The callers used a casual tone. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it reduces the overall professionalism of the call. When I asked one caller how he was (in response to the same question he had just asked me) he replied, "Well, ya know, I'm selling (product name), it's a challenge out there." The immediate thought that raced through my mind was "Gee, that's a surprise with an approach like yours." He also used slang during our conversation which is okay if you're talking to friends or coworkers, but not a new prospect. You have exactly one opportunity to make a powerful first impression and using slang greatly reduces your ability to achieve this.

The callers seemed to ‘wing it' and were unfocused. In their attempts to sound friendly and casual the sales people seemed to lack focus. It took all my patience not to demand, "What are you selling?" Recognize that business people are extremely busy. Get to the point. Know what you want to accomplish and concentrate on achieving that objective"

• You have to coach your team to be professional.
• When they are lucky enough to get the right person on the phone, don't let them waste the opportunity.
• Make sure they know exactly what to say.
• Make sure they know exactly what their objective is.
• Teach them how to execute!

• Currently have an Inside Sales Implementation(s) 
• Selling B2B technology (Hardware, Software, SaaS, etc.)
• Company located in North America
• Survey participants are VP/Director-level or above

• Lead Generation- Reps tasked with pipeline generation, appointment setting, pre-qualifying inquiries, etc.
  (Reps carry no revenue quota)
   
• Inside Sales- Reps tasked with revenue generation, closing business, etc.
  (For on-premise software/hardware solutions)
   
• SaaS / Inside Sales- Reps tasked with revenue generation, closing business, etc.
  (For SaaS, Software-as-a-Service, models)

• Compensation at the Rep & Management level
• Reporting structure
• Activity metrics
• Quota & contribution
• Productivity & much more!

1. It is harder to reach your customers and prospects by phone and email
2. Your customers and prospects are less willing to meet in person
3. Your customers and prospects are busier and more distracted than ever

• Post video clips of great customer references. Yes, you should ask to video your customers
• Post video clips of yourself detailing at a high level your most compelling solutions - use visuals, whiteboards, etc.
• Create a video clip that you will feature on the homepage that explains in under one minute why you and why your company. Make it sizzle.
• Write blog posts about satisfied customers, trends in the industry, common customer challenges, etc.
• Enable your site for both email and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) so your customers and prospects can be alerted automatically when you post new content.
• Post Slideshare presentations that your customers and prospects will find valuable.
• Have an About Me Page and Contact Me Page. Share your interests and get real.
• Use calls to action on your pages and content to have your customers opt into newsletters and future communications from you.
• Try free or paid analytics software so you can see who is visiting your website, from what company, and what pages they visited.
• Add a share this plugin that makes it easy to email and share your website though the popular social networks
   
  

There was a time when the success of your inside organization was the loud buzz you could hear from 6am until about 2pm in the afternoon (PST) which validated your team was working hard. You'd walk down the sales aisles and hear that loud hum accented with bells, whistles, balloons and cackling sounds from team members high fiving each other after a successful call.

Today most call centers or inside sales organization sound very different. It's not the phone you hear but keyboards clicking, texting and instant messaging. Call activity is at an all-time low these days, not because your people are not on the phones but because prospects no longer want to be bothered by phone.

• How do you handle objections in 140 characters?
• How do you position yourself against the competition in an email?
• How do you develop rapport that is both personal and professional?
• Not for nothing, but do busy Executives really need a bevy of pen pals to communicate with on a daily basis?

Are my Sales Reps keyboard communicating and my competitor's Reps having live conversations? If so, who is going to win the business?

Rick is a Field Rep for a printing services company. For 6 months, he's been tracking the President of a target firm to get a meeting. He finally gets the appointment and is let into his office. The office is so impressively decorated that Rick admits to being pretty intimidated.

Remembering that early on in his selling career, Rick was taught how to build rapport by looking around the room for the fishing picture or golf trophy. So Rick glances around the office, sees a picture on the gentleman's desk and says "Wow, a photo of you and John Madden with your arms around each other. That's a fantastic photo! How did you get a picture with John Madden, of course a NFL great."

The President of the company glares back at him and says "That's not John Madden, that's my wife."

• Doing some research
  Think 2-3 minutes on LinkedIn, Google, etc.
  
  
• Being prepared
  Being ableto speak to shared connections and recent company news
   
• Demonstrating that I'm a seller who won't waste your time
  I'm prepared to speak plainly. Maybe we're a fit, maybe not. Here's what I think I know about you and your company. Let's get to a go/no-go on qualification quickly and directly.

It kills me that this company actually has a pretty good tool that is VERY close to my social calling methodology and yet this sales person called me without any indication that they even looked at my LinkedIn profile. Their tool analyzes LinkedIn profiles! Killer. I'm actually shocked and I've seen plenty of sales mistakes.

...
This call may be the killer illustration of the fact that tools and technology are useless if people don't use them effectively -or don't use them at all! Here we have a (supposed) leader in the Sales 2.0 space letting their sales people call prospects without even using their own tools. If this sales person had used one ounce of the information available to them through their own tool this would have been a warm call. They turned any easy call into a stone cold call.

Sales people are pressured to contact too many accounts, and they don't have the time to actually do it right, no matter what tools are available. The whole way "sales" is set up and the job sales people are expected to do is the same as it has always been, but the process has totally changed. Seems to be a disconnect there.

If your recruiting process works so effectively, and your assessments are so predictive, and they save so much time and money and consistently identify top performers, then why don't more companies use them?

If we didn't have well-developed (putting it mildly) egos, then I don't believe we'd be in Sales. Fortunately, a well-developed (ok, big) ego, can be necessary in business success. Unfortunately, when in management and responsible for a team's success, ego needs to be shelved in order to take advantage of tools, processes and perspectives from other sources and experts in these areas.

Eventually, we call have to embrace our own "ego-management". Think of a ship's Captain in distress refusing help from the Coast Guard (professionals, experts in their field). The end result could very well be a sinking ship. Seeking out and tapping into resources is the sign of strength, not weakness.
 

It's always baffled me how some Managers will continue to hire people who just aren't the best fit for the position and the culture. Similarly, I've seen managers have great and expensive sales meetings to get the team motivated, and once they're back in the office, everyone goes back to the same routine and same processes. A better ROI would be to invest in re-evaluating your sales process and ensuring that your messaging and tools are geared towards how your buyers want to buy and not how you want to sell.
 

Fear of criticism from Senior Management, your team, fear of change, and fear that the people you hired and the processes you've implemented just aren't going to work. Fear can make a Manager become distracted. Sales Managers, and people in general, are not all-knowing and can't be experts on everything, contrary to what we may think about ourselves.
 

Tenured entitlement is when a Rep has some special status (either based on past performance, longevity with the company or a relationship with management). They are separated from the roles & responsibilities of the rest of the team and not held to the same standards.
 

From the individual Sales Reps the overwhelming answer was:
"It's not fair! I'll never be #1 on this team."

I reached out to a Sales Manager colleague to discuss the problem. Here's what they shared:
"These people are very necessary, doing their thing, making their number, but they are working in a vacuum. The market is changing and our sales tactics need to change with it. I should be able to use these people as role models, instead, they are road blocks to change and difficult to manage."

• You start to hear the grumbling: How come we have to do this and Mr. Special doesn't?
• New hires are de-motivated. Even if they do become #1, Mr. Special will be standing next to them as they accept their award.
  
• And what about Mr. Special? He knows he's coasting and is probably bored to death! Even worse he is set apart from the rest of the team and instead of being admired, isn't liked.
   

You are my go to guy, but the reality is, I need more productivity out of the entire team. You included. What will it take for me to motivate you to get to that level again?

Chad: The term Sales 2.0 is getting a lot of buzz and attention - what is the buzz is all about and why is it important?

