7 Practical Tips to Increase Sales Productivity

          1. Stop doing data entry
          2. Start being social
          3. Let Chatter bring updates to you
          4. Make territory planning painless
          5. Plan on making a big deal
          6. Lead the way to more opportunities
          7. Gain insights with dashboards

7 Habits Of Highly Ineffective Teleprospectors

    
Over the years I've seen many talented teleprospectors struggle consistently to hit their goals. They could posses all the core skills necessary to be a top performer but the bad habits they develop can dictate the "ebb and flow" of their performance. 

There's a lengthy list I've encountered being in the trenches as long as I have, most of which you've likely seen me yammer on about in a blog here or there, but I figured it would make sense to narrow it down to the ones I see most often.   

Here are 7 of the most common habits that can have a negative impact on a teleprospectors performance:

1- Not setting your goals- All too often inside reps don't set specific call goals for themselves. If your call output is erratic, then the amount of opportunities you're going to uncover will be as well.

2- Not following a call plan- You need to follow a consistent strategy to communicate with your prospects. One call and one email once a week will not generate the response you're hoping for. Our research tells us that you need to touch them an average of 6 times before you generate a response. Following up a voicemail immediately with an email as well as suggesting a 5 minute outlook calendar invite should all be part of your strategy. 

3- No effort put into pre-call planning- Think before you dial. Our mindset should be "What am I looking to accomplish here?"  on each and every dial you make. Do a little research on your target company and if you have the time, look-up the Linked-in profile on your prospect. It's all about time management; if you're just blindly picking up the phone and dialing away to hit a call number then your results will most likely suffer.  

4- Not being resourceful- Just sticking with the same unresponsive name on your list will leave you spinning your wheels. Think about pressing zero # when you get a voicemail for the 3rd time in a row. This should route you back to an executive admin who could point you in a more appropriate direction. Most assume using admins is a dead end, but they can be our best assets.

5- They sound like they're reading from a script- The last thing you want to do is sound like a drone on the phone. We work with our reps to come up with a collective script that we are all comfortable with. This allows them to feel as if they've taken some ownership over the process and the messaging flows much more naturally.

6- Blaming their list- Unfortunately no list is perfect. Even the most reputable list vendors provide 70% accuracy at best on their lists, even if they say it's much higher. Being resourceful will solve any issue you have with a list.

7- Lack of resilience- Guess what, most people don't want to hear from you. You will get blown off. Remain focused and follow suggestions mentioned above and you will see a significant increase in your lead conversion rate.

We may all have fallen prey to at least one of the seven bad habits above. If you're in a rut, take a look at a few of the suggestions I've made above. I’m positive they can help! 

I've only touched the tip of the iceberg here. Does anyone have any other bad habits they want to share?

Henry Ford's Depression Busting Secret - Frank Rumbauskas

Untold millions of people lost every penny they had during the Great Depression.

Even most business and industrial leaders took a beating.

But -

Henry Ford passed through it unscathed. In fact his business even GREW.

What was his secret?

Well, it's no "secret" at all - in fact it's something we all know but usually don't follow through with.

It's the idea of giving our customers the best service possible, no matter what.

You probably think service means customer service, and if you do, you're wrong. There is SO MUCH more to it than that.

Here are a few key points of what creates good service, in Ford's view (besides what we already know as 'customer service'):

1. Delivering the best product possible at the lowest price.

2. Having easy and cheap access to service so that no one is ever broken down.

3. Avoiding selling to people who are not the ideal fit for the product.

It's that third point that most of us are guilty of.

Unfortunately few salespeople have any control over what kind of service our company gives (if you're a small business owner that's a different story).

But we do have TOTAL control over who we choose to sell to.

I remember years ago when I'd try to sell to anyone who would meet with me or even take my call, I'd have these huge sales months when I was doing nothing but picking up signed contracts & checks and it was so exhilarating to be so busy!

But then the following month I'd be buried up to my eyeballs in customer service issues.

Why?

Because I'd sold to people who were not a 100% ideal fit for my product, and it came to show when they realized they'd been "sold" and didn't really "buy."

After I'd started selling to people who WERE 100% perfect fits for my product, something changed.

All the endless customer service nonsense went away and people were a lot happier.

It's not that problems didn't happen - there were always billing issues and things like that with the company I worked for - but the customers were a lot more understanding and would just go and call the 800 number instead of screaming at me about it.

The best part is that those people not only resulted in plenty of repeat business, but also in a seemingly never-ending flood of referrals!

And there you have Ford's little depression-busting "secret."

Now that we're still in a recession, it's more important than ever to only sell to people who are really going to need and appreciate what you're offering.

Besides, if you ask me, that's the only ethical way to sell anyway.

Cold-Calling Trick: 16 Ways to Start a Conversation

The most effective way to open a conversation is to connect your call to one of these "trigger events." Here's how.

The purpose of a cold call is to have a conversation to determine whether a potential customer has the following two things:

• a need your offering can satisfy, and
• the money to purchase it.

