Since conference season is in full swing, we thought it would be fun to play a word association game with some Inside Sales thinkers, writers & doers we met along the way.
We asked them to respond to the following: Sales, Marketing, inbound leads & outbound prospecting. Here is what they had to say.
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Pretty interesting stuff, no? I also found it really fascinating to hear the responses grouped together. So I edited another cut here:
Having Sales Reps prospect me is one of the most eye opening parts of my job.
Being a quant type of guy (nerd might fit too), I decided to track & categorize the sales processes that Reps have put me through over the last few weeks.
Here’s what I saw:
23 sales processes
13 sent a single email
6 added 1 call to the email
2 executed a generic 3+ touch process
2 executed 4+ touches (and sounded like they knew about my concerns & day-to-day role)
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By my math, that's a less than 9% of Reps doing something more than drive-by prospecting. This left me wondering, what is it that drives 1 Rep to commit to a process – where 9 others fall short?
Topics: sales process, lead generation, lead qualification
Did you ever run across an organization that you want to model your business against because they just get it? Well, I have and for me that organization is OpenView Venture Partners.
OpenView is focused on finding, capitalizing and assisting expansion stage technology companies on accelerating their journey toward market leading companies.
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We find them to be open, sharing, knowledgeable and some of the best networkers around. Since we have a love fest going with them, we wondered if their portfolio companies feel the same way. So I asked if we could interview one.
What follows is a conversation I had with Isaac Garcia, Co-Founder & CEO of Central Desktop.
Central Desktop delivers a cloud-based social collaboration platform that allows people to connect and share information to drive profitable business results.
Heads up all you technology companies considering funding…. you may want to keep reading and add OpenView to your list!
Topics: ask the experts, best practices
The number of Inside Sales departments is projected to grow from 800K (in 2009) to over 2M (in 2013) - according to SKKU/infoUSA research (PDF).
Steve Watts from The Sales Insider argues:
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But what happens when an Inside Sales Rep is ready for something new and different? Does their career path always mean staying “inside?”
Some view Inside Sales as a stepping stone. But the days of "hungry", first job out of college-Reps pounding the phones are largely gone.
Topics: inside sales management, best practices, mentoring