I’ve had the pleasure of working with many great sales folks who were great at their aspect of the sales process, but when it came to getting a foot in the door, their organization looked outside themselves to provide them with appointments and qualified leads.  Where were you in March of 1991? . I was getting ready to graduate high school in a few months.  I had been completely immersed in all things hip-hop and R&B, including going nowhere without my black LA Raiders Starter cap.  Surprisingly enough, there was a lot to learn from Nino Brown and the Cash Money Brothers.  MORE >>

He said that his territory had recently changed, and that he was really excited to be working one-on-one with his BDR.  I asked him what was one of the more challenging aspects of working with BDR’s in general, and for him, he said that it’s helping BDR’s out of a rut.  Did you ever have a Magic 8-Ball ?  You remember that, right?  You ask it questions, shake it up, and then look at the bottom of the ball to see which side of the twenty-sided die inside floated to the top.  There were answers like, “It is certain,” “Ask again later,” and “Very doubtful.”  I think so.  . MORE >>

I love it because I’ve seen it work for my clients.  BDR’s need to take every advantage they can to ensure that their reps are the first ones in the door, and sometimes those methods make people uneasy; those methods, however, are no less effective (especially if they work).  It might not be pretty, but it works. So as I was perusing my TweetDeck the other day, I saw that my buddy, appointment setting guru Mike Damphousse wrote a blog entry last week that I missed (sorry about that pal!)  Mike’s article, entitled Appointment Setting: Was I Duped? MORE >>

Try telling someone that’s what you do when they ask, “so, what do you do for work?”  They need to be creative not only in terms of working their verbal mojo, but for using their Sales 2.0 They need to be creative here because there will come that time when none of these tools works for them, and the account their calling on is a must have for you or for your client’s organization.  Okay, before you read ANY further, I’m going to spoil this season of LOST for you if you read the following paragraph.  I just want to make sure you understand that.  THAT’S creative thinking.  MORE >>

As I was discussing last night’s two-hour opening with some of the BDR’s at work today, it got me thinking – how can you keep your teleprospectors from becoming “lost” on their sales prospecting calls? It’s not always going to work, because we’re dealing with another human on the end of the line, but for the most part, if we can help our BDR’s to control conversations with better questions, and then couple that with a better understanding of the technology or service their calling on, they’re certainly going to get “lost” less. Ensure they know who they’re calling. MORE >>