The End Game: How to Create Opportunities Early In Inside Sales

With a family background in sales, it’s no wonder I love competition, organization, and numbers. I like that every month your slate is wiped clean and you have another 30 days to crush your numbers. But not only is sales a month-to-month game; it's also quarterly and yearly. The cycle in which we work in inside sales is organized and allows you to plan your time accordingly.

Everyone has their own strategy to get through a month. I believe starting off strong is extremely important. I always try to create an opportunity and pass over a lead on the first day of every month, more so than the last day of every month. I want to know that I have some “cushion” and start off with great momentum. It’s probably part of my Type A personality, but I do not like to stress at the end of the month, and having opportunities early on always feels great. Of course, it’s not always possible to start off the month with a bang, but putting in extra work in the beginning leads to a smoother ride at the end.

Here are some strategies for creating opportunities early in the month:

• Try to get people live versus leaving messages.
  Instead of leaving messages for your prospects, do everything you can to try to get them live on the phone. Call them several times a day to figure out the optimal time to call. When you finally do talk to someone in person, don't scare them with too much information. Entice them with your product or service, concentrate on how it can improve their specific situation, and then schedule another conversation for more information. 

• Send out a mass email campaign. 
  If you take the time to make sure your emails are personal yet professional, concise yet informative, you will benefit from sending out a mass email campaign to hundreds of prospects. In five sentences or less, introduce yourself, the reason you're contacting the prospect, and the topic you'd like to discuss. Keep your signature personal, so any follow-up responses or questions go directly to you. For more help on drafting effective mass emails, see our Email Strategy Guide. 
  

• Use LinkedIn and Data.com to pull in better titles/contacts.
  Be resourceful! These sites are here for your benefit. LinkedIn is a professional social network filled to the brim with contacts who may need your product/service. Make yourself available and present yourself more like a consultant on LinkedIn. Establish your social presence. In their research, B2B prospects may find you are a respectful thought leader on the social media they visit most. Jigsaw is also a community of millions of B2B decision makers; a continuously updated and most importantly accurate place for data, it includes all company information you may need when building your pipeline. 
  

• Utilize to-do lists when you feel jumbled. 
  With so many campaigns going on at once, many inside sales reps feel bogged down by their work load. Instead of crumbling under the pressure, keep a weekly to-do list, whether online (weekplan.net, teuxdeux.com) or in a notebook. Make weekly and monthly goals, and relish the opportunity to cross off completed tasks. Keeping a to-do list will automatically make you more organized and more confident. 

No matter how you start your month, the end game is the same. Hit your goal. Surpass your goal. Make your clients happy. Feel good about working hard.

Then it starts all over again.

This is the beauty of sales. There is a cycle that will forever continue, like the Energizer Bunny, until you saturate the market. Every month you'll need to create new opportunities; find the time to create them earlier so you're not stressing out later.