Inside Sales Reps: Are You Making the Most of Every Conversation?
With a 12% connect rate, a typical inside rep’s job consists of 88% “non-live” communication. That being said, it is very exciting to get your identified contact live on the phone. This moment can be so overly anticipated, that it is easy to get caught up and forget to ask that one last very important bit of information. The goal is always to qualify an account, extract pains, and create interest. Your objective is always to get to the end result, which is to qualify in or out. Just because someone expresses no immediate pain or interest, your job is not done. To make the most of every conversation you need to understand why there is no immediate need. Thus it is important to have the appropriate follow up questions ready for the various reasons that could be presented:
- They do not qualify (qualify out) - why is their environment not conducive to your product/service?
- They have a competitor in place (satisfied) – What competitor?
- No funding in the immediate future – When do they anticipate the ability to evaluate in the future?
- Project not a priority in the immediate future – When will this be more of a priority?
This information is very important to capture for many reasons. If there is no immediate need/interest, make sure that you know when to reach out in the future. Things change, just because there is no opportunity now, doesn’t mean that this will be true in 3 months. Don’t settle for, “I have no interest.” This phrase can be a very popular email response. I always make sure that our BDRs are sending follow-up emails asking how they are solving the problem today and when to reach out in the future. This information can also be very useful to our clients to help bridge the gap between marketing and sales by helping marketing to segment their audience and sales understand their competitive landscape. Of course we always ask for inside referrals. Depending on the conversation, you can even try asking for a referral to an outside colleague/friend at another organization that may benefit.
How do you help your inside sales reps make the most of every conversation?