Sales Prospecting Perspectives

By the end of the decade, millennials will encompass 50% of the workforce. Not only will they be employees, they will also be customers. They’re changing the workplace with adaptive views on feedback, mentoring programs and socialization. They’re vocal about their beliefs and ideas, and are confident that their input matters. The millennial generation is changing the way all employees, Baby Boomers and Gen X alike, work in the new millennium.

I’ll admit it. I think I have been avoiding the usage of collaboration tools for a number of years now. No matter how hard my boss has pushed it, I just couldn’t get myself to fully adopt the tools he was presenting. I would test it out for a few weeks and then would stop because I wasn’t recognizing the true value.  You may have been in the same boat as me. I just kept using the excuse, “I have my email to manage that.” After recently realizing that comments like this make me feel old and stuck in my ways, I started giving it more thought, and decided to jump on the bandwagon to give it a shot.

And when I did, something great happened.

I woke up early over the holiday weekend and found myself immediately thinking about an annoying/stressful situation that took place the day before. At that point, I had to stop myself and wonder what the hell I was doing. I was on the Cape, enjoying what was otherwise a wonderfully sunny few days off with my family. Why did I have to wake up thinking of something that’s bringing me down to negative town? I've always been intrigued by people who seem to have life figured out. For some reason, they manage to navigate the same waters we are all floating on, but somehow they always seem to come out clean with little to no stress slowing them down along the way. From what I've seen, most of these people always take the necessary step back from a situation and look at the big picture. The existing task they are consumed with could potentially overwhelm them with stress, but they have the ability to recognize that what may seem like a big deal now is generally insignificant in the big scheme of things. 

This week was a busy one at AG Salesworks. During the first half of the week, our inside sales reps were passing leads like crazy. Their leads were so hot that a small electrical fire started in the office on Tuesday! No worries, though; we’re all safe, and there was just a bit of smoke in AG Central. After that, there was more excitement: The Summer AG Olympics. I’m happy to announce that Team USA won! Find pictures and more about this event on our Facebook.

Today is an exciting d­­ay in our office.  As I write this blog, there are people walking by wearing Uncle Sam costumes and American flag tattoos, donning enormous gold chains and carrying bedazzled chalices, and sporting red lucha libre masks.

How often do you hear someone say, “Optimism sells.” How about, “Be more optimistic!” In sales, optimism is essential for success. But just saying the words won’t do the trick; you need to train your mind, using cognitive techniques. You need the tools to actually practice optimism.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Erica Bell, Marketing Management writer for business resource site Business.com.

Conflicts – all offices have them and all employees will encounter at least one during their working days. Economics and cultural differences between sales and marketing departments can cause conflicts in the workplace that ultimately hinder your profits and the performance of your business. Don’t let your business become a victim to the clash of the department titans. Get your sales and marketing teams working together effectively for greater success and a boost in your bottom line.

It's the final day of the month and the quarter; I'm sure there are a lot of elevated blood pressures today! Isn't it wonderful when these things fall on a Friday? Hopefully your sales pipeline is not the reason for the added stress and anxiety that comes with the last day of a quarter. One way to feed the pipeline is to start getting more social; integrating social selling practices in with your sales process. This week's share discusses social selling and comes from Brian Bachofner of InsideView who compared social selling vs. social prospecting and discussed some of the key activities being used by sales professionals and some of the key behaviors in determining a high performer. Brian cited multiple industry experts and discussed some of the findings from their ebooks, survey's and research to formulate is own opinion on the topic of social prospecting. Brian's view on social prospecting is "it's the measurable and trackable aspect of Social Selling that’s creating focus there. The ROI is simple to measure." He also states that social prospecting is "the easiest (activity) to deploy, but also the easiest to do WRONG." A great read from Brian, who will be assisting in managing and contributing content for Social Selling University until a new "Dean" has been found.  

The weeks of college spring break have come and gone and next up for these future college graduates will be getting a job and entering the cut-throat real world.  Most grads will leave school with a great deal of inherited debt, with much thanks to Sallie Mae, and assumedly most of these people should be hungry to make money and put in the necessary work to secure and hold a steady job.  Regardless, if you are looking into this crop of potential new hires or looking into young professionals with some experience, you still want to key in on the same intangibles when interviewing and hiring.  What you really want to find out is, “Do they want THIS job” or “Do they just want A job”?

In the industry, we talk a lot about how to create the best environment for teleprospecting teams, from a day to day perspective, that will increase employee productivity. We’re constantly thinking of ways to incent our teams through more lucrative compensation plans, more robust training, better tools from a technology standpoint, etc. Something I have been thinking about lately is not only about how to increase performance through these methods, but also how to create the right physical environment  that creates a high energy space for reps to come to work.