by Nancy Calabrese | Mar 5, 2019 | Cold Call ROI, Cold Calling Tips, Lead Generation, Sales Prospecting
While psyching yourself up to make that first dial of the
day may be the most daunting part of cold calling, MAKING the calls is NOT the
ultimate sales goal for most organizations. Setting QUALIFIED APPOINTMENTS and
CLOSING SALES are what impact your organization’s bottom line. Understanding
the full sales process and knowing (and monitoring) your KPI’s will help you
meet your ultimate sales goals.
KPI’s are ‘Key Performance Indicators’ – clear, specific
actions YOU need to take, during a specified time, to achieve a specific
outcome. In the example above, picking up the phone and making calls IS key,
but the specified desired outcome is to set appointments with qualified
individuals and then to close sales with those prospects.
If you are responsible for making that first call, your KPI
might be to make X number of calls per hour, day or week. If the other
subsequent metrics are falling or failing to be met, this number may need to be
increased.
Are you responsible for setting appointments? That KPI
might track the number of calls that result in an appointment. If this number
slips, go back to the initial call script and make sure it is solid. Re-work
that as needed to ensure the calls you are making lead to appointments.
The next metric to track would be the number of appointments
that are converting to actual sales. If you find this number slipping, you
don’t necessarily need to make MORE CALLS (though that may help increase your
odds) but you need to work on the delivery and content of those calls so that
when you are setting appointments, they are with people who are truly QUALIFIED
to close a sale.
Clearly identifying your goals and monitoring
your progress towards those goals is KEY to ACHIEVING them! Knowing and
monitoring YOUR KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) will help you stay ON TRACK
to meet and exceed your sales goals.
Are your calls not converting? Need help with your scripts or to tune up your teams’ delivery? Give us a call – our training programs can boost YOUR team’s results.
And if you still need help, WE LOVE COLD CALLING! Give us a
call at 908.879.2911 to see how WE can make calls for YOU!
by Nancy Calabrese | Feb 19, 2019 | Sales Prospecting
According to a survey done by YouGov in December of 2017, eating healthier, getting more exercise and saving money were tied as the number one personal new year’s resolution for 2018. And most studies cite the number one business resolution as increasing sales and growth.
Sadly, other statistics show that 80% of New Year’s resolutions FAIL by February!
Reasons vary but most frequently, people just find change DIFFICULT. People WANT to go to the gym, eat more broccoli and save more money but actually making those changes are hard to do. They want to get strong but push-ups are hard. They want their businesses to grow but don’t really know what to do to make that happen.
At One of a Kind Sales, we can help! We KNOW what it takes to increase sales – it takes well trained salespeople acting on qualified leads. We offer a number of services that make sure you have both a funnel FULL of qualified leads and the effectively trained salespeople that will close the sales that will grow your business in 2019!
We TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE
Our proprietary training program will prepare YOUR inside sales team to make effective calls, setting appointments and collecting the key information needed to close sales. We make sure that your people have the skills and tools they need to meet and exceed your resolutions.
We help you HIRE WELL TRAINED SALESPEOPLE
If you don’t yet have an inside sales team, or are looking to build a stronger bench, we can provide you with well trained, qualified candidates who will get appointments set with leads who will CONVERT helping you meet and exceed your growth goals.
We can DO IT FOR YOU
If you are not ready to hire an inside sales team, hire US! Our highly trained salespeople can work on your behalf, keeping your funnel filled with qualified leads. It’s like having someone who can do your push-ups for you! We provide you with the leads that will convert to SALES. Note: 6 pack abs not included.
Call us NOW at 908.879.2911 to learn more about the sales training, sales candidate and lead generation services we offer to ensure that YOU meet and exceed the business goals YOU set for 2019!
https://www.statista.com/chart/12386/the-most-common-new-years-resolutions-for-2018/
https://www.bustle.com/p/6-ways-to-keep-your-2018-new-years-resolutions-7679811
by Nancy Calabrese | Feb 5, 2019 | Sales Prospecting
In our last three articles we talked about:
In this final article, we will address those who claim that they were unsuccessful with sales prospecting in the past, so they think it is a waste of time.
Yes, sales prospecting CAN be a waste of time. And depending on the number of people you have doing it and the amount of time they are spending on each call, it can be a HUGE waste of money.
But that is when it is being done POORLY!
Done correctly, your staff will be setting appointments and driving the sales that will GROW your business, not sink it. But to be done correctly, sales staff must be trained in the techniques and skills that WORK. They need the words and processes that produce qualified leads, set appointments and close sales.
Our training will prepare YOUR inside sales team to make the most of their time and your money. We prepare them to make effective calls, setting appointments and collecting the key information needed to close sales.
If don’t yet have an inside sales team or are looking to build it out, we can also provide you with well trained, qualified candidates who will get appointments set with leads who will CONVERT.
