We recently posted an article on Sales Interview Preparation: Candidate Side.  Now I would like to talk about the other side of the coin and offer "5 Rules" for interviewing Inside Sales candidates.

Making a hiring mistake is extremely costly. Consider:

• Dollars in terms of recruitment expense
• Lost revenue in uncovered territories
• Demotivation for rest of the team

We have to get better at identifying the key skills for our teams and then evaluating candidates against those skills.  Here are some rules of thumb:

1. Always do your first interview over the phone. You don't care what the person looks like but you do care about their ability to clearly articulate their thought process. Focus on their use of proper grammar, their ability to think on their feet and their speech patterns.
   
   
2. Hire someone who has the experience to sell what you sell. This is true even when you are hiring Inside Reps to do pipeline development. If you sell a service, hire someone who has sold a service before. If you sell a $150K solution, hire someone who has sold an enterprise solution before. Don't make the mistake of thinking "they are young and eager, they will figure it out." They will eventually but in the meantime you are not going to get the productivity you need to make your numbers.
   
   
3. Have a well defined interview process. If you are going to have the candidate interview with multiple people, have a process for collecting feedback. Create a feedback sheet that details the key skills you are looking for and have each interviewee rate the candidate on a scale of 1 to 4. This will take emotion out of the equation and give you a rating system to compare each candidate you interview against others.
   
   
4. Ask the candidate to send you an email recapping their impressions of the interview process. The objective here is twofold. First, you may uncover some information about them or your own process that you were unaware of. Second, you get to evaluate their writing skills. This is so important! Bad grammar and punctuation are okay when text messaging but not when you are trying to communicate your value proposition!
   
   
5. Ask to see last year's W2. Did you ever get a resume that did not say the candidate was 110% of quota? The whole world is 110% of quota! You know what their target income was at their last job so seeing the W2 gives you a chance to determine if in fact they did over achieve. If it does not substantiate that fact, then you have a bigger issue - one of honesty. PS - If you are uncomfortable asking for the document ask your recruiter or HR person to do it for you.

We hope you find this information useful.  Please feel free to post other ideas you have on identifying "A" players!

Requesting referrals from clients/prospects is critically important when sales prospecting. Referrals will increase your pipeline and establish credibility with prospects. You are significantly more likely to get a call back when you leave a voicemail stating that "So-and-so from XYZ Company suggested I call you about our solution."

Below are some techniques for getting referrals:

• The Top Down Request: You can speed up the sales cycle with a top-down referral (with the decision maker referring to someone on their team). "I know you ae not the person who would actively evaluate our solution but who on your team would be?"  While you don't quite have "buy in", there is "approval" from management to look at your product.
  

• The Narrow Down Request: It's easier to choose from 20 people than from the world so this approach narrows the choices. "Are there any other people within your organization who could benefit from our solution?"

The following request is my all time favorite and I have great success with it!

• Help Me Request: On a whole, people like to help, so when you pose an open ended question it usually works. "I was hoping you could help me, can you think of anyone (else) who could benefit from our solution?"


• Thank You Request: Thanking the person before the referral makes them feel obligated to help. "If you could point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it."


• The Guilt Request: Believe me this one works (just ask my mother-in-law . . . just kidding). "I realize our solution does not seem to meet your requirements at this point in time, can you think of anyone that might benefit?"


• The Good Friend Request: Here's another great way to request a referral. "Can you think of someone within your organization or industry, who should know about our solution?"


• The "If You Were Me" Request: This places the person in your shoes and makes them stop and think about it. "If you were me, and you wanted to let people know about our solution, who would you call?"
  

So remember, it's important to ask for a referral at the close of every conversation!

If anyone has other techniques that have worked, please post them!

(This post is part of an ongoing series of Ask the Experts questions, put to members of LinkedIn's Inside Experts Group - request to join here.  Whether you are a member or not, please share your thoughts and experiences by posting comments!)

Mark Moore is a member of the LinkedIn Inside Sales Experts Group.  He is about to start a new venture and has a 2-part question to pose to Inside Sales practitioners.

Background:
Mark is creating an inside sales group for a technology company.  The focus is on the SMB - selling products/services, maintenance renewals & education/training. 

Question:
What pitfalls/wins others experienced that he could avoid/emulate in establishing the group? (whether with compensation, metrics, quotas, or even just the basics such as databases and CRM software)

This is a very broad question so to narrow it down, please provide the following:

1. What is the one thing that you did right when you were building your group that you would always do again?
2. What is the biggest mistake you, or your company made, that you would never repeat?

Thanks in advance for your answers and for participating in the discussion!

I changed careers recently. I went from being a Product Manager for a technology company to a Marketing Manager for a professional services company. One of the immediate "benefits" of my new role was a massive increase in the number of cold calls I receive. Seriously, we are talking a 5x increase. As you would expect, some salespeople I hear from are good, some poor and some rage inducing.

I thought I might share how to effectively get my attention when you cold call.

Please Don't:

• Say "following up" within the first 10 words in your VM. Your message will be deleted with extreme prejudice. If I wanted to talk to you, I would be "following up" with you.
• Say "calling regarding your interest in the CompanyName whitepaper, webinar, etc." Believe it or not I don't remember the company name of everything I research. I remember what I was searching for. Reference the subject matter of interest to me and then you have my interest.
• Call with your ID blocked. I will never pick up the phone. I mean you know who I am, return the favor.
• Call me repeatedly without leaving a message. I have caller ID, it tells me you phoned me 4 times this AM. When the Red Cross does this, it drives me crazy. And I really like them.
• Leave me a voicemail and then email me immediately. I know you think it is "great, persistent follow-up". I used to do it when I was in Inside Sales and let me tell you, from the other side of the coin, it is annoying.

Please Do:

• Spend a few minutes reviewing my website. This is gold. I appreciate that you have a basic understanding of what I do.
• LinkedIn me. Strong play! Yes I used to work with Tom. He is a customer of yours? Small world!
• Send succinct emails. Translation: short & direct. I've read War & Peace. Trust me, you're no Tolstoy.
• Ask me what prompted my interest. When I do take your call and give you permission to start a conversation, ask me why. Don't assume you know my job, needs and challenges. Maybe you have the perfect solution, maybe not. You can't fix what you don't know is broken.

Thanks for listening. Let me know your thoughts on effective cold calling.

UPDATE: Check out Trish's post on cold calling: Cold Calling - How To Make It Work

We all know that we only have one chance to make a first impression and that is especially true in a sales situation. If you are lucky enough to receive an inbound lead...don't blow it.

I recently read a great posting by Keith Rosen on the Sales and Sales Management Blog. Here are 3 excerpts that got me thinking:

Wow....great stuff.

We spend a lot of time with Inside Sales teams at technology companies and the "show up and throw up" syndrome is just as bad over the phone as it is in person. Companies spend hours crafting the right outbound message and process but do they take the same care with their inbound process? Not always.

Here are 3 quick tips that will ensure you maximize your inbound inquiry conversion.

1. Collect information about each inbound inquiry so you know whether or not they fit your Ideal Customer Profile. This will give you a leg up on your pre-call planning and also create a sense for their probability to purchase.
   
   
2. Your 1st question should be "Was there a compelling event that caused you to visit our site...download our white paper?" Wouldn't it be great if right off the bat you know whether or not they were looking for a solution or just collecting information?
   
   
3. Taking Keith's advice, your 2nd question should be "What do you already know about us and what information are you most interested in?" This sets the direction for the rest of the call.

In summary, an inbound lead is a blessing. Bring your "A" game to the qualification table.

What other great questions do you use to get a prospect talking?

Effective objection handling is a key skill for any sales person. One of the most common objections heard on a daily basis is the dreaded "I don't have any budget". In a tight economy, this objection is being used even more frequently.