Trish: The buzz is all about the buzz....every once in a while the next great thing comes along and right now the next great thing is Sales 2.0. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a Sales 2.0 advocate but when you peel away all the layers, 2.0 is nothing more than the effective integration of people, process and technology.

Smart leaders have been thinking about this integration process for quite some time. What I like about the Sales 2.0 movement is that now it forces people to focus on the buyer as part of that equation. The challenge for sales and marketing executives has become "How do I effectively incorporate the needs of my buyer into my people, process and technology equation?"
 

Chad: I've spoken with many sales reps who think Sales 2.0 and social media are a waste of time - what is your response to them?

Trish: This is a tough one because I see both sides of the equation. If a business has not articulated a well thought out strategy then it says to the Sales Rep "Here, here's a bunch of other stuff that you need to think about and add to your to do list."

Let me break my answer into two segments starting with social media.

1. We believe, and we presented our thoughts on the topic at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston, that it is the responsibility of the corporation to figure out their social media strategy. Social media will deliver an ROI if and only if your buyer is participating in the medium. See our presentation Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim. You can tweet, Facebook. blog and text your ass off but if no one is listening...what does it get you? Figure out where your buyers go for information and then put all your eggs in only those social media basket/s.
   
   
2. As for Sales 2.0, for most organizations it means adding more technology to the mix. Before you do that, it is always good to ask "Have I maximized the technology I already have in place?" And, before you run out and buy the next bright shiny toy, have you thought through the process that will make you successful with it?
    

Chad: I believe inbound marketing can help sales reps create more value for their customers and prospects - how do you see inbound marketing influencing the sales profession?

Trish: Inbound marketing has come such a long way in the past two years. We are a Hubspot customer as well as a raving fans - so we have come a long way with inbound marketing ourselves. Smart Marketers really understand that the difference between dumping lists into a CRM and calling them "leads" and getting people who fit your Buyer Persona to raise their hands and engage with you is the key to success.

Great sales people have figured out how to marry the activity they get via inbound marketing with a well constructed outbound process. If your pipeline isn't robust, you can't sit and wait for buyers to self select. You need to go to them with a relevant story, arouse curiosity and then launch your sales process.
 

Chad: At The Bridge Group you track many different data points and trends - what are some of the most interesting trends you are seeing and what does it mean for sales professionals?

Trish: We have been around for 12 years and I have been in technology based inside sales for 30 so I can now say "Inside Sales is the wave of the future - finally!" We spent a lot of years building a business case for this mode of selling and sometimes it felt like the market would never see beyond "telemarketing". That has changed now and even the venture capital firms are requiring a sound Inside Sales strategy from their portfolio companies. Sales professionals must know how to leverage phone and web based selling to be successful in this day and age.
 

Chad: I read a lot of blogs on many subjects - what are some of your favorite blogs and why?

Trish: I read about 30 blogs a day so I will give you my top 3 - it goes without saying that yours is one as well!

Chad: How do you use social media at The Bridge Group and what kind of results have you seen?

Trish: We blog quite a bit and that drives a ton of traffic to our web site. We just closed one of our biggest deals ever and the company found us via our blog. I tweet and although I do not think my buyers are following me, it has certainly brought me fantastic relationships with vendors, analysts and other consultants.

Look, you can't put a price on having a great network and that is what social media brings you. It isn't about the activity it is about the relationships you develop as a result of that activity.
 

Chad: What is the one thing you recommend sales reps do or learn to stay competitive in an increasingly competitive marketplace?

Trish: Learn how to be relevant to your buyers. The days of vanilla selling are gone. You need to have an intimate knowledge of your buyer's day to day business life. If you make that kind of investment in learning, you will win!
 

Maybe sales reps don't operate by the same rules as all other humans. But I doubt it.  Would love to know for sure.  Anyone out there who's tried something other than a spiff to motivate sales?

