Inside Sales Lead Management Featured Article

If you’ve ever spent any time in sales, you’ve spent some time on the cold call. An outside sales position I held once broke in its sales people by challenging them to complete 50 cold calls in one day. These weren’t cold calls completed by picking up the phone, but instead walking into a business and trying to make a connection. While the practice had pretty much been abandoned before I started, I couldn’t let the guys on the sales team think I wasn’t able to compete and I completed the challenge.

The problem with that approach, however, is that I was so focused on completing the 50 cold calls in a single day that I didn’t really care about the quality of the interaction. I just needed to bring back 50 business cards with the expectation that I could call on the business at a later time. But, in focusing on speed, I wasn’t focused on making the right connection or asking the right questions that could lead to a meeting. At the end of the day, I understood that the practice had been discontinued simply because it wasn’t the way to go about securing leads.

For inside sales lead management, this approach also wouldn’t work. Agents in the telemarketing arm of the company don’t simply place a call to ask the name of the right person to talk to and then hang up. They want to get the person on the line and qualify them as a potential lead. Therefore, there has to be a proven method applied in the activities of the agent so as to get the most value out of the interaction. A recent article by Daniel Disney posted on LinkedIn’s Pulse (News - Alert) offers some great tips of cold calling. Let’s take a look at what he recommends.

Practice the call – regardless of what you’re going to say, you have to be comfortable talking to the person on the phone. Take time to practice in front of a mirror, with friends or with your supervisor to be sure you’re ready to start dialing.

Prepare for the call – reading a script off of a page is a great way to ensure the person on the other end of the line will hang up. You need to prepare the important questions you want to ask and be ready for questions they may fire back at you.

Focus on the advance – the goal for every call should be to advance it in whatever way is best for your business. If the goal is to get relevant contact details, can you take it to the next step and arrange an appointment? Push yourself where you can, and improve the quality of your calls so you don’t have as many to make.

ABC – while it’s important to take the right steps before you ask for the sale, it’s still important to get to the ‘ask.’ Be thinking about when and how you will ask for the business.

Befriend the gatekeeper – remember the gatekeeper can help you or hurt you and the way you treat him or her will often dictate that next move. Get them on your side by taking the time to make the connection.

Decision makers don’t always equal one – how many businesses can you name where there is a single decision maker? There are many individuals you could speak with who could help you advance in the process, including the gatekeeper. Seek to gain as much information as possible from anyone you talk to.

Don’t stop dialing and smiling – you won’t get anywhere at all in sales lead management without dialing the phone and making the right connections. Keep smiling and make the calls you need to make and they will turn into business opportunities. Just follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to better results.