Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Russ Heddleston, CEO of DocSend.

Traditionally, sales has relied largely upon human relationships: successful salespeople know their product and their audience and are enthusiastic about talking to people, pursuing, and closing leads with persistence and moxie. Aside from these personal qualities, until the advent of Salesforce in 1999, the only external tools a salesperson needed were a Rolodex and a phone. In the last decade, technology has dramatically changed the landscape in which inside sales reps operate: the Internet has given the general population unprecedented access to information, the penetration of mobile has allowed people to access this information anywhere and anytime, and (somewhat ironically) the number of people who actually answer phone calls has diminished.

At the same time, the tools that salespeople rely on have evolved and have changed how salespeople gain insight into leads, interact with customers and prospects, and organize their efforts. Here are a few tools that have helped salespeople gain new insights and pursue new strategies for success:

The age-old question that every sales manager asks themselves is, “How can I better motivate my reps?” We often talk about rewarding our reps with things like money, extra PTO, company outings, and culture to keep them engaged. The reality is that while all those incentives are necessary, we sometimes forget about the intangible ways we can motivate and keep reps interested. In a meeting with my boss yesterday, he reminded us of something that is right at our fingertips that we sometimes forget about: Empowerment. It plays a very large role when it comes to motivating sales reps and it’s a great way to better your team as a whole.

The role of an inside sales rep at AG Salesworks is a unique experience. During my time at AG, I have had the pleasure of working for four separate clients. I’ve transitioned from balancing two half-time projects to working for just one client full time. Each of my clients differed vastly from the other, which made the transition from client to client very tedious. I had to endure an extensive amount of training in order to fully understand my new project. And at AG, our inside sales reps are expected to ramp up on a new project in a week’s time! Ramp ups may be overwhelming and stressful for inside sales reps, so here are 4 steps to help make your ramp-up week a smooth transition!

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt of a chapter from our recently published eBook, The Ultimate Inside Sales Prospecting and Management Success eBook. If you're interested in reading the 35-page handbook, click the link above.  

Lists and data go hand in hand. Some types of data can inform the way you develop your list, while other types of data are gleaned from already existing lists. According to NetProspex, more than 60% of B2B companies rely on “unreliable” data to fuel demand generation. In fact, bad data or poor data quality costs US businesses $600 billion annually. We want to show your company how you can prevent wasting money and use data to your advantage.

Happy Friday, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! It's finally the weekend. After a snow-laden week here at AG, with icy roads and cold winds, we're ready to go home, sit by the fire, and watch the Sochi Winter Olympics. We'll be cheering on America while also taking a close look at how the event is marketed. We'll also be brainstorming some inside sales enablement contests inspired by the Olympics' team spirit.

AG Salesworks is pleased to bring you a guest post from Kevin Thornton, Executive Vice President - Sales & Marketing for VanillaSoft. 

When you take a look at some of the statistics available, it seems like a no-brainer and a win-win situation to implement a telecommuting program for your sales organization.  According to Global Workplace Analytics, telecommuting could have the following benefits for U.S. companies and commuters:

I like to think that I have a few key tools in my prospecting toolbox. The most important one could very well be our CRM, which at AG is Salesforce.com. It allows those of us with slight OCD to breathe easier, since we can plan days and weeks of tasks and reports ahead of time while being able to sift through old campaigns and review information with a few simple clicks. I don’t know how sales firms could operate without an automated CRM. It allows prospecting to go smoothly and it allows inside sales reps to hit the phones and make touches on many companies and prospects every day.

Let’s just get this out of the way first and foremost: You don’t really need a college degree to get into sales.  It absolutely goes a long way if you have one but I know plenty of people who don’t have degrees and are in sales.  I went to an all business school and sales wasn’t an option as a Major concentration, and just recently it’s been added to the curriculum as a Minor.