Being such a fan of twitter (@bridgegroupinc), I thought it would be interesting to ask some fellow “twiteratti” to contribute sales productivity tips.  But, of course they had to do so in 140 characters - or just about 10 seconds - or less!  It was a fun and interesting exercise.

Here is what I received:

Sensing any trends? I absolutely did. There is a sea change going on in sellling. Those companies, managers and Reps that won't adapt are being left behind.

 
So, what advice do you have to offer in 140 characters / 10 seconds or less? 

(This post is part of an ongoing series of Ask the Experts questions, put to readers of our blog. Please share your thoughts and experiences by posting comments!)

----------------- 

Who I am:

Current State:

What I'm being asked to do:

Questions for the group:

-----------------

So c'mon. I know you have lots of opinions on this topic and we need to hear them. Thanks in advance for your answers and for participating in the discussion!

B             Budget
A             Authority
N             Need
T             Timeframe

This system has been around since the beginning of time and used to be the defacto standard to define a qualified lead. So, what has changed? A better question might be: what hasn't changed?

The selling environment now places the initial stages of the sales cycle in the hands of the buyer. They can google, twitter, LinkedIn and blogify their way to just about any piece of information about you and your solution. That means by the time they get to you they are well versed in what you have to offer and also in what your competitors offer. This being the case, do you really want their first conversation with your Inside Sales team to be about BANT?

We use an analogy:

Yes, the information is great and lets you determine if the person is “worthy” of your effort, but you will probably miss a lot of other fabulous things about this person (read prospect) if you are too narrowly focused.

Here are some additional viewpoints:

Buyers are educated today. While BANT was question 1 in the past, now it is question 3-4 or even off the table altogether during the initial stages of the conversation.

So, what is the answer? Well, the answer is that there's no one answer because not every sales organization is in the same place as it pertains to pipeline. Most assuredly you have to qualify the prospect to make sure they fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP),  but beyond that your qualification questions should be based on the requirements of the sales organization.

Let me give you a couple examples:

Summary: The important thing to remember here is that you can’t just pick a lead rating system from out of a book or one that was provided by your marketing automation vendor. You have to define the system with your sales partners and base it on the realities of where the sales organization is NOW and what they need NOW.

PS – NOW also means that you will review your lead rating system twice a year and fine tune it as appropriate. Otherwise NOW becomes THEN.

Thanks for listening. Your thoughts?

(Photo credit: billaday)

Dan shared a truly horrific sales story, which I've transcribed:
 

 Wow. Thankfully in Inside Sales, we're spared from making that same atrocious (and fatal) slip-up.

But that doesn't mean that we in Inside Sales should not focus on building rapport the new-fashioned way. More often than not, with information that's publically available on the internet, we can learn 10x more about a prospect than we could from a quick glance around their office.

So why shouldn't rapport involve:

Nigel Edelshain shared an excellent example of the Inside Sales slip-up in his Sales 2.0 Vendor Cold Call that Sucked!. Here's an excerpt:

Nigel's point is spot on. In the comments on his post, Krista Moon makes the point that Sales people cannot be expected to both do the leg work of pre-call planning and hit the activity metrics defined by Senior Management.

I would argue that meaningful conversations is the metric. Banging through a list with vanilla messaging, unaware of the business issues, interests and other unique buyer persona qualities of the recipient is a waste of resource (for the vast majority of sales organizations). The trick is finding the right balance between pre-call planning and activity that makes the process repeatable and scalable.

Would you agree?

This is a guest post by Tibor Shanto, Founder & President of Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., and creator of Objective Based Selling. You can find Tibor on twitter at @renbor.

----------------------------------------------------

A few years back, in a piece in the Harvard Business Review, it was stated that an 8% improvement in the productivity of your existing sales team will result in the same sales growth as if you were to add 27% more reps.  I am sure the numbers may have changed a in the three years since it was published, the underlying reality has not.  In fact what has changed is the ability of organizations and managers to add headcount, in the post-Lehman Brothers-era, cost restraint is the overriding mantra.  So with the added stress and demands on the average sales rep and team, the question becomes how to achieve this productivity without distracting the team or breaking the camel's back.

To me if you have to focus on only thing it would be time allocation to improve sales velocity.  If you can focus your resources on better opportunities, you will not only move them through the process quicker, but create a way to not deal with opportunities that either will never happen or whose time has yet to come.  If you can allocate your time to those activities that have the highest RPA Return Per Activity, while developing the discipline to only execute those activities that move a sale forward, than you will increase productivity and sales closed.

To achieve this you will need to understand two key things:

While number one is the more important, you really can't deal with it until you answer number two.  The good news is that it is not as hard as it may first sound; it is laborious and dry work at times, but once you have the basic template, it is easy to update and will pay ongoing dividends. Go back and look at all the deals you have won over the last 18 months, and see what are the most common attributes shared by these.  Don't just do it on an account basis, that is what these companies have in common, but also on a deal basis. 

As a rule, if you are not the number one sales person in your company, you want to spend time looking at the above factors for the best rep at your company, really park your ego and make some money.

Do the same for deals you lost or did not happen, look at the ones you lost early, half way through your predictable cycle (you'll know what your cycle is from doing the above), at the end of the cycle.  Again, how did you engage, were they in your lead pipe (different than your prospect pipe which active opportunities) too long or not long enough? 

Once you have done this, you will have two profiles, ones that you want to pursue vigorously, and those you want to avoid like Tiger does the media.  In some ways the economic climate over the last 12 - 18 months provides a good time to this exercise, as you can truly see who clearly fits in to each group.

