Without question, Twitter is everywhere.  One would be hard pressed to visit the website of a company and not find their Twitter icon prominently displayed.  Today, businesses tweet, follow, track, list, recommend and work feverishly to build their followers.  I must admit – Twitter is cool, fun and a decent distraction from the daily grind.  But, is it a legitimate lead source that can justify the time invested for the output received?  Can it replace an existing source of inbound leads or is it just a complement to existing efforts? Read the rest of this entry »

Often times, many things get lumped into the bucket of CRM.  For the purpose of this post, let’s define CRM in its most traditional sense: customer relationship management that gives managers great reporting on all of the customer touch points, links all of the departments together and gives amazing high level reporting.   Without question, CRM has changed the way we do business, deepened our understanding of customer relationships and dazzled us with reporting.  But, has it made us more productive? Read the rest of this entry »

For too many years I have watched really smart business people who have an Inside Sales team get focused on “dials-per-hour” as they go on a quest for new software.  I expected it back in the ‘80s, but today?  Come on!  It is as though the god of metrics gets into their head and says, “Go forth and dial more, young man.”  It was not about the dials in the ‘80s and it is certainly not about the dials today.  It is about one thing and one thing only: leveraging a sales platform that can deliver the most quality conversations-per-hour with the best qualified prospects.  Last time I checked, no one has ever sold anything dialing the phone.  Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit, I don’t like the terms, and they conjure up images of days long past with smoke filled rooms and guys wearing bad plaid jackets saying, “How does that sound so far?” and “Can I put you down for two?”  In part, that image is well earned and deserved.

I can remember back when every company in America was rushing to build a telemarketing department.  Once technology improved they were rushing out to get the latest telemarketing software.  Read the rest of this entry »

As sales people we all love to hear ‘Yes.’  We call, we pitch, we charm and we educate; we overcome the objections and we sell.  Great sales people have it in their DNA; they love the ‘Yes’ and hate the ‘No.’  I contend that getting beyond the hatred of the ‘No’ can not only benefit us as sales people, we can actually use it as a hedge against failure. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, I want to get right out in front of this one; there is nothing worse than having a sales person call me as a consumer or as a business owner and read from what the company has determined to be the holy grail of scripts.  Well, perhaps there is one worse thing… having a sales person call without a clue of how to convey his or her point, the value of the call, or ability to discern any of my pain points as it relates to his or her product.   Give me the guy with the script.  At the very least I will be able to follow his side of the call. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever watched an inside salesperson from a distance, trying to figure out who they should dial next in the absence of a defined strategy?  It can actually prove to be entertaining.  Often, they will stare at the record as if through osmosis they can discern the possible outcome.  If they are running old-school, it is the shuffling of the cards or lead sheets that is the giveaway.  In a manual environment, it is easy to spot a lack of strategy; with automation and the rep sitting in front of a screen, it is much harder to discern.  As managers, we often convince ourselves that if we have “automated,” or have CRM, that we have taken a step towards having a strategy.  That simply is not the case. Read the rest of this entry »

There is lots of buzz these days around Inside Sales Enablement, and there should be.  The space is as hot as it has ever been. Recent studies show that more and more companies are relying on their inside sales team to create added demand, to nurture prospects, and to drive additional revenue. In many cases, organizations rely solely on an inside sales team. In part, recent economic changes have placed budget strains on sales and marketing departments and there has been even greater pressure for management to get more for less. Read the rest of this entry »

Several years back I wrote a paper entitled, “Want to make more sales?  Make more sales calls.” The paper touted the old teaching that sales is a game of numbers, and doing more will get you more.  The paper did well and has been downloaded thousands of time.  Why?  Probably in part because the message and call to action are clear and something that all sales managers understand and embrace: talk to more people, sell more stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

So, it is everywhere.  You can’t read anything today about sales without reading about what you should be doing with social media, how you need to jump into the sales 2.0 world and, whatever you do, stop cold calling.  But, is this right for your business and sales efforts? Read the rest of this entry »