That conversation can happen, though, only if you get through the customer's natural reluctance to speak with a stranger.

The easiest way to get through that reluctance is to have a reason you're calling, other than just the fact that you have something to sell.

For example, suppose you're selling an inventory control system. Here are two possible ways to begin the conversation:

• "I'm calling because I'm selling a great inventory control system that can save you money."
• "I'm calling because I understand that you just announced a new product line--and since that usually increases inventory costs, you may be looking to for a way to reduce those costs."

The second example is more likely to result in a conversation because it relates what you're selling to what's called a trigger event, a change in the way that a potential customer operates its business.

The following trigger events are all excellent conversation starters:

1. The company has opened a new factory or facility.

2. It is moving an existing facility to a new location.

3. It has hired a new executive.

4. It has lost an existing executive.

5. It has announced a layoff.

6. It has announced an expansion.

7. It has acquired a new major customer.

8. It has lost a major customer.

9. It has launched a new product line.

10. It has retired an existing product line.

11. It has updated a major existing product.

12. It is acquiring another company.

13. It is being acquired by another company.

14. It has announced a restructuring.

15. It has announced a new round of financing.

16. It has announced a change in ownership.

The trick to using trigger events is creating a reasonable link between the event and what you're selling. The more logical the link, the more likely that bringing up the trigger will result in a conversation.

Get Customers to Read Emails: 7 Tricks

Get Customers to Read Emails: 7 Tricks - Nice Read

The simple power of one a day

The simple power of one a day (from Seth Godin's Blog)

There are at least 200 working days a year. If you commit to doing a simple marketing item just once each day, at the end of the year you've built a mountain. Here are some things you might try (don't do them all, just one of these once a day would change things for you):

• Send a handwritten and personal thank you note to a customer
• Write a blog post about how someone is using your product or service
• Research and post a short article about how something in your industry works
• Introduce one colleague to another in a significant way that benefits both of them
• Read the first three chapters of a business or other how-to book
• Record a video that teaches your customers how to do something
• Teach at least one of your employees a new skill
• Go for a ten minute walk and come back with at least five written ideas on how to improve what you offer the world
• Change something on your website and record how it changes interactions
• Help a non-profit in a signficant way (make a fundraising call, do outreach)
• Write or substiantially edit a Wikipedia article
• Find out something you didn't know about one of your employees or customers or co-workers

Enough molehills is all you need to have a mountain.

A Confident Sales Person

An amazing salesperson will always beat an amazing product. You may only have the third-best product on the market, yet you can still beat out the competition and close deals with clients simply because you’re a better salesperson than your competitors. You may have an inferior technology, yet you can close a round of venture funding simply because investors believe in you more than they do the competition. A good company buys into the salesperson first. The product? That comes second.

20 Worst Prospecting Voice mail mistakes

1. Not leaving one so your prospect doesn’t have the chance to return your call.
2. Pretending you have called when you haven’t.
3. Not having planned what you want to talk about in advance.
4. Talking about your products, instead of things that matter to your prospect.
5. Speaking for more than 20 or 30 seconds without letting the prospect say anything.
6. Leaving a message that’s too short and doesn’t give your prospect a compelling reason to call you back.
7. Not showing that you have researched your prospect, and his or her situation, in your voicemail message.
8. Speaking so quickly that you can’t be heard. Or worse, mumbling.
9. Leaving a voicemail with lots of verbal pauses (like "ums" and "ahs") that make you sound less confident, and less credible.
10. Leaving a message and then passively waiting for a call back, instead of continuing to try to reach the prospect.
11. Not leaving your name and contact information at the end of the message. Better yet, leave it at the beginning when the prospect is poised to take notes.
12. Sounding too "canned" or "salesy" to catch your prospect’s attention.
13. Not mentioning your company’s website, if it’s your strongest sales tool.
14. Using a tone of voice that suggests you don’t expect a call back.
15. Not following up via other means, like email or handwritten note.
16. Giving up too soon, when most prospects won’t return your call until you have tried them more than nine times.
17. Not mentioning another company you have helped with a similar problem that the prospect is likely to have.
18. Failing to stick to one topic per voicemail message.
19. Not verifying that you have the right contact before leaving multiple messages.
20. Forgetting to mention a common colleague or someone who has referred you.

Does your sales team have a plan of attack?

Useful Sales & Advice from Greta Schulz: ( Courtesy : The Business Journal)

As a principal of your organization, you clearly understand the importance of sales in the organization. You are wearing too many hats to play sales manager as well, but do you really know how they are doing? If they aren’t hitting their revenue goals, do you know why? Is it a viable reason? Do they have a battle plan to change that?

You have two challenges when your sales force prepares for battle:

No. 1. Like any kind of warfare, you have a distinct advantage when you can tap good and reliable intelligence. Here’s the problem: Your salespeople don’t get enough accurate intelligence about their prospects. As a result, their pipelines are filled with flaky opportunities. And your sales managers don’t have enough guts to call them on it.

