable beings:
Me: “Hey Bob, what’s happenin?”
Bob: “Well my pipeline sucks….no one is interested in what we sell….my pitch doesn’t work…I have eaten PB and J at my desk for 3 weeks straight and I forgot to wear socks today”
Me: “Ok…well I’m gonna go jump off a cliff Bob, but thanks for the update!”

I talk to a lot of marketing/sales executives that have no idea why their inside team’s lead numbers are down. The call number is in between 80-90 per day, they are having conversations, they know the product inside and out and they are hungry for leads, so what could be the issue? I’ll then look at their conversation reports and possibly listen in on some calls and find out they have a lot of over educated inside reps. Sometimes this is facilitated by management and other times the inside rep shoots themselves in the foot.

My wife is constantly planning. By Sunday night at 6pm she has our whole week planned out from meals to gym schedules to dog walk duties right down to weekend plans. When we’re together we get a ton done. She makes tweaks to our plans and things just seem to run smoothly.  When she’s gone….well, not so much. She has been in Chicago all week and my life expectancy has deteriorated significantly.  Last night I ate 2 lbs of chicken, a bowl of chili, a cup of ice cream and 3 beers for dinner. I wake up late, my clothes don’t match, I have severe indigestion and I think I took the wrong dog home from the park this morning. I am adding some great things to my plan (additional beer and television) while taking away the things I don’t really need (exercise, vegetables), but my life seems to be much less effective than it could be.

Some people think they can just build a telesales/qualification team on a whim, as if it’s the same as building a sandwich at the local sub (spukie, hoogie, grinder, blimpee) shop. “Hey I’m gonna run out and build an inside team, maybe grab a coffee from Starbucks. You need anything?” There is a reason why an entire industry has been built on inside sales improvement and augmentation; because it is extremely hard work with a lot of expertise required. Too often the thought process seems to go something like this, “Person we don’t have to pay too much (because they’re getting experience of course)…CHECK…phone…CHECK…computer…CHECK…ok guys let’s turn it on and wait for the leads! Wait a minute, let’s not half ass this. I just got the rep a subscription to database service! Oh boy we are in the money.”  Some basic things to consider:

As a sales rep, there is nothing worse than having worked through all the details of a deal only to have it sit on someone’s desk, unsigned for what seems to you to be no apparent reason. You’ve given the pitch, had the demo, run through the integration, put out the proposal (which they said looked great) and now you wait….and wait….and wait. For those of you not in sales, it is important to understand that we are emotionally fragile creatures during this time. When we reply to “hey you wanna go grab a coffee?” with “You know what, I hate you right now!” It is because we’re waiting to find out if we’re going to hit our number, get paid and for some, keep our jobs. The following steps below should help sales reps avoid some of the awful waiting periods and keep a few grey hairs from popping up.

I talk to a lot of cold callers. My company puts out about 4000 outbound activities a day to prospects so it would be bad juju to shun the people cranking out dials. That being said, a bad cold caller can be an infuriating experience for the listener and ruin your chances of getting a lead. Here are a couple of things to avoid when making cold calls, as brought to you by some of our inside reps.

The Bruin’s are in the play-offs and I have hockey on the brain even more than usual. I’m actually in the middle of an email thread with my buddies about what we need to do to win the series against the Lighting. (The Bruins…none of us even played in high school) We go back and forth with theories on playing a neutral zone trap, getting through the 1-3-1 defense, reshuffling the lines and then we of course end each email with a horrifying slur against the other people on the email. (The traditional male symbol of affection) My buddy sent out his last email saying 3 things. This is his quote, “It’s pretty simple; stop playing like school girls and stick with the fundamentals. Pass, skate, shoot and check……you’re all morons.” 

Whether your organization refers to them as "battlecards" or "salescards", no inside sales team should operate without them. Even though they are simple, two page documents, battlecards are crucial when it comes to further developing the skills of your sales team. Below are a few reasons why I think this is true: