Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen

Sales 2.0 Tips: Discussing Outbound Marketing Stats (Video)

Last month was the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston (my comments here).  I connected with friends and colleagues with similar desires to increase sales and marketing production with no holds barred.  

I had the opportunity in Boston to present on the topic of Increasing Productivity Without Increasing Headcount and then participating on a panel discussion on the topic. (video below)

Since my attendance at the first Sales 2.0 Conference, I had discussed with Gerhard that the topics of sales and marketing in a 2.0 world just can't be discussed separately.   So the highlight of my day was when he closed the session by announcing that the next "Sales 2.0 Conference" will be known as the "Sales and Marketing 2.0 Conference". 

Thanks to ConnectAndSell for inviting me to speak.
Video of my presentation:

B2B Appointment Setting Experts Getting LOST?

If you're like me, last night you spent over four hours consumed with watching the finale to the television series LOST.  Now I'll give you that it probably wasn't the best use of four hours of my life, but I've enjoyed the show so much over its six seasons that I just wanted to take the final episode in as much as I could, and for Smashmouth, that means inspiring a blog article. 

The finale offered the best of what the show had given its viewers over the last six years -- confusion, excitement, joy and sorrow.  It got me thinking, though -- is there a way that this relates to appointment setting?  Naturally it does.  Our reps feel all of those emotions while they're making dials, right?  So here is my take on how those four emotions that the series LOST gave its audience parlay themselves into appointment setting:

1. Confusion - Our reps feel this all the time, especially when they fail to do the most important part of the job  -- and that is focus.  My reps' No. 1 focus is to schedule an appointment with the prospects of our clients.  When they lose focus of that, naturally they're going to get confused.  Teach your reps to take some time at the beginning of each call session and write down what their main goals are.  Your reps don't like to be confused, and I'm betting your clients don't want them to be, either.  They sell appointments, not software package XYZ.
   
2. Excitement -  Nothing builds momentum in appointment setting and inside sales like "excitement."  What are you doing to raise the level of excitement for your team?  It's important that you get just as excited about your reps' successes as they do!  The rest of the team will glom on to that and ride that wave throughout the rest of their day, so don't lose sight on that.  We SPIFF the reps several times a week.  Fun stuff, from DVDs to lottery tickets, to cash bounties -- and always in a clear competition with others.
   
3. Joy - This one's a little bit different than excitement.  Joy comes from within, so help your reps to be joyful by making sure they understand the importance of their job.  I've often found that when I understand why I do what I do, it makes what I do much more enjoyable.  When your reps enjoy what they do, you're going to have a much more productive team, and a team that produces more tends to do what?  They breed excitement, and you're right back at No. 2 from above.
   
4. Sorrow - Sometimes you're going to have reps who gets bummed out because what they thought were going to be leads for their client turned out not to be so.  Sometimes they can have a bad day, which can lead to a bad week.  That can get frustrating for your reps, so help them through those times by teaching them to remember their successes.  There's very little time to get negative in this job; in fact, I'd argue that there's none.  If you go a day without setting meetings or generating leads, that's a day you'll never get back.  So help your reps get back in the saddle by remembering times of higher achievements.

Is your team LOST?

Inside Sales Trends: Then and Now...What's Your Big Idea?

This week I presented at the AA-ISP Leadership Summit in Minneapolis.  It kicked off two days of great sessions, discussion and networking.  Thanks to everyone who attended and supported the effort.  It was great to meet everyone and share our Big Ideas.

Special thanks to Bob Perkins, Larry Reeves and others at AA-ISP for having me.

The other piece I enjoyed was meeting folks from a competing company.  Being one of just a few By Appointment Only competitors is always a challenge.  Linda and I got our demand gen start at BAO, and they are a class act with good people -- competing with them on a daily basis keeps us honest.  Henry Glickel, BAO's top recruiter, presented on best practices for Inside Sales Recruiting.  Hiring and creating good talent was a common theme during the event, and Henry's take on it ensures steady and talented inside sales professionals.

There were also the guys from Vorsight. Having read their Sales Tips Blog for quite some time, it was very informative to listen to co-founder Steve Richard present his tips on how to become a power cold calling machine.

Nothing like Co-Opetition.

