In an effort to bring you what I believe are the Top 100 Qualities of a Great Teleprospecting Rep, I’ll be doing so in random order, starting today with #63. love that scene from Top Gun when Viper, (played by Tom Skerrit) asks Maverick (played by pre-couch jumping Tom Cruise) if he thinks his name will be on the plaque of the best pilots from the fighter academy.  Now this guy is in some pretty decent company; the best of the best of all Naval fighter pilots are surrounding him, and without skipping a beat, Maverick replies, “Yes sir.”  MORE >>

I’ve often sat in and listened to my reps making calls, and invariably, they always wind up speaking with administrative assistants.  I’m amazed at how frustrated rep’s can get because the administrative assistant on the other line is not helping them.  I’m amazed because the rep has not treated the admin like a person, but rather as an obstacle to get around. . Now my more senior reps know this, but the junior ones don’t understand:  admin’s are there, for the most part, to assist.  They have to, it’s in their title!  We just need treat them as people. . MORE >>

So you’ve gone ahead and spent money outsourcing your sales opportunity generation process.  Now what?  Speaking from experience, the one thing that I would tell each and every future customer is this:  invest in your investment. . The most successful partnerships I’ve been a part of have been ones where my clients understand that they are going to get out of a campaign that which they put into it.  They understand that if I need them to fill out an implementation document because that is how we get on the phones for them faster, they do it.  What else do you need?” Value is what you get.”  MORE >>

You know, this is a great question.  Why blog now? The InterWeb is flooded with blogs about everything that goes on in Wall Street to the wild cat-herders of the mid-West.  I guess the reason for blogging about sales prospecting is because I wanted to share what I’ve found to be some best practices on running a lead generation machine that is made up of, at its base level, people; people who can be really funny in ways that completely throw off the unintentional-comedy scale. . What can you expect?  I happen to know the guy who does, but unfortunately for you, he ain’t me.  Posted in Blogging. MORE >>

I once worked with a customer who told me that the easiest way to describe his offering was to tell me that they provided 90% of the functionality that a competitor (who’s name rhymes with “ Bicrosoft ”!) offers at twice the price, and then asked me to find him quality sales opportunities. . Let that sink in for a minute. . Okay, now that you’re head’s stopped spinning, let’s analyze what you’ve just read.  As an outsourced sales opportunity development professional, that messaging might make sense to me, but it certainly isn’t one that I can bring to your target market.  Don’t believe me?  MORE >>