Here’s the litmus test: When your salespeople submit their forecasts, do you or your managers “adjust” them down for realism? It’s typically easier for salespeople and their managers to discuss why they didn’t win business, instead of asking themselves the right questions before going to battle.

Here are some of the right questions:

• Can we win and should we pursue this opportunity?

• If yes, how do you know? What is the reasoning? A guess? A hunch?

To begin, ask your salespeople, “How much does it cost to win a new account?” Calculate the actual costs associated with generating a lead, a contact, an appointment, a proposal and a sale. Now, add in the opportunity cost of missed business they could have won if they weren’t wasting time on business that won’t close quickly.

No. 2. Your salespeople don’t do enough planning work before going to battle. Before going into battle again, make sure your salespeople can answer these questions (honestly):

• What are you trying to sell and, most importantly, why? Sounds simple until you actually try to quantify it.

• Is the project funded? What if there’s not enough? Who has discretionary use of the funds? Who can get more? Are we speaking to the right person here?

• What is the sale worth to the organization? Does the ROI justify the investment of time, money and effort?

• Have we sold this prospect anything in the past?

• Do you have an organizational chart? Do you have an inside coach?

Few salespeople understand the cost of pursuing sales and often fill their funnels with bad business. Fewer think through winning strategies before going into sales “battle.”

Successful sales professionals qualify vigorously and religiously before committing time and energy, so their closing ratios are 90 percent or better.

So, what are yours?

Remember!!!

Remember!!! Mostly prospect reject your meeting request because you wouldnt have showcased the value proposition. Always be prepared before you make any call. Otherwise there wont be any difference between you and other sales guys. 

Good Time or Bad Time!!

When you get a customer on a call, we always ask a question " Is it a good time to talk to you?". Most of the times, the immediate response is a big "NO".

Yes, it is good to ask prospect's permission to have a quick discussion. But let us ask the same question in a different way "Did I catch you at a bad time?" I am sure that you can see the difference in prospect's response. You would get either of this two responses 1. Yes it is a bad time. 2. No, we can talk.

If the prospect says Its a bad time, you can ask for his convenient time to connect back with him and make sure that you are reaching him at the mentioned time.

If the prospect says we can talk, Bingo!!! Start your sales pitch.

Try this and let me know your feedback. Feel free to post your way of starting a conversation with the customer.

Rebuttal

I have already outsourced - 

• What kind of Services have you outsourced 
• Have you outsourced it to an offshore vendor or nearshore vendor
• Have outsourced it to a single vendor or multiple vendor
• Have you ever thought about a backup vendor

I am busy -

• When do you think is the best time to reach you

I am in a meeting -

• Can I call you later in the afternoon or may be tomorrow morning?

Is this a sales call-

• Yes. It is. I am trying to present you some of our service offerings that would align with your current business objectives.

I am not interested -

• May I understand the reason for not looking for new vendor?

Prepare yourself before you make a call:

• Understand the company's business
• Update yourself on the Company's recent news
• Research on their IT landscape
• Make sure that you are aware about the contact's full name
• Contact's Responsibility areas
• Elevator pitch for that particular contact
• Right Service offerings aligning with his role
• Customer References
• Never ask him whether it is good time to speak.
• Don't push for a meeting
• Make a conversation not a sale

Some useful websites for US Sales:

• LinkedIn.com
• Jigsaw.com
• Hoovers.com
• onesource.com
• zoominfo.com
• craigslist.org
• nasdaq.com
• bizjournals.com
• Prospect's Company's website
• biospace.com

Some Primary Qualities that a Salesguy should have:

• Personality
• Communication Skills
• Writing Skills
• Listening Skills
• Negotiation Skills
• Networking Skills
• Research Skills
• Sense of Humour
• Well Dressed
• Positive Attitude

Plan your day - Cold Call / Follow-up Calls

7.00 - 7.30 : Read Daily Industry Newsletters
7.30 - 9.30 : Make Calls 
10.00 - 11.00: Research about the prospects / Companies 
11.00 - 12.00 : Add Contacts / Build Database 
12.00 - 1.00 : Lunch Break
1.00 - 2.00 : Make Calls
2.00 - 4.00 : E-mails
4.00 - 5.30 : Make Calls
5.30 - 6.00 : Plan for the next day

Some important information that you need to find before calling a prospect

• Company's Business
• Company's Size / Revenue
• Global Presence  
• IT Landscape
• Recent News
• Annual Report / Quarterly Report
• Competitors 
• Key Contacts
• Recent News & Press release
• Recent Mergers & acquisition

Welcome CoSellers

Hello Friends,

I am a Hard Core Sales Person having experience in IT Company selling Various IT Services & Support for more than a decade now. I would like to use this blog to share my experience and knowledge that I have gained at work all through my career.

Hope this would help the beginners to learn few techniques to reach the key contacts and help you crack some deals.

Happy Selling!!!

Regards,
Selva