Category Archives: Inside Sales

Qualifying Prospects, Part 1

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When you think about it, being a good salesperson is like being a good journalist – you need to ask good questions.

How else are you going to help your client if you don’t know what types of problems he’s trying to solve? You can call this approach asking “qualified questions” or “needs development questions.” Some refer to it as the “discovery process.” But whatever you call it, the goal is still the same – uncover needs, wants or problems before moving forward with the sales process.

I think the biggest mistake that some salespeople make is they do a product dump on a prospect before they have a real understanding of what the prospect actually wants. They go over all the benefits and features of a product, and then ask “Well, what do you think?” After a little hesitation, the prospect will normally reply “I actually don’t need anything that you discussed. Here is what I’m really looking for.”

If you just found that out at the beginning of the process, you would have saved yourself and your prospect a lot of time. Take a deep breath, be patient, and act like a reporter. Ask good open-ended questions, but also try to make it conversational in tone at the same time. You are not a tough investigative reporter trying to uncover a scandal. Think of yourself as being more of a fun entertainment reporter. You know, the kind that asks softball questions and has a nice, enjoyable engaging interview with a celebrity.

You are just one human being asking another human being how you can help him.

Below and in the next few posts, I’m going to share with you how sales experts ask good questions.

Ago Cluytens, a sales expert, and trainer makes the case that you only really need to ask three questions in the first meeting with a prospect before moving forward with the sales process.

Here is his video below –

Jane Frankland, Online Marketing & Business Development Expert, says you need to ask five key questions when qualifying a prospect. You don’t have to get all your answers in the first call or meeting, but get a clear sense of whether it’s worth your time to pursue a prospect or not.

Here is her video –

Would you send the same e-mail three times?

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Would you send the same email to a prospect three times?

That is what one salesperson suggested doing recently in a discussion on a sales LinkedIn discussion board.

My answer – no. Here’s why –

It makes you look lazy and unprofessional. Look, I know we are all busy. You have lots of calls to make. You may have a tight quota to achieve. But it only takes a few minutes to reword an e-mail. Maybe add something of value, like a white paper, case study or an interesting article that may apply to your prospect. But whatever you do, take a few extra minutes to make a few changes before sending out another email to the same prospect.

Related to this, recently someone sent me an e-mail to my LinkedIn profile asking me if I would be interested in a lead generation tool. I politely replied that this was something that I wouldn’t be interested in, but since we are both in sales, I requested that we connect with each other and stay in touch. She accepted my connection request.

And then – amazingly – she sent me the same e-mail again about the lead generation tool – after I already told her that I wasn’t interested in it. No change in the wording!

Was she lazy? Was she busy? Didn’t she even read my e-mail? Who knows. But it was all very improper.

Take a few minutes and reword your email. Your prospect will be grateful.

What would you do with 10,000 sales leads? Part 3

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social media for sales peopleIn parts 1 and 2 of this post, I discussed what I would do if someone gave me 10,000 sales leads to call.

In this post, I will discuss the social media strategies that I would deploy to help our young salesperson.

Background: The firm in question has a great website. Nice pictures of friendly employees and plenty of information about the company. However, I notice some immediate problems.

1). No marketing content. There was no marketing content for prospects to download. No e-books, no newsletter to subscribe to, no white papers or case studies could be found. This is a big mistake. While I’m a big fan of cold calling, you are leaving money on the table by not providing prospects the ability to download content. Why? Because you are hurting yourself by not obtaining contact information, email addresses and phone numbers that you can use to follow-up later.

2). No social media. The firm was not on Facebook or Twitter – two major social media sites that companies must be on these days to enhance their brand and drive more traffic (and leads) to their website.

A website with no marketing content or social media is like a retail store with no free samples or follow-up cards.

What are the two key takeaways from this post?

1). Have a plan in place. Don’t make cold calls until you know why are you calling, who you should be calling, and what value you have to offer. I would rather make 30 good cold calls a day than 100 bad ones. Don’t be a busy fool – be a professional salesperson.

