Being new to inside sales tends to be a bit intimidating. I’ve found that many inside sales reps I’ve trained over the years can be hesitant to pick up the phone because they don’t feel fully prepared. We can put all the prep work in that we deem necessary, but from what I’ve seen there is no better way to learn than to just get knee deep in the muddy cold calling trenches. When we do eventually get on the phones, calls can go in multitude of directions so it can be difficult to prep for all the scenarios we can run into. MORE >>

I’m often surprised at how few sales professionals practice their craft. Did they not listen to their parents when they told them “practice makes perfect”? Or do they think that they don’t need to practice? In my experience 100% of sales people can improve, a full 80% need to improve. Perhaps they think showing up to work everyday is enough. would agree if I saw most sales people succeeding, however that is not my experience. My sales team excluded, of course). Just showing up, and even working really hard is not enough. formula for success inside and outside of work. MORE >>

I’ve always said that cold calling is like trying to pick someone up that is way better looking than you. You have to put yourself out there, be prepared for a lot of rejection and when you get an opportunity, you had damn well better have a good rap or else you’re going to miss out. The same thing applies to your calling efforts. They are the 10 that gets approached a million times a day and you are the 5 that they shoot down because you’re “like the rest of them” Let’s look at some of the more common mistakes. Holy crap he/she is talking to me! MORE >>

I talk to a lot of marketing/sales executives that have no idea why their inside team’s lead numbers are down. The call number is in between 80-90 per day, they are having conversations, they know the product inside and out and they are hungry for leads, so what could be the issue? I’ll then look at their conversation reports and possibly listen in on some calls and find out they have a lot of over educated inside reps. Sometimes this is facilitated by management and other times the inside rep shoots themselves in the foot. Learning the difference is key. Thank you so much! MORE >>

One of the primary goals of any sales team is to find all potential buyers in their target market(s). There are 2 key areas to look at to ensure your company is finding these buyers before your competitors are getting to them: 1) Are ALL marketing generated inquiries followed up on EFFECTIVELY? How persistent and effective is your team at getting a response to marketing inquiries? 2) What does your team’s outbound call strategy look like? Are you confident that your team is reaching ALL of the potential buyers in your target market that didn’t get pulled through your marketing team? MORE >>