Sales Prospecting Perspectives

As part of my role as Manager of Client Operations at AG, I shadow Inside Sales Rep calls and offer constructive feedback on how they can better their process.  Part of what I measure is what the inside rep may be doing that is getting in the way of their success.  More often then not, I can credit that to phone presence.

Bloggers spent a lot of time over the past 6 weeks discussing morale, attitude and approaches to being successful over the Holidays. I’ve read a lot of interesting takes on working efficiently during the Holidays and I was really pleased with the opportunities AG Inside Sales Reps were able to uncover right through the 30th. Now that we are more then half way through week one and survived the Holidays, there is a new topic to discuss: Resolutions!

One of the biggest road blocks inside sales reps face on a daily basis is bad data and exhausted lists. The amount of time that passes planning a new calling campaign can be days or weeks. The inside rep is left annoyed and anxious over their shrinking CRM homepage and every time you ask them how things are going, the answer is “I have no names.” That’s a really bad feeling for both management and inside sales reps. Along with working on a new campaign, the next step in that conversation needs to be “How are you currently managing the list you have been working on?”

It’s December 1^st, what’s more predictable then a holiday inspired blog. Some are playing Christmas music from their cubes, people are traveling and leaving early for family gatherings and your Company is probably leaving early at one point for their own Holiday get together. Everyone is really excited for the Holidays and the New Year and somehow you feel like your business is in a crisis.  How will we ever overcome! Bah Humbug!

Do you ever think about how efficient you are when you’re part of a team? It’s a common trend across many things people do. Moving into a new home, running a kitchen, completing a science project, managing a team or even grocery shopping. When you have a right hand to help lift the bureau, prep the veggies, write the power point slides, respond to the 100^th email of the day and grab the milk, you just get the job done.

I have been inspired by a new client to talk about the importance of active listening skills in my post today. At AG, we always talk about the importance of open ended questions and active listening skills when prospecting. Listen! Listen! Listen! and find pain in the prospects answers. Sure, sounds easy, so why are we losing them? In spending time with my team and new client, we are taking a step back and relating a business conversation to a personal conversation. We are in sales and marketing, so we believe in our products. Our first instinct is to act on what the prospect has shared, and tell them right away about our solution and how we can fix their problem.  Sure we have it in the back of our minds that we can bring value, but that’s not what this job is about. Being an inside sales rep is about active listening and leading a conversation through pains and needs, in order to paint a distinct picture for your client on where their services may alleviate that pain. It’s the same as actively listening to a friend or family member. If I was talking to my roommate about my stressful day, and she “yes’d” me to death through the conversation and then suggested I needed an ice cream, I would probably say no thanks tell her I was all set and go in my room. She didn’t know why I was stressed, if I was tired, sad or even not hungry at all. She knew she had some delicious ice cream and thought that could be the perfect fit for a bad day.

Are you the type of person that walks into a restaurant, listens to the specials, browses the menu and makes a great decision on what to order in less than 5 minutes? Or are you the person that stresses out over the 20 options and ends up with the soup and salad disappointed?

Do you ever get to the grocery store and find yourself rolling up and down the isles wasting time gathering your thoughts on what you need? You forgot to write out a list, you have no clue if you need milk or cheese, dish soap, paper towels or what you stocked up on last week.

There are many “tricks of the trade” outside of following a call plan that inside sales reps use to get their interested prospects live on the phone. Then they get: “Yes sounds great we have an active project in 2 months, oh no I spilt my coffee got to go.” They ping this person from a blocked number, their neighbors cube or even their cell phone for weeks on end. Where did they go?! After countless calls they might catch them on their way out of the office on week 2 or might continue to reach out for the month, but odds are, they become that daily nagging task that keeps them off of their call plan.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you another guest entry from one of our BDRs, Jill Ryan.