Sales Prospecting Perspective Weekly Recap - Week of February 25, 2024
Another month is now behind us as we slowly creep closer to Spring. As the temperatures begin to rise, hopefully your prospects are out of their winter doldrums and becoming more repsonsive as we make the final push to close out the first quarter strong. One of the big debates that is being discussed within the industry is the idea that Social Prospecting can replace Cold Calling when developing pipeline or trying to connect with prospects. OpenView Labs (an extension of OpenView Venture Partners) produced a great post this week on the subject with insight from some industry experts who weighed in with their opinions on the topic. They discuss whether social prospecting will make cold calling irrelevant and include a poll within the post to identify how big a role social prospecting plays in lead generation efforts within your organization. Full disclosure, I am quoted at the end of the article, but it is full of great content for anyone debating on the value of social prospecting and how it should co-exist with your outbound prospecting efforts.
Without any further adieu, we have this week's blogs to recap!
Monday, February 25, 2024
We opened the last week of the shortest month with a post from Laney Pilpel discussing some of the "must haves" on your checklist when hiring teleprospecting reps. Laney referenced a post written by Trish Bertuzzi of The Bridge Group that was published a few years ago yet the traits we look for still hold true for today's teleprospecting reps. Laney included four competencies to Trish's list of ten that are her "must haves" when participating in the interview process. Having the desire to innovate and the ability to persevere were Laney's fist two competencies mentioned. Laney wants someone who is excited to uncover new techniques/tools and present them to management with confidence. Laney also mentions the ability to remain confident and be resourceful. With employee turnover always a concern regarding inside sales or teleprospecting reps, utilizing Trish and Laney's competencies when hiring may help secure your workforce for longer periods of time.
Tuesday, February 26, 2024
On Tuesday, Mike Ricciardelli provided a great post on the value of using reciprocation to help achieve your sales goals. I really enjoyed reading this post and Mike is fast becoming one of our more popular bloggers. First Mike tells a story about how he was encountered by a fast talking sales professional while at a mutual friend's wedding. The sales professional didn't try to relate to Mike or make any kind of connection; he was only concerned with his own goals and benefits. Building a relationship that is not only mutual but looking for ways were both party's can achieve their goals will ensure a continued and lasting relationship. When you begin only looking out for yourself and your own goals is when your clients or prospects will find no reason to "continue the relationship on full faith." Great post and I highly recommend taking a minute to give it a read.
Wednesday, February 27, 2024
Samantha provided some great insight into what works for her as a teleprospector when it comes to list development and list size in her post Teleprospecting List Development: Too Big, Too Small Or Just Right? When it comes to navigating lists for prospecting, many companies make the mistake of choosing quantity over quality. This thinking leads to teleprospecting reps becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of contacts in their database to begin their outbound campaigns. Limiting your list size to 5-6 contacts per target company is more optimal for your teleprospectors productivity and can eliminate some of the fears and redundancy your reps may experience when beginning a new campaign.
Thursday, February 28, 2024
Kim continued our list development theme with our last post of the week entitiled 3 Inside Sales Management Tips For Maximizing Teleprospecting Lists. Kim focused on three points to keep in mind when working on list development or refining data. Her first point discussed the importance of outlining what your specific criteria are for the kind of data desired. Examples include revenue, company size or industry. Her next tip involves starting with a clean slate and making sure your data has gone through the proper "scrubbing" channels before being placed in front of your teleprospecting reps. She also offers some great advice on how your reps should prioritize the contacts within the newly formed list. Kim's final tip reinforces the value of having teleprospecting reps who are resourceful and able to find the appropriate contacts when the ones on their list are inappropriate contacts or unresponsive. Kim's post also announced the release of our Inside Sales Managers Guide to List Development intended for anyone involved in managaing the teleprospecting and inside sales functions within a B2B sales and marketing organization. The guide is available for free and you can sign up to download here.
Thanks to everyone for reading this week's recap and we'll try it again in March! Happy prospecting!