Below is my keynote address: Inside Sales Trends, Then and Now...What's Your Big Idea?

 

 

 

AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit: Follow on Twitter #LS10

American Association of Inside Sales Professionals has their national Leadership Summit May 11-12 in Minneapolis.  The speakers include fantastic cast of sales/marketing leaders, with me doing my part.  Topics range from inside sales strategies, increasing performance, compensation models, hiring and managing to Sales 2.0.  If it's Inside Sales related, it's a topic.

For those of you that can't be there live, you can follow the action on twitter with hashtag #ls10.  

If you do attend, and are a follower of @damphoux, track me down and say "Hello".

Lead Gen Tips: Find LinkedIn Names That Aren't In Your Network

Most sales people today have found that using LinkedIn as a research tool to identify specific prospects has been a fantastic way to find the needle in a haystack of potential leads.  However, LinkedIn doesn't always show you all the names of the individuals your search produces:

So how do you find this specific person's name?  Just three more clicks according to Green Leads' BDR Mira.

1. Click on the Title, which brings up the full profile.
    
   
   
2. Remember the Title, and look to the right where it says Viewers of this profile also viewed...  Once there, find a contact with a similar title/company -- In this case, Gerardo (hard to see).
   
   
   
3. Now while remembering the title/company of the prospect you want "Research Engineer Intern at VW Electronics Research Lab", click on the name of the person with the most similar title/company that we found above, Gerardo.
   
4. Up pops Gerardo's profile, now look to the right again, and find a contact with a similar title/company to Gerardo in the "also viewed" section -- this is most likely your prospect.  So Tanya, expect my call.
   

If you have any LinkedIn tips, or Lead Gen Tips in general, please share them.

 

5 Outbound Calling Best Practices

Dialing the phone all day is a task.  I have one guy who calls it panning for gold. He'll say he just swished the phone 20 times, found 4 shiny objects and none were gold.  Then an hour later he'll yell "Eureka!" when he does successfully set an appointment.

I presented these 5 Outbound Calling Best Practices last week at Papa Razzi in Burlington at the AA-ISP meeting (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals).

These 5 points may get more Eureka's out of your outbound marketing efforts:

• List Hygiene - Keep lists clean and ready at all times for prime calling.  Track things like Time Zone, Direct Dials, Admin Names, Dialing Tips (press 0 for the operator), etc.  Validate lists prior to dialing.  Remove bad contacts, or research and replace them.  Don't dial until the list can be worked top-to-bottom in one sweep without a struggle.
  
• Functional Tools - Fill the toolbox with tools, and know how to use them: Jigsaw, NetProspex, InsideView, LinkedIn, Google Alerts and Google Search, LeadLander, others...  Use them to work smarter. If you find they get in the way when you are in power-dial mode, clean the desktop (next tip).
• Clean Desktop - When it's prime time to dial, cluttered desktops and browsers can bring things to a grinding halt: Instant Messenger, Email, Browser Windows, etc. (that means Facebook and ESPN too). Close everything that is not pertinent to dialing.
• Don't Dial - Still dialing with fingers on a number pad?  Don't.  Get a click-to-dial, auto-dialer or predictive dialer.  Or get on steriods with ConnectAndSell.  The productivity increases are phenomenal.
  
• Prime Time - Don't be power dialing at 10:20 am.  This is the most common time of day for prospects to be in a meeting.  They are more likely to be at their desks and willing to talk in the early morning, at the top of the hour (from 10 minutes to the hour until 5 minutes after, they are between meetings), at lunch, in the late afternoon, in the early evening, on Monday holidays.  Check out the article I wrote, Take 3 Hour Lunches, which discusses the day in detail and backs it up with data.

Just the tip of the iceberg here.  What outbound calling tips can you offer?  If they are tip-worthy, I'll add them to the growing list of lead gen tips.

 

 

Webinar: 10 Tips for Improving Your B2B Demand Gen Program with Inbound & Outbound Marketing

We've recently started working closely with NetProspex as a list provider to augment the work we do.  Once we started working together, the folks there realized that I always have an opinion, especially as it pertains to Demand Gen. Most of my recent discussion has been about Unified Demand Gen(sm) -- the philosophy of blending inbound marketing and outbound marketing to maximize your lead generation activity.

