Sales Prospecting Perspectives

As a Business Development Representative for tech companies, I understand that organizations can be hesitant to implement new technologies.  I have heard many different reasons as to why companies don’t want to change what they are already using or put new software or systems into place: the cost is too high, it doesn’t fit their needs, or it just isn’t a priority at the time.  One reason I often hear is that the company won’t be able to persuade their employees to start using the new technology.

The amount of data we are presented with on a daily basis can be overwhelming. We are inundated with endless streams of data, much of which is frankly of little use and tends to obstruct our need for clarity and fair analysis.  As a starting point to cut through the clutter, I’ve listed 3 key areas that marketing and sales professionals can utilize as a way to land in the eye of the storm of big data with respect to effective B2B sales prospecting.

There are several factors that go into a successful weekly client call. The objective is to make the most out of the 30 minutes you have. You need to remember to talk strategy, discuss opportunities passed, active pipeline, how the list sources are and what the audience is saying. You need to deliver on “take aways” and action items from the previous week and always be punctual with dead lines. You need to provide your client with something new about their target market every week and have a plan of growth for the next. Whether it’s an adjustment in the pitch from the Sales team or a new Case Study to push out from Marketing, change is good in this business.

I recently read a great question from one of my LinkedIn groups, Inside Sales Management: “Is anyone measuring activity rather than opportunities? If so, what activities are you measuring and how?

Adaptation is the key to any successful teleprospecting campaign.  You’ll have your list, your script, your reps, and your CRM ready to roll.  You’ve done it before and logic would dictate that you just need to replicate previous successful behavior to ensure success.  NOPE, this is not the case. That is the beauty of our business.  No two campaigns are exactly the same.  One of the cornerstones of our success at AG over the years has been understanding this very fact and treating each new campaign uniquely.  This mindset creates a project management culture here that evaluates performance daily and is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve each unique campaign.  The food that fuels this improvement comes in the form of our comprehensive reporting.  The daily analysis that AG Directors look at educates and empowers them to make aggressive and timely course corrections that ensure that we generate boat loads of forecast for our clients. We’ve compiled the 3 reports we find most useful for this and I have shared the details on them below.