 When you hear "No Budget", it usually means 1 of 2 things:

• either the prospect is on board but truly has no access to funds
  or
  
• they don't know what you do, don't care what you do, and are trying to blow you off. Who doesn't know that if you tell a sales person you have no money they will hang up and go away!?

So how do you handle this objection?

Throughout my career, I've had the chance to work with some really great salespeople and have gathered some insight on how to handle this situation.

1. First and foremost, determine that indeed you can solve a pain that the prospect is feeling. If you can't, then why waste their time or yours?  BTW, if the prospect is using the "no budget" objection before he knows what you do, it is a blow off!
   
   
2. Reconfirm you are dealing with the decision maker or at least an influencer/recommender. Technical evaluators seldom have access to budget and quite often influencers/recommenders do not have knowledge of the general/slush funds that decision makers can access.
   
   
3. Confirm that the prospect agrees to the pain you can solve and has a vision for the benefit they will receive from your solution. You establish this by asking questions:  "Bob, do you agree that we can save your department this amount of xxx compared to what they are doing now?"  If he says "no" you have a bigger problem.  If he says yes, you can move on to ask....
   
   
4. "Since we can save you this amount, what would be the most logical next step for ensuring that you can reap these kinds of benefits?" or "I would really like to have you as a customer. I understand you have no budget. Since we both agree the value my organization can bring is significant is there any way we can overcome this obstacle?"
   

Brainstorm with your prospect on various ways to address the issue whether it is payment terms, a less robust version of the product, a hosted version...whatever the case may be.  It is called negotiating.  Want to learn how to negotiate?  Go buy a car...those guys will negotiate your teeth right out of your mouth.

You have to strike while the iron is hot because if you wait for that budget to become fully available there may never be a deal because of other influences such as new competitors, management changes, etc.

In summary, hearing the dreaded "No Budget" isn't the end of the world. You have to:

• do your job around vision creation
• make sure you are dealing with someone who has access to budget
• ask questions that partner you with your prospect on finding alternative solutions

Would love to hear from other sales professionals on how they handle this situation so feel free to comment!

Here is Part 2 in our series on how to conduct an effective demo.  This segment focuses on how to ensure that the prospect stays engaged in the process. To review the other posts, click the links below:
- Rules for Conducting Effective Demos: Part 1
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Rule Number Two - Checking In:

Checking-in during the conversation, especially if you are conducting the demo via web/conference call, is very important. 

Checking-in:

• Ensures the prospect is engaged in the conversation and paying attention. Conference calls can be challenging. A prospect may be checking email or focused on other activities and NOT listening, especially if there is too much "telling" or feature dumping.

• Allows you to identify additional qualifying information. If you check-in with a question, the response may give you additional insight into the company, the opportunity, etc. For example: "Is what we are showing you in alignment with what you were anticipating?" or "Based on what we have shown you so far, I think we are in alignment with your requirements, do you agree?" Their response will provide the clues that will tell you to either stay on track or move in another direction.

When you respond to a question, always confirm at the end "did I answer your question?" You want to be sure you clearly understood the question and provided enough information to satisfy the prospect.

Demos are a two way conversation.  When you just "show up and throw up" - you pay the price.  You miss the opportunity to further qualify the prospect, address objections and set the stage for the next step in the sales process.

Happy Selling!

 

I recently read/listened to a great post on John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing blog titled 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success.  While I was reading it I thought...these are the building blocks of success for a company of any size! 

I thought it would be fun to turn the information into a pop quiz. Here are John's steps:

Take the Quiz!

1) Narrow your focus. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is not the Fortune 2000! The days of casting out the big net are over. The companies that win are those that clearly define what a high probability account looks like in great detail and go after those companies with a vengeance.

How well have you defined your ICP?  If the answer is very well - give yourself 1 point. 

2) Differentiate or compete on price. Are you really different than your competition? And, if you are, can the sales/marketing organization articulate your differences in less than 3 minutes?

