“We need to increase our pipeline by 75% in the next 2 months…”
“My reps need to be having 10 new meetings a month…”
“We have new reps in new territories and need to get their pipes filled…”
Typical requests from Sales VP’s... Often times when I meet with companies the VP of Sales is looking to create or fix an Inside team so they can generate new opportunities, increase pipeline, shorten sales cycles - the usual. That’s what Inside Sales and Business Development does, right?
Yes, a well organized Inside team will do all that but not before they build a foundation to work off of. A good inside team are not just smilers and dialers who you can hand a list of names and numbers and say, “go get ‘um”! They take an organized approach to developing a territory. They identify prospects to go after that make sense for the company and funnel that into a quality pipeline. They then work with an outside rep to close, or they are closing themselves. All the while continuing to build their pipeline.
This is the part of the process that many companies like to skip over and go directly to pipeline filling. Unfortunately this is the most important part and it takes a little time. When done correctly, and a foundation is built, pipelines fill with opportunities that close.
So what are some of the steps needed to build a good foundation for Inside Sales?
Understanding your solution – Sounds crazy, but you would be shocked at how many sales people don’t truly understand what they are selling and what problems their solutions solve. Being able to articulate a value proposition and use cases to prospects is a big leg up in getting to the right person. Not to mention it allows the sales person to have an intelligent conversation about their solution and ask qualifying questions.
Understanding your Buyer – I’m sure you’ve heard of buyers persona’s and learning more about them. It’s a really important step. David Meerman Scott has a great article called ‘How well do you know your buyers personas’ that is worth taking a look at. Knowing whom you need to sell to and why your solution benefits them is crucial. There’s a BIG difference in getting a LLL (low level looser) to pick up the phone, set up a meeting with you and ultimately waste your time, than directly targeting the person you need to sell to. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘augment’ that LLL to help you get to the decision maker sometimes…
Test Messaging – I know, you’re probably thinking this is marketing’s job, but really it’s another example of sales and marketing working together. Putting together your messaging in a way that actually grabs your prospects attention is not always easy. If you’re a new company or entering into a new market this can be more difficult. An inside team should have a variety of prospecting messages they can use. Marketing will provide some of this, but much of it will be developed as they do more prospecting. Subject lines in emails, content in those emails, messages you leave on voice mails or with receptionists, whitepapers you send out, webinars you invite people to. All of this need to be tested and adjusted appropriately to ensure the correct message is resonating with the right person and most importantly they are RESPONDING.
Target Accounts / List Building – This is one of my favorites. We all have our top accounts or verticals that we want to go after, but having a list of the correct people in these accounts with correct contact information - that’s another story. Many companies have paid big money for lists of companies and names, but in my experience they are on average 25% accurate and VERY expensive. Most companies these days are not paying for expensive lists. That leaves sales and marketing to be more creative about how they build out solid account lists with accurate information. This is another area where I feel a good team effort between sales and marketing is needed. There are lots of sites available that will give us contact info for companies, Hoovers, Jigsaw, est. Unfortunately the info on these sites often is out of date or simply wrong. Having marketing generate leads within your target accounts helps. Even if marketing is getting contacts outside of who you are targeting, it at least gives you good company contact info and builds market awareness. It also lets you know there is some interest there! Inside Sales can build on that by using Linked In, Twitter, Google and my new favorite, Facebook Company pages. *side note -I actually got the name, phone number and email address (and photo) of a CEO of a company I was targeting by looking at the companies FB Company Page*. My point on list building is, we need to be more creative about how we get contact information and it’s sometimes not that easy. It takes time. If this is augmented with marketing it’s much easier and you end up with solid contact info to prospect with.
These are just a few steps to help build a solid foundation for Inside Sales. If you invest some time and money to work through them and revisit them regularly you’ll ensure a solid foundation for Inside Sales to work from. Thus, allowing them to focus on building a quality pipeline with opportunities that close.
