Have you seen these tips for managing B2B sales reps?

I recently came across this post that outlines suggestions for managing and motivating a team of B2B sales reps.

I'd like to draw your attention to #6. Hire Appointment Setters. Your team works hard. They're skilled, successful sales people who have contributed to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue over the years. Is it any wonder that when you ask them to call through cold leads, or mine an outdated database for new customers, they're less-than-enthused?

Keep your top hitters at the plate. Set them up for sales success by optimizing productivity. One of the simplest ways to make this happen is to have someone else help out with the top-of-the-funnel activity. Don't waste your high-performers' time on a hangups, bad phone numbers, or unqualified buyers.

(see also Sales is about getting your hitters their at-bats)

I had a conversation yesterday with a gentleman who runs a funding company for consumers and business looking for lines of credit. It was awesome to see his eyes light up when it dawned on him that with the right lead generation partner, inbound lead triaging, and pre-transfer qualification, he could literally only handle calls from people ready to close. The rest of his time could be spent on higher-value tasks like nurturing relationships with current clients and developing strategy for future growth.

Optimize your sales team's time by bringing in the right person or partner to cleanse lists, qualify leads and set solid appointments with ready-to-buy prospects.

Introducing Your Business Growth Solution

What if there was a team of fractional inside sales specialists that tossed you top-of-the-funnel sales activity daily so you and your team could spend your time where it really counts - closing new business?

Meet InceptGrows.

Outbound call centers work like freight trains: Load up tons and tons of firepower, set in on the tracks, and go.

But what about the small- to medium-sized business that either doesn't have tons of firepower, or can't afford to acquire it? Most call centers don't really have a good solution for the little guy; the manufacturing plant who needs help following up on leads, the financial broker who wants more appointments in his week, the membership association who needs to reactivate lapsed members.

The Solution

• You can buy a fraction of an Incept Inside Sales Specialist to identify sales opportunities
• By paying a flat monthly fee, you get the benefits of lead generation/appointment setting without the additional management and overhead of a full time employee in-house
• The fractional allocation can flex up and down with seasonal demand

The unique part of InceptGrows is that we don't just load your list into a dialer and send you back everything that doesn't sound like, "No." We assign you a dedicated Account Growth Specialist who works closely with you and your team to ensure that you're not only filling the top of your funnel, but gaining qualitative insight on your target market, and are making the most of the relationships you already have in place.

So whether it's a list of lapsed customers that haven't bought from you in five years, or an abundance of inbound leads that need qualified before being chased by your sales executive, InceptGrows can support your sales team and grows your business.

"You don't have experience working with our industry."

B2B sales can be frustrating, because most people tend to operate in a mindset that their industry is the exception to the norm. 

It may not matter that we have helped software companies reach high-level decision-makers at their target companies; if we haven't helped financial software companies reach high-level decision-makers at their target companies, suddenly we have no experience.

I run into this all the time. People asking if we work with anyone in their niche, specific industry, and thinking that unless we work with one of their direct competitors, we don't know what we're talking about. 

Unfortunately, this thinking is all turned around. The question is not, "What industries can you work with?" The question needs to be, "What experience do you have reaching[this level decision maker], or [handling this portion of our sales cycle]?" 

Just the other day, I was talking to a gentleman from the energy industry and he asked if we had any other clients from the industry. The answer was, at first, yes we do. But they're almost entirely irrelevant because our current energy customers are B2C customers, and the gentleman I was talking to had a B2B sales need. So my question back to him was, "Who do we need to talk to? Facilities Managers at manufacturing plants? Oh, well in that case, we have a team of skilled reps who are experts at overcoming gatekeepers to reach mid-level decision makers."

Seeing it in this light, he decided to work with us, and we've proven day after day that we can, in fact, overcome gatekeepers to reach mid-level decision makers.

As you're rebuilding your website or considering how to pad your client portfolio, don't panic if you only have a few industries represented. Show your true colors, and show off the skills you've developed in working with your current clients. Translating those skills into actionable results for your prospects will lead to more closed deals and increased business growth.

Inbound Sales Day 2016

As a practice, sales has changed. Today's buyer is more sophisticated than ever before.  They are Googling problems, researching solutions, downloading best practices, and becoming more informed before ever talking to a sales representative. 

So how should your inside sales team adjust to these changes? Step one is to commit to learning. As processes change at a faster pace, committing to learning and improving will take you farther than ever before. 

That's why we're attending #InboundSalesDay

On September 14th, 2016, Hubspot is hosting a FREE event committed to helping you learn how to sell more. They'll have 5 live Q&A sessions, 12 executive talks, and 4 on-demand interviews all making up 10 hours of sales insights. 

You better believe we'll be attending this event and we invite you to join us too!  Click 'Save My Seat' to register:

Why I love working with startups

I recently sat down with a gentleman named Ed who recently started a hearing-aid business. He has investors, suppliers, and is ready to take his product to market and begin establishing some test data and case studies. He was referred to me through a mutual friend who said, "You need to talk to these guys - they're the experts at helping small businesses grow!"

When Ed and I sat down, he cast for me the vision of what he was hoping to do with his business. He's passionate and is confident that the viability and market-demand of his product means huge success for him and his company. He was also completely confident that he didn't know everything he needed to know about growing his business.

I wrote an article a few weeks ago around coachability. This character trait is, for the most part, a given with entrepreneurs and small business owners. They're smart folks, with a lot of passion, and their driven to achieve success. But they're also willing to take risks, fail fast, and learn from other, smarter people around them.

This is why I love working with startups. When people like Ed come in and say, "This is where I want to be in a year. How can I get there?" I know that we can help them achieve monumental success. 

On the other hand, when a new client comes on board saying, "This is exactly what I want you to do. I'm doing it now, and it works," it becomes extremely difficult to make recommendations and develop a partnership that sets both of us up for longterm success.

Whether you're a startup, a small business looking to grow, or an established, growing organization looking to supplement your ongoing business development strategies, it's important to take a step back from what you think you already know and listen to the people around you. Be bold, try new things, take risks and make big bets, and when it fails, be ready to up your ante, jump back in the saddle and keep going (tons of metaphors in there - pick your favorite).