Join us for a webinar Thursday at 2:00 ET, 10 Tips for Improving Your B2B Demand Gen Program with Inbound & Outbound Marketing. 

Hope to see you there.

Lead Gen Tips from Yogi Berra

Yesterday I was using ConnectAndSell as a training tool and had one of our BDRs (Business Development Reps) live and working a list and three others listening in and critiquing.  (This, btw, is one of the many benefits of ConnectAndSell.  You can train with 5-10 pitches in an hour versus 1 or 2.  You can see the Smashmouth ConnectAndSell product review here.)

During the session, we connected with the Chief Information Security Officer of an extremely large pharmaceutical company.  He was the perfect target for the client we were working on, but he was reluctant to keep the conversation going.  He had objection after objection.  "Not interested," "Send me a datasheet," "We already do that."  You name it, he tried to bail out, but my rep was relentless in a completely calming way.  He would agree and acknowledge the objection, then segue to another topic or solution. He kept him talking.  Then after 5 minutes or so, the prospect accepted the meeting and offered to bring two of his direct reports.  

I closed the training session with a quote from Yogi Berra; "It ain't over 'til it's over."  We've all heard it, and this conversation proved it.  I would say a majority of insides sales reps may have bailed on this call after the second objection.

Anyway, it got me thinking.  Was Yogi Berra hip to outbound marketing?  Did he have other words of wisdom we should listen to?

"All pitchers are liars or crybabies:"  Don't pitch, have a conversation.  If you pitch, you aren't conveying sincerity ... you aren't having a conversation.  Bring value.

"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer:"  Believe me, this has value.  Don't provide sales drivel in a conversation.  If you don't know, tell a prospect you don't know.  What better reason to keep the conversation alive than "actually, I may not be the perfect person to answer that. Can I line up a conversation between you and Mr. Sales Guy?"

"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much:"  How true is this?  Just stop selling and listen to your prospects.  Ask open ended questions -- leading questions. Get them to keep talking and pay attention to where they are going.  The more they talk, the less you can get in trouble.

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else:" What is your goal of your lead gen activity?  Are you appointment setting?  Are you trying to gather intelligence?  Are you trying to do qualified lead gen? Know the purpose of every email, every dial, every conversation, and then stick to your purpose.  If you are setting meetings, make that your goal. 

What is your goal?  What other quotes can you tie to lead gen tips?

Appointment Setting Experts Pull A Columbo "Just one more thing..."

While recently updating our training materials for new hires, I was digesting all the valuable info from our friends at The Bridge Group on inside sales benchmarking and inside sales training. One particular article captured my attention because it stated some basic principles that many sales professionals sometimes fail to heed.

The article, Sellers & Marketers: Have Them at Hello! by Matt Bertuzzi, shared four points that can make the difference between a sales pitch and a sales conversation:

• Be clear & concise
• Be remarkable
• Be honest
• Be relevant

When I do our training, I add a fifth point:

• Be interested

You can be honest, clear, relevant and remarkable, but if you're in a conversation, don't forget to listen.  Your prospects want you to be interested in them and their issues.  Ask questions.  A conversation is more valuable than a pitch. In fact, I recommend to our appointment setting experts that for every couple of value statements presented, try and ask an open-ended question:

"...it's different than traditional lead gen. Appointment setting done in a pay-for-performance basis provides you with predictible ROI.  What are some of the measures you look for in your demand gen programs?"

Showing respect and understanding for prospects' needs and pain points not only allows you to tailor your sales style, but also shows them that you bring value to the conversation and are not just a run-of-the-mill salesperson.

"Just one more thing..." What's the best Columbo question you use?

Lead Generation Tip - Don't Use a Voicemail Script

I know my colleagues in the sales consulting industry are going to fill this page with comments telling me why their Lead Gen Tip of the day would be to craft the perfect voicemail script. My response is -- Don't Bother.

As a result of the recent question on Focus.com regarding "should we leave a voicemail?" we decided to conduct a LinkedIn poll asking only C/VP level respondents (our appointment setting targets) what they do when they receive a well crafted voicemail that is sales oriented:

                                

The results were as I expected, so let the debate begin:  

    

 

               

Want to know the mix by department? It's interesting that the geeks listen more than others:

What do you think? Leave one or Don't?