2). Get your social media house in order.  It’s a lot easier to obtain and contact inbound leads through social media than by cold calling a long list of prospects. Cold calling is just one tool in your arsenal to obtain orders. And while there is a debate within the sales community on whether cold calling is effective or not, you should at least have a good social media presence and plan in place. To twist an old saying, you can catch more flies with honey than chasing after them with a net.

Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions that you would add.

What would you do with 10,000 sales leads? Part 2

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In part 1 of this post, I asked the question “What would you do with 10,000 sales leads?” In part 2, I will provide you with more of my suggestions.

6). Do some research. Prior to making a cold call, do some quick research on your prospect. You don’t have to be a professional research associate. Just take a few minutes to read the prospect’s profile on LinkedIn or some other site. What is his title? What are his responsibilities? Can you find a hook, e.g., did he work for a company that is now your client? Or, did you find an article that his company is having a problem that your service can solve?

7). Develop a cold calling script. As a rule, I’m not a big fan of using scripts. However, when you are new to an industry, it’s always helpful to have a script handy when making first-time calls. Eventually, you will develop your own natural voice, and throw the script away.

Below is a list where you can find sample cold calling scripts –

www.profitbuilders.com
blog.close.io
cdn2.hubspot.net

8). Develop a voice mail script. What type of message are you going to leave if you don’t reach the prospect? The last thing you want to do is embarrass yourself by leaving a fumbling or long message that screams out “please delete me.” You need to know in advance what you are going to say. Everyone has their own variations. Just use your natural voice, but sound confident and strong at the same time.

Below is a list where you can find sample voice mail scripts –

www.salesgravy.com
blogs.salesforce.com
sales.about.com

9). What is your goal? Why are you calling prospects? In the case of our young salesperson, his goal was to set appointments for his company’s consultants. Once the appointment was set, the consultants would do the heavy lifting. You may have a different goal. Maybe you want the prospect to trial your service for 30 days. Maybe you want the prospect to watch a demo. Maybe you want to qualify the prospect to determine if he needs your service. Regardless of the reason, have a goal in mind. You don’t want to fall into what’s known in the industry as the “busy fool syndrome,”  i.e., doing a lot of make-work and activities that don’t lead to any concrete results.

For example, I once worked for a company that had a very strict outbound call policy – you were required to make at least 50 calls a day. However, there was one salesperson who almost consistently didn’t meet his call quota, but he always generated more sales than the rest of the sales team. His secret? He did some research before making calls and he had a set goal in mind for each call he made. (Despite his success, he has still fired anyway for not meeting his daily call quota).

Do you want to be a busy fool or a successful salesperson? Have a goal in mind.

making sales calls10) Start making phone calls. OK, you have a client profile in place. You have reviewed your prospect list and will begin targeting who you consider being the best prospects that meet your client profile. You have cold call and voice mail scripts in place. You know what your goal is. You also know that you need to do some quick research before making each call.

Now comes the fun part – making phone calls.

I can write several posts on how to make cold calls (which I will later). But for this post, let me give you a quick and dirty approach.

First, the best time to reach prospects is early in the morning and after work. This way you will bypass the gatekeeper. Sure, you can leave voice mail messages, but your ultimate goal is to talk to a live person.

Second, there is a big debate in the sales community on how many attempts you make, but depending on the industry you are in, and the types of services you are selling, I would make at least 6 attempts – but spread those attempts out over a period of time. Don’t be a pest and call every day. That’s rude and unprofessional. And when I mention attempts, I’m also including sending emails and sending direct marketing material.

Third, don’t just rely on phone calls. Send emails too. Keep the emails short and to the point. Offer some value. Maybe attach a case study, white paper or an interesting article that is related to your prospect.

Fourth, in some cases, send some printed material, and include swag – may be a magnet, a pen, a mouse pad or something with your company’s name and contact information.

Fifth, after making several attempts, if you are not getting anywhere, put them on your back burner call backlist, and circle back in a month or six months (depending on the size of your prospect).

It would also be a good idea to have your employer or someone senior listen in to some of your calls and voicemails. They can offer you some valuable advice and pointers to help you.

