Can't Get Anyone on the Phone?

Posted by Matt Bertuzzi on Thu, Feb 24, 2011

Yesterday I was extremely lucky to see Steve Richard, Vorsight’s Head Sales Prospecting Trainer, present at the Boston Chapter of the AA-ISP. The topic, "I can't get anyone on the phone" certainly had everyone's attention.

Steve led off with this question:

How many dials does it take your Reps to get 1 connect?

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He then shared the following metric from the folks at ConnectAndSell: 22

Based on millions of calls across all industries, and into small, medium & large businesses, the system-wide Connect Rate so far for 2010 is 4.5%. Or 22 dials for 1 connect with the person you are trying to reach.

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Steve laid out a series of factors that are contributing to 21 of 22 dials resulting in non-connects. Here are 3 points that really stood out for me:

Topics: sales tips, lead generation

It’s the ‘Cold’ that’s Dead – Not the ‘Calling’

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Thu, Feb 10, 2011

Not a day goes by that I don’t see numerous bloggers, tweeters, etc. arguing passionately that cold calling is dead.

The problem is that people are confusing cold calling with outbound calling. Picking up the phone still works as part of a Sales & Marketing approach that integrates inbound marketing, social media, great content, lead nurturing, etc.

The part that has fallen by the wayside is the “cold” not the “calling.”

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InsideView recently shared Why Cold Calling is the Bottom of the Barrel, here’s an excerpt:

Some of the best businesses in the world were built from cold calling and that was because they found a way to exploit a technology (phones) using a team of people to saturate a market of people that loved to talk to other people. That hasn’t changed a whole lot in the past few years other than the fact that the phone is no longer the best technology to use because decision makers have less time.

Topics: cold calling, lead generation

3 Perspectives on a Bigger, Better & Faster Inside Sales in 2011

Posted by Matt Bertuzzi on Thu, Feb 03, 2011

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Earlier this week I was lucky enough to listen in on a Focus.com roundtable billed Bigger, Better, Faster: Inside Sales in 2011. Moderated by Chris Snell who lead the panel through a range of topics around Inside Sales & Inside Sales Management. (The recording [MP3 file] has been made available, so you can give it a listen when you have some time.)

I thought it would be interesting to highlight three questions that the panel addressed:

What did Inside Sales do right in 2010?
Where did Inside Sales get tripped up in 2010?
What can Inside Sales Managers do to reduce hire-to-production time in 2011?

Topics: lead generation, inside sales management, best practices, recruiting

4 Ways to Get Your Prospects to Call You Back

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Thu, Jan 13, 2011

Colleen Francis of Engage Selling wrote a great blog post called 12 Ways to Get Your Prospects to Call You Back. With her permission, we have reprinted my fave 4. Enjoy and Engage!

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No matter how persuasive, compelling or brilliant you may be, it's difficult to build a relationship with a prospect if you can't get them to call you back.

Most sales people use boring, outdated voice and email methods, which leave them sounding just like every other sales person in the world. If you want to get more return calls from your clients, then you have to do something different from everyone else out there - you have to stand out, be likeable, and actively deserve a return call.

Here are 4 of the best ideas we've found to help you stand up, stand out and make your clients want to return your calls:

Topics: lead generation, sales techniques

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