Tag: Prospecting
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It Is Game Over for Field Sales – Now It Is Time for Inside Sales to Take the Field
Field sales has died, and no one noticed. Witness the dawn of inside sales. The last three years (2020-2022) have been hard for salespeople and hastened the decline of field sales. What was once normal was turned upside down during the pandemic and a new normal established. The pandemic forced field sales teams to operate…
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Cold call with a purpose. Prospect using iBANT – Interest and Intent, Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing
The fundamental purpose of cold calling is to engage prospects in conversations that progress to the next step. The goal of these calls should be to move beyond an interruption to a scheduled call that leads to a predictable outcome – a sale. Anytime salespeople make calls to someone they have never spoken to before…
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Is Cold Calling Dead? Cold Calling exits stage left. Informed Calling enters stage right.
Is cold calling dead? There are many common misbeliefs about cold calling that include it is a waste of time, it is for losers, it makes you depressed, it is hard, to name just a few. Common myths about cold calling include calls are for whoever picks up the phone, cold calls do not result…
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How to Succeed in Sales Without Really Trying
The 1967 American romcom How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying turned a 1961 stage musical and earlier book by Shepherd Mead by the same name into a hit film starring Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee and Michele Lee. The movie plot loosely depicts how an ambitious new employee climbs the corporate ladder of the…
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Keep Your Customers Close and Your Competitors Closer
The phrase “Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.” is most often attributed to Michael Corleone in “The Godfather Part II” from 1974. Other sources attribute it to a bad translation of Machiavelli’s political treatise “The Prince” from the 16th-century. Still others ascribe it to Sun Tzu a Chinese general and military strategist in…
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Prospecting
The do’s and don’ts of prospecting is about developing your personal best practices and uncovering techniques and tactics that are essential to achieving success outbound prospecting. Prospecting is not always easy; it can be challenging work. Like with any profession, you will need to learn new skills. It will take practice and patience. There is…
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Add Value by Solving a Problem that Your Prospect Does Not Know They Have
Problem solving, that is the real value your sales team brings to each interaction with a prospect. Having valuable products or services is important but do they solve to prospect’s problem? If you help a business do more business your sales team will fuel the growth of your business and that of your customers. People…
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Anti-ghosting Tactics that Turn Leads into Calls that Turn into Appointments
It can feel like you are trying to connect with a brick wall. You make multiple calls to a lead only to end up leaving voicemail after voicemail. You send email after email that are never viewed. You reach out on social media only to end up being ignored. You might even send a text…
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Your Sales Team’s Follow-up Is Non-existent and Ineffective
Is your sales team’s follow-up above or below expectations? Why is their follow-up above or below expectations? What action should you take? Understanding the Problem Prospects go without follow-up or the follow-up is ineffective. It is not uncommon when sales teams are overwhelmed with high volumes of leads that some leads – in some cases…
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The Theory of the Random Distribution of Leads
Leads are not randomly distributed; the good ones are always given to someone else. So the saying goes. Inbound lead generation systems often distribute leads equally to lead development teams. These teams often consist of Lead Development Representatives (LDRs), Business Development Representatives (BDRs), and Sales Development Representatives (SDRs). These team members work upper funnel leads…