And if you are not ready to hire a sales team, hire US! Our highly trained salespeople can work on your behalf, keeping your funnel filled with qualified leads.
Call us NOW at 908.879.2911 to learn more about the sales training, sales candidate and lead generation services we offer to ensure that YOU are not wasting YOUR time and money when sales prospecting!
by Nancy Calabrese | Jan 22, 2019 | Sales Prospecting
In our last two articles we talked about Sales Prospecting, discussing why it is crucial to business growth and Why People Don’t Enjoy Sales Prospecting, along with some suggestions on how to enjoy it more.
In this post we will address the excuse that people are too busy with the work they already have to be bothered with sales prospecting.
A frequent complaint we hear is that people are just SO busy with the work they have that they don’t have the time or bandwidth for sales prospecting. This can be a GOOD problem to have, for a while. Then it becomes disastrous when you wrap up all the existing work only to realize that your sales funnel is EMPTY!
Here are a few ways to address issue and to avoid this dilemma:
MAKE TIME
Even if you haven’t experienced it yet, if you don’t do sales prospecting on a regular basis, you WILL find yourself with a dry sales funnel. And it takes TIME to fill that funnel. Make time to prospect for sales BEFORE your funnel runs dry.
Hire help
If you really don’t have the time manpower to do this, we can find well trained sales people to do this work for you. We identify competent, effective sales people who can take this task and RUN with it so that when you come up for air, your funnel will be full and ready!
Outsource
Not ready to hire someone full time? Call US. We have a staff of highly trained, professional sales people who can make calls, schedule appointments and provide you with the qualified leads you need to KEEP your firm busy!
If you are too busy to do this yourself, or if you just want a more robust stream of sales leads, give us a call at 908.879.2911 – we can help!
And check back for our next and final article in this series where we will address the concern that Sales Prospecting hasn’t been productive in the past, so you think of it as a waste of time.
by Nancy Calabrese | Jan 8, 2019 | Sales Prospecting
In our last article, we talked about Sales Prospecting, discussing why it is crucial to business growth and why people don’t always do it on a regular basis.
Here are the top reasons we hear for why businesses don’t bother sales prospecting:
- They don’t enjoy it so they avoid doing it.
- They are too busy with the work they already have.
- It hasn’t been productive in the past, so they think of it as a waste of time.
In future posts, we will address the other reasons but in this article, we will address the first point – people don’t enjoy sales prospecting so they avoid doing it.
Kind of like having to eat your vegetables in order to stay healthy, sales prospecting is a task that MUST be done in order to keep your business healthy and growing. And to make it worse, it has to CONTINUE to be done, on a regular basis, to be effective and to keep your sales funnel full. But it needn’t be something to dread!
Let’s look at some of the common reasons that people don’t enjoy this task and give you some suggestions to make it all easier.
It’s not FUN
Well, MAKE it fun. At One of a Kind Sales, we are big fans of fun! See if you can inject some humor, or at least some levity, into your calling process and see if that makes it any less painful.
I don’t know what I am doing
We will talk about this a bit more in the last article in this series but our TRAINING can help you feel better prepared and more effective.
It doesn’t work
TRAINING will help here as well. Not everyone is a born salesperson but we can give you the skills and tools YOU need to make you the best salesperson you can be.
It is never ending
Yes, it is true that you need to keep doing this task, on a regular basis but if you feel like you are ALWAYS making calls, I suggest blocking out a specific time to do this task. Try 2 hours each morning if you are a morning person, or the 2 hours after you’ve had your afternoon coffee if that is when you feel most energized. People tend to have low energy when they are doing tasks they dread and the call recipient can definitely hear and/or sense that. Low energy does NOT set appointments or close sales. Pick a time when you feel energized, make a set number of calls or make calls for a specific amount of time, then stop! Move on to your next task and don’t spend any more time than necessary thinking about it. Yes, it needs to be done regularly, but it does not need to consume your entire day.
Add value
If you dread calling because you think people dread hearing from you, change that! Bring VALUE to the call. Have industry insights and stats to share with the people you call. Even if you don’t set an appointment, if the person you called thinks you shared something of value to them, they WILL take another call from you and maybe that one WILL lead to an appointment and/or sale.
Change it up
New techniques, a different time of day – stick to your script but changing your approach can energize you and in turn, the person you are calling.
Rack up some wins
Once you are well trained and energized, you will probably find you have a few more wins. And THOSE, in turn are energizing, making it more rewarding and hopefully something you can actually look forward to!
Rinse and repeat
Once you have some wins, take the time to think about what worked and what didn’t. This isn’t rocket science – drop the talk that seems to turn people off and elaborate on the passages that seem to engage and convert.
Keep learning
Click here to learn more about our TRAINING programs and follow us on LinkedIn for industry insights, tips and advice to keep you sharp, productive and successful!