If yes - give yourself 1 point.  If not, let's hope you are competing on price.

3) Create marketing materials that educate. There are two kinds of marketing materials that educate. White papers that educate your technical audience and marketing materials that educate your business user or decision maker.

If you have both - give yourself 1 point.

4) Lead generate to be found. What is your strategy for inbound lead generation? Do you have a blog that is ripe with interesting content? Do you know what search words are being used when you are found? Are you using social media as part of your marketing plan?

If you can answer yes to all of the above - give yourself 1 point.

5) Create a lead conversion process. What is happening to the leads you do generate? Do you have an effective process in place that consists of 4 touches in 10 business days? Does each touch deliver a unique portion of your value proposition?

If you can answer yes - give yourself 1 point.

6) Harness technology and the internet. Do you have a marketing automation platform in place? Have you developed an automated lead scoring and lead nurturing system that is effective and allows prospects to self identify?

If you can answer yes - give yourself 1 point.

7) Live by the calendar. Prospects are fickle. It is not their job to remember you it is your job to stay in front of them. Do you have a marketing plan in place that allows you to stay in front of prospects with interesting content and compelling offers?

If you can answer yes - give yourself 1 point.

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

That's it.  So, thank you John for a great post and getting me thinking!

Now dear readers, take the quiz and let me know how you do!

Conducting demos is an established step in almost every sales process. I thought I would share with you some of the skills that you need to acquire to ensure that the demo is effective and showcases not only your product but also your sales ability.

Rule Number One - Establish a Demo agenda:

From a communication perspective this:

• Sets a vision with the prospect that you are organized and professional.
• Sets the stage for what you are going to discuss.
• Communicates an estimate of the length of the meeting to show you are cognizant of the importance of their time.
• Allows you to check-in with the prospect to make sure you are going to cover everything he/she hopes to accomplish.
• Allows you to create a vision for what you want to accomplish.

From a process perspective this:

• Should start with a first bullet that allows you to take a few seconds to confirm the prospect's pain, reiterate the conversations you've already had with them. Things may have changed and you may have additional participants in the meeting that aren't up to speed.
• Forces you to stay on track.
• Allows you to control the meeting. If the prospect brings you off track, you are able to say something like "keeping with the agenda, I'd like to continue discussing xxxxx".
• If you are nearing the end of the meeting, but would like to continue, you should always get the prospect's agreement before you proceed. This is not only courteous but also serves as a qualifier to see how engaged in the process they are.
• Should always end with this bullet "Determine Next Steps". This documents the fact that both you and the prospect have committed to defining what the next steps in the process should be.

So, hope this helps. Lots more to come in the future on how to deliver effective demos. Stay tuned!

I recently read a posting on Dave Kurlan's blog Understanding the Sales Force. It is titled How to Coach a Salesperson. The point of the posting was about how to help your salespeople avoid the "Happy Ear Syndrome". I have included an excerpt below but the whole post makes for an interesting read. 

Now, here is my question for you: If your sales rep sent that email to a prospect in the closing phases of a highly competitive situation, what would you think?

And even more importantly, what do you think he did when he got the response that pretty much told him that the incumbent vendor was kicking his butt? You guessed it; he continued to communicate via email.

I think I have finally figured out one of the reasons that sales people suffer from call avoidance. They are not comfortable handling objections or asking the hard questions in person or over the phone but they are via email. Email makes it not personal for them but it also makes it not personal for the buyer.

Isn't selling about communicating and building relationships? 

If you are a sales manager reading this post and you can relate to this situation, you have to assume some responsibility for the problem. Do you know how and when your team is using email to communicate with qualified prospects?  Have you prepared your team to handle objections that come at them real-time? How much time have you spent with them on closing techniques? Do you do live coaching and role playing?

I would love to hear from sales managers that execute best practice coaching techniques. Feel free to post and happy selling!