UPDATE: We've released the Inside Sales Abroad ebook. Thanks to all who contributed to the research.
I have a confession to share – I have gone through the full 5-stage Kübler-Ross coping model with the buzz around Social Selling.
Here’s how it went:
Topics: lead generation, sales techniques
I recently sat in on a vendor presentation and let me tell you, it was a disaster from hello.
(By way of backstory, my client had received a high level overview of a vendor’s technology and scheduled a 2nd call to dig into the value the technology would bring to the Inside Sales team.)
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From the start, the Seller launched into a canned pitch - essentially a 10 minute monologue about their product. She sounded like Billy Mays, the Infomercial king. When I was able to interject, she provided a slightly varied version of her canned pitch. I never received a direct answer to my questions.
Needless to say, I was quite frustrated. Here’s a company with a seemingly good product (at least from what their website suggested) but the seller failed at moving the process forward. After the call, my client commented that he would not evaluate the product because he couldn’t envision working successfully with the sales rep.
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Topics: inside sales management, mentoring
This is the final part of a podcast with Brian Zimmerman on “pitfalls to avoid when building an inside sales team.” You can find the 1st part of conversation here: Common Pitfalls When Building Inside Sales.
(Note: You can read a transcript of the conversation, you can listen to the podcast, or you can view a brief slideshare presentation of the highlights below.)
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Hiring is a Process
Devon Warwick: A lot of our portfolio companies are in growth mode where they’re hiring. What are some pitfalls that they should be avoiding, particularly with the sales team?
Trish Bertuzzi: You need to have a process. So many people just wing it when it comes to hiring. You need to have a process for even just processing resumes. Have a checklist of your requirements. Have some way to look at a resume that is fact based not subjective. You need to have a process for peer interviews. You need to have a process for collecting feedback from everyone that’s involved in the interview process. This is not a place to wing it.
Brian Zimmerman: I think it all starts with your aspirations and your company culture and truly putting on paper how new hires have to fit into your culture.
Topics: inside sales management, best practices