Sales Prospecting Perspectives

I am so lucky when it comes to clients. I am fortunate enough to work with individuals who truly value what we do and trust our processes. They trust that we are the experts, and that’s the key to every successful customer engagement we run as a company.

Ironically, three clients have asked me the same question within the past two weeks. “What are the key things you need for us not to do that clients have done in the past and that has caused an engagement to fail?” I thought it would be a topic of interest for others interested in collaborating with an outsourced teleprospecting company, or planning to create their own internal lead qualification team to execute teleprospecting efforts.

Below are a few key mistakes to avoid in order to ensure a successful program!

1. Try to refrain from questioning processes and best practices. Whether you are working with a new firm or a new internal lead qualification group at your company, do your best to stand back and trust how the team will deliver leads to you. Oftentimes individuals are quick to offer their opinion on processes, from how many times and how often prospects need to be called to nitpicking the exact amount of calls that they’d like to be made per minute. Sure, if the leads are not turning up after two weeks of calling, of course you can start asking more questions, but until that time comes (and it probably won’t at all), allow the experts to deliver what they have promised in their contract.

2. Don’t make any judgments on the reps assigned to your program until you have seen the results of their work. We hire a fair amount of recent graduates, which is a common practice for many teleprospecting firms and internal inside sales/lead qualification teams. I’ve seen instances where individuals have questioned the level of experience our reps have if they see they recently graduated business school or if they have only had one prior experience within the field. It all comes down to process and training, and your internal team or your outsourced team is most likely very well-versed in training reps to become great at what they do, so I would recommend not questioning the reps making dials on your behalf and trusting that the team you’ve hired would not put someone on the phones to represent you that isn’t a great fit.

3. Be communicative at all times especially during the implementation period. The best programs are the ones where the customer is highly engaged right from the get go. There is only a short window to get your rep up and running, and it’s crucial that training meetings occur and timelines stay on track. Therefore, before you engage, make sure you hold the proper expectations for yourself, as you will need to be readily available to help support the new extension of your team, especially your assigned rep(s). Making every meeting and being accessible is crucial. Also, be open-minded when it comes to the types of questions reps ask you. Even if it might seem extremely straightforward to you, try to remember that they are learning for the first time.

Whether you are planning to outsource your teleprospecting programs or if you are working with a qualification team internally at your organization, it’s important to trust the team and be open to any new ideas and processes they present. What would you add to this list?