In part 3 of this post, I will make suggestions on social media strategies.

What would you do with 10,000 sales leads? Part 1

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What would you do if you received 10,000 sales leads to call?

That’s exactly what happened to a young salesman who started working for an environmental consulting firm in Maryland a few months ago. He was the only salesperson – and probably the first one ever hired – by the firm. In the past, the firm probably relied mostly on referrals, word-of-mouth, and bids to obtain business. Now, the firm decided to become more proactive and mount a cold calling campaign to obtain more customers.

making cold calls in salesAfter making several cold calls for a few weeks, the salesman became frustrated. He wasn’t reaching anyone and his prospects were not returning his phone calls. Furthermore, it appears based on his company’s website, that they didn’t offer any marketing content to share with others, and had no social media presence. With that in mind, the salesman decided to post his problem on a LinkedIn sales discussion group and requested our help.

What would you do in his situation?

Here are my suggestions –

1). Develop a client profile. Before making any cold calls, examine your existing customers. Why are they buying from you? Why do they like your services? Do you see any patterns in the types of customers using your services? Do your customers fall into specific categories, e.g., small, mid-size or large companies? Do you see a pattern in the geographic locations, e.g., more Northeastern vs. fewer Southern-based customers? What are the positions of the people who are using your services? Are they C-Level or lower?

2). Talk to your top customers. Make a list of about 10 to 20 of your largest and best customers and talk to them. Why do they like your services? What recommendations would they provide on how to persuade prospects to order from you? What attracted them to your company? This doesn’t have to be a long process. Maybe 30 minutes per customer tops. Your goal is to gather ammunition that you can use when making cold calls. For example, if a prospect doesn’t want to order from you, you may say “well, some of our top customers had similar problems like yours, but once they began to using our services, they really appreciated what we could do for them.” Also, if you don’t already have these, now would be a good time to gather some testimonials that you can display on your website. And finally, by talking to your top customers, it will give you a better understanding of your industry and how your company helps its clients.

3). Talk to your employer. What advice can your employer offer you to help you make better cold calls? What are some of the common problems or pain points faced by prospects in their industry?

4). Know your industry. Sure, you may be new to the industry. You may not know all of the buzz words or technical phrases yet. Well, start learning. Ask your employer for advice on which industry publications and blogs you should follow and read on a regular basis. You don’t have to be an expert in the industry – but just know enough so that you don’t embarrass yourself when speaking to a prospect. Also, while studying your industry, make note of any potential prospects to contact later.

5). Review your prospect list. Now that you have a good understanding of your existing clients and industry, review your prospect list. Check off the prospects that you feel have the highest potential for ordering from you.

In part 2 of this post, I will continue listing my suggestions.

 

Customer Service is not Inside Sales

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Ian Heller in the video below makes a very good argument that Customer Services Reps are not Inside Salespeople. He argues that for a company to grow you need to create two separate teams – one for customer service and one for inside sales.

While Customer Service Reps are great at answering questions and solving problems, they tend to shy away from making sales calls or up-selling. Inside Salespeople, on the other hand, love making sales calls because they earning commissions and bonuses, and have a greater incentive to be more assertive than Customer Service reps.

I once worked for a company that tried to encourage their customer service team to do sales. The results were dismal. The company eventually created a separate sales team.

Now with that said, that doesn’t mean you should discourage Customer Service Reps from not selling. On the contrary, by all means, encourage it because some Customer Service Reps may develop a knack for selling, and decide to switch teams. I’ve actually seen Customer Service Reps transfer to an Inside Sales Team because they discover they had the talent and skills to sell. They also loved the potential of earning more money.

On the flip side, don’t discourage your Inside Salespeople from doing customer service work either. Nothing makes a customer more angry than being told that “it’s not my job, let me switch you over to customer service.” Bad move. If a salesperson can solve a customer service problem, let him do it. If the issue is too complex, the salesperson should admit it, and then transfer the call to customer service.

My point is this – while I agree with Mr. Heller that there should be two separate teams, each team needs to work together.

Here is his video below –