Now you can focus on who and how to best engage with the type opportunities that will help you work with people who will act like your successful deals.  When you engage with these people they will move more predictably, not always faster.  Remember that velocity involves both speed and direction.  There is an optimal speed, and when you reach it, it is not a good use of resources to keep pushing.  Where you can add to velocity and results is by fine tuning your direction, and when involved with the "right" prospect, their direction, after all you have the advantage of knowing because you did your work and went after them for a reason.

While it may be obvious, it is worth pointing out that the biggest impediment to productivity is time and resources spent on prospects that will not close NOW, this is why we raised nurturing leads.  Some are not ready NOW, so let's manage them, put them in the "leads funnel", which should have rules and attribute like your sales funnel. 

Once you know who (specifically), and how, and how long, you can now allocate time to those activities that are necessary to consistently execute, and not allocate time to things that don't lead to sales.

Eliminate waste; accentuate the right activities, easy 8% right there.

What's in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

The gist of the post was that every day we are exposed to ads that promise to deliver the "secret about Selling". Paul argues that this is a cycle: us wanting an easy road to success, and somebody more than happy to promise quick fixes.

Think about the first time you worked with that Rep, the one who kills their number every quarter, seemingly without breaking a sweat. Was it because they have a better territory? The best accounts? A tested, honed and proven process? Nah, they must have figured out the secret.

I guess it's human nature to hope such secrets exists. The discussion reminds me of all the products geared towards hitting weight loss goals quickly and easily. I'm no dietician, but the consensus seems to be consuming fewer calories and exercising works. We can call that the boring little secret.

So, what about the secret about Selling? According to Paul, top producers:

Here's my take on the secret - selling is hard work which requires focus and commitment.  We know the old saying "time is money". That holds especially true for sales people.  Ask yourself, "Are all my activities focused on generating sales?"  It's easy to become reactive when you have dozens of activities coming at you, but if those activities aren't progressing the sale they probably aren't necessary.

Here's a final word from Paul:

So you see the dirty little secret is YOU.  You have to commit to the hard work, dedication and passion that make people the best at what they do.  You're in charge of your destiny - so get out there and explode your sales career!

(Photo credit: ianus & Tim Dorr)

I wrote the ebook to address some of the most critical questions around starting an Inside Sales team. Such as:

So, who should read this ebook?
Well, everyone of course! If you are considering Inside Sales, this will give you some of the basics to consider. If you have Inside Sales, well you probably know a lot of this already but if you walk away with one new and interesting idea then our job is done.

Please bear in mind this is a roadmap not an owner's manual. Every company out there has their own set of specific market dynamics that can and will impact their unique implementation. Inside Sales is science, not art. The key to being successful with Inside Sales lies in:

Figuring out your unique formula and then executing flawlessly!

If, after reading the ebook, you have a particular question you would like to ask please feel free to post it in the comments section. We have a very knowledgeable readership and I know you will get some great answers!

Happy Selling!

Keith Nealon, VP of Worldwide Sales for Conductor has a question he would like to pose to Inside Sales practitioners.

Background:

Question:

In the olden days

It used to be that selling software was always an Enterprise deal that required Enterprise activities. You needed to develop relationships with multiple buyers, educate them on your value proposition, demonstrate technical expertise and show them that changing the way they did business was a good thing. A lot of those activities required face time so you had to be onsite with the prospect developing that relationship of trust.
 

Along came SaaS

It is not so much that software-as-a-service (SaaS) has changed how we sell - as how it has dramatically lowered the barrier to buy. Enterprise and on-premise deals that require a more traditional sales model are not going anywhere - no matter how much hype you hear to the contrary. But, the movement towards SaaS does dictate an evolved selling model.
 

What are some of the factors impacting the evolution?

The New Buyer Role
According to SiriusDecisions, buyers are more informed and seek information independent of sales. The amount of information (product, competitor, user, etc.) now available allows Buyers to self-educate like never before. Just like in our personal lives, people are more comfortable using the phone and web to gather the information that allows them to make decisions and engage with sellers much more freely.

Fewer Barriers to Entry
Price points have fallen and the month-to-month mentality in much of SaaS makes Buyers much more comfortable with making a purchasing decision. Additionally, many companies now allow Buyers to trial their solutions. As a matter of fact, some have built their entire Sales & Marketing strategy around pushing demos and trials into the market.

Their sales model is formulaic: x number of trials will convert at y% with a z price point - resulting in a revenue stream of xyz. They have figured out their "formula" and now their key to success lies in executing flawlessly.
 

Inside Sales is now a "career"

Sirius Decisions just released a note on the topic of Inside Sales and growth strategies for 2010. They argue:

The reality is that although Field Sales is never going to go away, our Buyers no longer need as much face time with us. They do much of their own research, communicate with us via a non-traditional methods (blogs, LinkedIn, webinars, etc.) and are as time and resource constrained as we are.

Inside Sales is a viable strategy (whether or not your company offers SaaS) you just have to figure out your "formula".

I plan to share some additional thoughts about SaaS companies implementing Inside Sales in the future. Stay tuned and share your thoughts please!

(Photo credit: ionushi & TW Collins)

To borrow a line from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart:

I shall not attempt further to define Inside Sales...But I know it when I see it...

Such is the case for many when it comes to the umbrella term Inside Sales.

Inside Sales can & does mean different things within different organizations. It also goes by many different names (e.g. Account Development, Account Management, Business Development, Sales Development, etc.).

Here are a few definitions of Inside Sales from Executives, Managers & Thought Leaders. I hope you enjoy the perspectives.

What is Inside Sales?

Does that sounds like Inside Sales in your view? A huge thanks to Kathleen & Anne for participating.

----------------------------------------------------

Get the Free Report: 2010 Inside Sales Metrics & Compensation
	Research Report: Focusing on the Inside Sales (revenue generation) function. Inside Sales Metrics & Compensation: KPIs & trends Based on 2010 survey of 115+ B2B companies.