COMMENTS
Gail, Thanks for the post. Can you give a little more detail about setting "one qualified meeting as an anchor"? Thanks,
Charles
Depending on the model, I am not a big fan of "just get me in the door". AEs are expensive and highly skilled resources. What needs to happen is to have a solid book of business/pipeline you are working. If you have a couple of leads that need a push, this might be just the thing. Leverage the AE the way you'd leverage an executive.
As John notes in his comment; travel is expensive and the field rep’s expertise is best spent moving the sales process forward.
The reality is that the field rep does ask inside sales to “get me in the door”.
Ideally they already have one qualified meeting scheduled to validate (anchor) their travel.
If there isn't a qualified meeting anchoring the travel inside sales should:
1. Work with the field rep to prioritize the accounts in the area and develop a personalized call to action.
2. Instead of dialing to “catch the prospect live” consider delivering a well thought out series of targeted messages that tell the prospect what’s in it for them.
3. This series should include 4 – 6 voice and email touches delivered over a 10 – 15 day period.
4. The goal being to create urgency and curiosity about your company and allow you to develop at least one qualified meeting as you attempt to get your rep in the door.
John brings up two points that actually combine to endorse an appointment setting program.
- AEs are expensive and highly skilled
- They need a solid book of business/pipeline
I'll add to that - good sales people are at their best when they are face to face. The don't build their pipeline/book of business until they start having conversations. It's when the real selling starts. The ultimate goal? Keep them selling, and maximize their best talents.
Gail's ideas of clustering multiple visits around an Anchor is a great strategy. Keep that sales machine fine tuned and face to face. "get me in the door", is 90% of the battle for a good rep to start selling. We might as well help them out.
I'm a believer in the "anchor" strategy mentioned above. If you have a qualified meeting that justifies travel, why not maximize your time in the area by adding two or three unqualified introductory meetings as well. The opportunity cost of your time is lower because you planned to travel there anyway. It is a great opportunity to build a relationship that can help you navigate the account moving forward.
What I have found works best within the context of a high-performance team (Field, ISR, Solutions Architect per territory) is that all 3 work in tandem to fill a travel calendar. While each individual has his/her own responsibilities depending on his/her role, within the constructs of a high-performance team there is also some bleeding at the edges. And, thus, some overlap of what each individual does. This is how teammates best complement each other and, thus, become a larger whole than the sum of the parts.
It's impossible for inside sales to balance appointment-setting and sales. That's why I differentiate inside sales from
"sales inside".
Sales inside means quota-carrying, sales developing and deal-closing reps that conduct their campaigns from the phone versus face-to-face such as a territory rep.
The only reason to have inside sales is to make sales, not appointments. Appointment-setting is best left to 3rd party professionals who specialize in this activity.
I've worked client engagements where the territory reps frequently asked for us to fill up their calendars while they were in certain areas. We did so, making the rep's trip extremely productive and lowering the cost per face-to-face call. By outsourcing this activity to us, our client was able to focus their selling reps on, well, selling activity.