Sales Prospecting Perspectives

It's Friday, and that means it's time for a Weekly Recap! What did you do to motivate your sales team this week? At AG, we held Extreme BDR Bingo. Inside sales reps were distributed bingo sheets with squares such as: 30 dials before 10 a.m., 3 leads in a day, 700 activities in a week, arrive before 8:15 a.m., etc. The prize for completing five squares in a row was $50, and the contest was so successful that sales enablement was rewarded extra money to keep it going throughout the rest of the month (as more and more people kept winning bingo). It was a big success. Be creative in how you inspire your sales team!

Currently, I am working with two clients at AG Salesworks. I’ve been working with one client since February, and with the other client for only about two weeks. The transition from one client to another has to be smooth, and the focus on both clients needs to remain equal. It can be a stressful process to learn a new product and new style of communicating with sales reps and marketing contacts, but if you are organized and plan your days, then the process of ramping up will be easy.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Chris Snell, Inside Sales Manager at Care.com.

When I was an inside sales rep, I was always concerned about who I thought was performing better than I was.  It’s not really the best way to be.  The greatest runners in the world don’t ever look over their shoulders to see who’s gaining on them, because they know that if they take their eyes from their goal, someone right behind them will be ready to overtake their lead.  Your sales career is similar.  Keep your eyes focused on whatever prize (bigger commission, promotion, whatever it may be) you’ve set before yourself, and keep running.  Here are five things you can own to help you become a better inside sales rep:  

Sales professionals obviously prefer face-to-face meetings with their prospects but sometimes, given their territories, that just can’t happen on a regular basis.  The alternative has mostly been to set up a conference bridge, email over a slide deck or Powerpoint presentation or get on the phone to sell.  Maybe they’ll toss over some whitepapers so their prospects can read up before the call and prepare some questions.

I can almost guarantee that the hardest days of work for inside sales reps are the first days back from vacation. At least they are for me. Everyone is longing to sleep in and be back with their family or friends. However, the transition back into work mode can be smooth if you stay organized. After having some time off last week, it was hard to put my mind back into the commuting, working and organizing mode.

Too often business development reps do themselves a disservice by masking their personalities, and consequently becoming someone who sounds boring or disinterested.  And why should prospects on the other end of the phone show interest or enthusiasm if sales reps haven’t done that themselves?

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Jamie Shanks, Social Selling Expert at Sales for Life.

Last week, I was speaking to a client who was really down in the dumps. He had just found out minutes before our training session that a multi-million dollar engagement had fallen through.  They had been selected months before hand, and now it was T&C’s time, but their prospective buyers’ inner circle was just too indecisive.  Our client was extremely frustrated, as the ROI was there, the discounts in place… but their prospective buyer just couldn’t make up their mind.

The office is teeming with people moving between desks, rushing to write information down or share something with a co-worker. Phone conversations can be heard from every corner of the office, and the voices mingle to produce one low drone, a din heard throughout. In one corner of the office, a man hangs up the phone and emits an exasperated sigh. In the other corner of the office, a woman jumps up for joy, pumping her fists in the air. There’s an air of excitement in the office: success could happen for anyone; anyone can make a difference. It’s a wild house of ambitious thrill-seekers; it’s a jungle in there.

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.

“Please place me on your no-call list.”

This is the phrase I’ve learned to repeat whenever someone calls my house during dinner time. Some anonymous person is always trying to solicit my money for products I definitely don’t need. A Shake Weight? No thank you! A subscription to Martha Stewart Living? Certainly not! A common misconception about these calls is that anyone who uses the telephone to increase revenue for a company is an annoying telemarketer. But that’s simply not true.