Linda, last year Mike wrote about the Green Leads team-micro lending project. Can you share how that got started?

Linda: Mike and I are big believers in the "green" thing, hence the company name, and we were out on the west coast with our good friend Christopher Lochhead.  He introduced us to Kiva and we were addicted.  At first, we opened a personal account and started making micro loans, then we came up with the idea of sharing the idea with the company.  It started at one Friday night weekly meeting at the local pub.  Mike said "If you guys contribute to Kiva, we'll match it!".  A day later we had a Green Leads lending team.
 

How does the team participate in the Kiva lending process?

Linda: Every month the team donates from their commissions.  We also allocate SPIFFs that are specifically directed to Kiva.   We then send around some links to specific Kiva projects and people choose.  Nothing formal. Just "I like this guy, he's doing a fish farm" or something.
 

What benefits have you noticed?

Linda: Most good comes from good...someone said that.  In our case, we've seen some of the most sales-quota-dollar-pinching-sales guys donating the most and being the most compassionate.  It's great.  We have one guy who used to be a wooden toy craftsman before getting into technology.  He asked to fund a carpenter.

The great thing about it all is that it's perpetual.  As the folks we loan money to pay it back, we can use the money again to fund another project.  It's an annuity.  It's a Green Leads fund of good will.

Our 1% model is all about getting the most bang for the buck. We take just a fraction of salesforce.com's time, product, and equity, and give it to social-change organizations so they can amplify their impact.

Much has been written lately about lengthening sales cycles and the preference of prospects not to engage with sales reps until much later in the buying cycle. It is accepted as an idea whose time has come and heavily supported with a wealth of statistics.

Some of the highest profile minds in Marketing are responding to this trend with a renewed call to improve the development of online content, lead scoring and analytics; better understand the buyer persona and to continue to enhance automated marketing programs to provide more product/price/comparative/competitive and benefit/ROI information, for prospects to peruse at their leisure. There is a stampede onto the bandwagon to keep your sales reps away from prospects until they have basically made up their mind about what they want.

There is a misguided perception that the way to win the hearts and minds of your prospects is to leave them in peace to develop their own conclusions based on what they think they know about you.

Years from now, management will look back at this "Slap Yourself On the Top of Your Head", moment in time and ask, "What were we thinking?"
 

So, What Are You Thinking?

A prospect who would rather not engage with sales teams is nothing new, just a current example of why response rates for hard and soft offers have always been different.

Keeping Your Sales People Away From Your Prospects is a TERRIBLE Idea.

Why Are Sales Teams Not Screaming "Bloody Murder"?

Ironically, along with all the leading edge marketing thinking, the role of the Sales Rep has been pigeon-holed into an outdated and inconsistent cliché "The Closer". In a world where the buying cycle is stretching out past the foreseeable horizon, Sales Reps still live and die by the quarterly revenue goal. To meet these goals they can't afford the time to engage anyone who isn't ready to buy. That's half the reason that Sales Reps are happy to wait to engage.

The other half of the reason is that sales people put themselves on the line. It's not a pleasant thing to expose yourself over and over to the responses of people who don't want to talk to you. So, while it's not to the credit of sales people to be willing to sit back and wait for people who WANT to talk to them, it's understandable. It's not acceptable though and unless your sales people are willing to put themselves on the line to make a personal contact with your prospects, your revenue will suffer.

Current stats all point to a failure of many nurturing programs to translate raw leads into sales and the timing and distribution of new content seems to be the leading solution, but the removal of personal sales contact is probably at least partly to blame.

The role of a Sales Rep shouldn't be diminished, but it needs to evolve. The challenge facing sales teams is to approach your prospects with enough knowledge and skill to serve the needs of both the buyer and seller. The new Sales Rep is the voice of your marketing program and will subtly take ownership of the sales process by ensuring that your prospects are not cherry picking information, but actually absorbing the right information that will lead them to make the choice to buy from you.