B2B Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Every day, our marketing team posts a blog written by one of our employees. I’ll admit it, when required to blog once a week on top of other responsibilities; it can be a bit overwhelming. At first, I used to spend too much time thinking about it, and most of that time was spent just coming up with a topic. Since that time, I have come up with ways to find a topic much faster, and as a result, writing blogs hasn’t been as time consuming as it was at the beginning, and now I really enjoy it. Here are three quick ways to find a blog topic that will best appeal to an inside sales audience:

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On my traffic jam drive home last week, I was shamelessly singing along to the wildly popular song, “Call Me Maybe?”, and a light bulb (maybe it was brake light) went off. I literally leave prospects my phone number anywhere from 50 – 100 times a day, and how many of those people get back to me; an embarrassingly small percentage.  Outside of work, your phone number is regarded as a precious commodity and here I am doling it out left and right with very little success. So I made it my mission to further investigate the art of leaving a voicemail. What is it that gets people to call you back?

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People that haven’t done it have no idea. Unless you have sat at a phone all day and pounded out dial after dial taking beatings all day long, you do not know how mentally taxing it can be to cold call. You get sworn at, hung up on, chastised and some people even have the nerve to tell you how you should have cold called them in order to get them to talk to you…which they won’t… and then they hang up on you. I have often likened it to walking into a mall and asking people what color their undergarments are. If you do it 100 times you’ll get slapped, punched and screamed at, but maybe ONE person out of the 100 will tell you to call them tomorrow to discuss why you need to know about their undergarments. That one person is your win for the day.

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If you have read my blogs in the past, you know I that follow the Harvard Business Review on Twitter and enjoy reading the many articles, blogs, and “management tips” they post online. Well I am going to reference another one today!

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Over the past couple of years, I have gotten a decent handle on what to look for when recruiting candidates to join our existing team of inside sales representatives. There are definitely some key areas to look out for throughout the interview process. And while this statement may seem obvious, I have given the green light on some candidates in the past that haven’t worked out so well, even though I thought they would probably be the top performers on the team. Since then, my colleagues and I have developed some rules and steps to follow to eliminate this from happening as much as possible. I do understand that every sales manager has their own “rules” they follow when conducting interviews and reviewing resumes, but here are a few more to think about from my perspective:

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Sales Prospecting Perspectives in pleased to bring you a guest post from one of our newer BDRs, Kira Lew

So last night I was sifting through my brain for what I should write about for my AG Blog Debut. This isn’t something I’ve been taking lightly.  Quite frankly, I want to WOW you folks so I can remain in the AG blogger’s Circle of Trust. Finally I settled on the idea that it might be a nice approach to correlate teleprospecting, which is something relatively new to my life, to something I’ve done since I was five years old, Theater! There are so many things that I unknowingly draw from my acting experience and apply to my job here at AG. In the interest of space and your precious time, I have narrowed it down to my top three tips that can be related to both acting and teleprospecting.

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I have recently become enamored with Social Media and the impact it is having on business, from the small Mom and Pop shops, to large Multi-national Corporation.  It is hard to argue against its benefits for business, but what place should it rightfully take?  After reading Chris Lang’s blog on integrating social media in your inside sales program, not replacing it, it got me pondering what type of overall impact does Social Media have on us in the sales industry. Chris’s argument was valid, that social media cannot replace cold calling or teleprospecting programs, but must be used to take advantage of the “real time” access to business information.  I think we would all agree that using social media to generate leads, become relevant in your industry, brand yourself, gainmore exposure for your business/product/service, etc… is becoming more and more vital for business, but at what cost?  As we continually look at faster ways for instant gratification, is social media another avenue contributing to the widening disconnect of human interaction and leading us into a more secluded “social” lifestyle.

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Over the past ten years I have observed hundreds of Inside Sales Reps. Some superstars, some, well, not so much. Often it is quite easy to determine why one person excels while one fails. The superstar arrives early, stays late and is enthusiastic while on the phone. We’ll refer to them as the A player, the A player does what it takes to get the job done. On the other side of the spectrum is the C player, arrives on time or a few minutes late, does what is required and can barely wait for the day to end. The A and C players take care of themselves, the A’s enjoy tremendous success, the C’s don’t make the cut and move on to a different, less demanding career.

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findnewcustomers:

My monthly blog post for Silverpop. I’m also hosting a webinar this Thursday, sponsored by Data.com.

Great article Jeff. #5 is a tough one! 

We’ve all heard the saying “Cold calling is a numbers game.”  Although I must admit that an aspect of successful prospecting relies on a sheer volume of calls, it is equally important to provide your team with solid training and support to allow for the appropriate balance. The two must work hand-in-hand otherwise you’ll be cleaning up after unfocused reps making blind dials. Not fun.

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Share your captions in the comments section and be sure to share this with your friends! The comment with the most likes will win a $20 Starbucks gift card!

Sales Checklist: How Do You Prepare Your Day? »

Kim discusses ways to help organize your cold calling day to be more prepared and productive.