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Get the Appointment or Fill the Pipeline?

Posted by Gail Milton on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 @ 06:32 AM
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There is a very common, often overlooked challenge facing many Inside Sales Teams: is supporting individual requests from the Field hindering my goals, objectives & process?

Very often Inside Sales Rep will get the following request from one of their Field partners:

I'm going to be in Toledo for three days next month. Can you get me some appointments? Just get me in the door!

This poses a dilemma.
Does the Inside Rep put their calling strategy and process on the shelf in order to get the Field Rep appointments when/where they are traveling?

The reality is a no win situation.
In many cases, the Inside Rep won't even get paid for setting a meeting unless they are deemed qualified. This is in direct conflict with the notion of "get me in the door".

Furthermore, instead of spreading their prospecting net wide, Reps will narrow their focus and call the same 10 prospects repeatedly for the next 3 weeks.  But at what cost?

  • If they support multiple Field Reps, these requests begin to eat away at their prime objective which is to fill the pipeline with qualified opportunities or close business.
  • Instead of adding value and solving problems for potential prospects, they become an annoyance as their number displays repeatedly on the caller ID.

Inside sales requires a consistent, repeatable process and messaging that delivers a strong value proposition and educates the prospect. Using Inside Sales to create "activity" for the Field is in reality a waste of the resource. 

A solution for some is to consider outsourcing appointment setting to a 3rd party.
The company Green Leads has a very interesting model.  They offer a  "self service" model: no minimums, pay after the meeting occurs and oh yeah, no lists to provide.  They also have an integration with Salesforce.com available so your Field Reps can upload an Account record to them with the click of a button. Amazing!

Taking the outsourced approach, your Field Reps get what they need from an "activity" perspective AND your Inside team stays focused on having conversations with prospects that result in qualified leads.

If, on the other hand, Inside Sales will be setting "when/where" appointments, here are a few suggestions:

  • Try to set one qualified meeting as an anchor and then set introductory appointments to fill the calendar.
  • Set proper expectations with the field - only 10% of the prospects targeted will agree to a meeting and only a few of those will actually convert to a real opportunity.
  • Create a consistent process for appointment setting.  Document the number of attempts you will make within a pre-determined number of business days.  Use a combination of contact methods; dials, voice messaging, social networking and email.  

A documented call process will allow you to tweak for success and, most importantly will force the Reps to let go and move on to greener pastures.

How do you / your team work with & support the Field?

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COMMENTS

Gail, Thanks for the post. Can you give a little more detail about setting "one qualified meeting as an anchor"? Thanks, 
 
Charles

posted @ Tuesday, February 24, 2009 12:52 PM by Charles Rich

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.

posted @ Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:12 AM by John Froelich

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.

posted @ Wednesday, February 25, 2009 12:18 PM by Gail

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.

posted @ Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:12 PM by Mike Damphousse

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.

posted @ Friday, February 27, 2009 5:56 PM by Milty

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.

posted @ Tuesday, March 03, 2009 2:19 PM by Nate Llerandi

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.

posted @ Sunday, March 08, 2009 8:09 AM by Brian Berlin

Field reps should not be messing with internal salespeople's existing customers too much. Their work is to get new business, not to try and sell more to existing clients, as that job is fulfilled by the internal sales person. 
 
In the instance where the internal salesperson picks up that there is the potential for more business outside of the norm, then a field rep can be dispatched to go see the client.

posted @ Wednesday, March 10, 2010 3:30 AM by Yvonne - Gopher Promo

TimeTrade www.timetrade.com) has some powerful web-based software that can automate appointment setting (business or the customer). 
Worth checking out.

posted @ Thursday, May 27, 2010 3:38 PM by Patrick Rafter

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