Sales Prospecting Perspective Weekly Recap – Week of May 28, 2024
Yesterday, it was 86 degrees outside. I was glad to be inside an air-conditioned office, but I also sympathized with my coworkers, who were calling for someone with “fiber” to help them move all our cubes outside. Oh, the cube life. I hope your business employees are doing well, and have been able to use their breaks to enjoy the much-coveted sunshine this week.
This week’s shared post is from the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. Monique Valcour, a professor of management at EDHEC Business School in France, wrote about bridging the gap between Millennials and the Baby Boom Generation in business and hitting the intergenerational sweet spot. She suggested that Millenials and Generation X want the same things from their job: challenging work; opportunities for learning; support to integrate work and personal life; and fair treatment. The manager’s job, then, is to acknowledge and respond to these similarities, rather than harping on the differences. Our own Laney Pilpel wrote about how to attract and retain inside sales millenials a few weeks ago, adding that managers should involve them in training efforts, communicate with them, and recognize them for their achievements.
Now, on to this week’s recap.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Because of Memorial Day, our first blog post was posted on Tuesday. Craig started us out by taking us on a nostalgic adventure of his first sales job in the hotel industry, where he had to teach himself, structure his day-to-day operations, and keep expectations high. He essentially made his job his own. Craig asked an important question for inside sales reps: Are you the CEO of what you do every day? Have you taken personal ownership of your job? Craig sought to inspire inside sales reps to inspire themselves.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Wednesday’s post came from a guest, Vice President of Inside Sales at uSamp Kevin Gaither. Gaither wrote about hiring strategies for inside sales people. According to him, the single most important thing to look for in a salesperson is drive, not experience. But what is drive? It’s made up of three characteristics: need for achievement, competitiveness and optimism. The candidate who possesses all of these traits is most likely to succeed in the inside sales industry, said Gaither.
Thursday, May 30, 2024
On Thursday, Business Development Rep Colleen MacNeil wrote about her business social media pet peeves spanning from platforms like Twitter and Facebook to LinkedIn and Instagram. Her advice is very important for business marketing teams to remember. For example, don’t send auto direct messages to everyone who follows you on Twitter redirecting them to another platform; you may be immediately unfollowed! Her list of what not to do on social media will help businesses succeed on the Internet.
Friday, May 31, 2024
Finally, I wrote my first official blog post, besides the weekly recap last week. This morning I published 10 Things Fast Food Employees Can Teach Inside Sales Reps. I delved into the nitty gritty of working at Subway and Burger King, and established ways that these jobs can actually teach inside sales reps to be better at their job, including making connections, showing expertise and bringing order to chaos. There are a lot of parallels between sales jobs and other jobs, and hopefully this post will help others learn from their past experiences.
That’s all for our weekly recap. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you again next week!
