Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Sep 28, 2009 @ 01:03 AM
One of the complaints I most often hear from inside sales reps that take my telesales courses is that they don't get enough leads. Whether you get your leads from lists, whitepaper downloads, your own lead qualification reps, or any other source, you're probably missing a significant amount of business in your territory if you're not subscribing (and reading!) at least one trade publication that addresses experts in your solution area. This is really an old-fashioned idea, and one that still works. Best of all, I'll bet your competitors aren't doing it. So today's post is about beating your competition. And I'll give you a real-world example of what I'm talking about, because it worked for me, and the publication still exists. If you sell into the market I sold into, you can use it too. And if you don't, you can take my story and plug it into your solution set and prospect base, too, and go out and subscribe to a magazine that fits your needs similarly.
Back when I was an inside rep, I sold software and application development tools like debuggers, in-circuit emulators, and regression testers. Our standard trade publications were the EE Times, Dr. Dobb's Journal, and a few others. But the one I loved was Crosstalk, the Journal of Defense Engineering. That publication, published at Hill Air Force Base, addressed issues and situations involving how the Department of Defense built and maintained software (still does). Every issue was packed with information on who was building what. I subscribed free (you still can), and every month I'd take a couple of hours out of my Saturday, skim it (still do, I'm hooked), and highlight names and projects. Monday I'd call those highlighted folks and made sure they knew about my solutions and what we did. And man, did I sell a lot of stuff to the DoD. Most of those folks were experts, and rarely showed up on lists. The only way I could find them was by reading about them. And they always enjoyed talking to me because I'd read about them.
So here's where I'm going with this. Whatever you sell, there are trade publications where experts in your industry talk about solutions. I want you to subscribe to a paper copy, so you can get away from your computer on the weekend, sit in an easy chair with a highlighter, and skim material that will be important to you. Seriously carve out a couple of weekend hours to do it. I don't recommend doing this online, because everything else in the world gets in the way, email, YouTube, and random thoughts turned to web searches. And when you do allocate time to digest the material, what will happen is this: you'll get names of high level people, and you'll finding out what's bugging them that your solution can help fix. Unbelievably, your voicemails will get returned, admins will put you through, and you'll have real productive conversations because you'll know an awful lot about the business your prospects are in, from the inside out. I train and coach hundreds of telesales reps each year, and I know most of them aren't doing this (they should be, after my classes, though). So if you're having a slow time getting to prospects in these tough economic times, ensure that you're reading and working those trade mags. As Gomez Addams used to say, "Ahh, the old ways are best." So add mining those trade publications to your Best Practices Playbook to find those important and lucrative prospects you'd otherwise never find.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Sep 21, 2009 @ 01:01 AM
Some of the most talented female inside sales directors and managers I've met have gone on to starting their own companies or becoming independent consultants, rather than remaining in high tech sales for a corporate entity. With very few exceptions, none of these women have held the title of VP of Sales, in which they ran both inside and field sales. This is not the case for many of the men who've moved up the ranks from individual telesales contributors to becoming sales executives. Fact is, in my 20-odd years in the business, I just haven't seen talented women move up the sales exec ladder the way men have.
Today's post is a starting point to open up some dialogue within our industry about why so few of our female telesales managers and directors move into executive sales management roles. Here are three possible reasons, but I'm open to more: 1) They're not talented enough, that's why they're in inside (vs. field) sales; 2) They lack field sales experience, which means they won't gain the respect of the field sales force; 3) The "glass ceiling" is in full force, and the men in charge don't want to muddy the male waters with women sales execs, no matter how talented they may be. Let's discuss each of these three for a moment. And because this blog gets quite a bit of traction around the internet these days, in the interest of full disclosure, the writer of this blog is a guy. So let's fire away and look at each question...
Women don't often evolve from the role of inside sales director or manager to that of a high level sales executive because:
1) They're not talented enough, that's why they're in inside (vs. field) sales. The prejudice that many field-based sales people have against inside sales people is a fact that has been around as long as insides sales people began taking revenue away from them. A common fallacy still quite popular is that if inside sales people were any good, they'd have been field reps. Yet, from the "inside-out" view, many of the best inside reps like the idea of not having to travel, and have superior qualification skills. In many cases, they close faster, and with high-ticket items, too. As one sales exec told me once, "remember, Boeing sells planes over the phone." The "lack of sales talent" argument here just doesn't wash.
2) They lack field sales experience, which means they won't gain the respect of the field sales force. Field experience by itself doesn't gain anyone any respect. If a rep doesn't produce with real numbers, regardless of whether he or she is in inside or field sales, then professional credibility just isn't there. I've personally known many inside sales reps that successfully "carried a bag" prior to becoming an inside rep, both men and women. Also, does this argument can work the other way around? Do inside sales people disrespect upper-level sales execs solely on the basis of the fact that they haven't sold inside? Not in my experience. In addition, thousands of inside reps have forged mutually-respectful relationships with field reps, where they partner together as equals to close deals (and are equally-commissioned, too).
3) The "glass ceiling" is in full force, and the men in charge don't want to muddy the male waters with women sales execs, no matter how talented they may be. Over the past 20 years, thousands on businesswomen have learned to excel at golf. Many (but certainly not all) of them took up the sport as a way to open up a better dialogue with upper-level male executives that traditionally ran most companies. Men tend to be "clubby," and many women saw --- and still see --- joining in on traditionally male-oriented social venues as a way to break through the invisible corporate walls that prevented them from succeeding on talent and ability alone. Does the "glass ceiling" still exist for women attempting to move up the sales ladder?
I suppose it can be argued that in a traditional male-female relationship, when a couple has a baby, it's most often that the man that returns to work, rather than the woman (but careful! The concept of "family" is changing in today's diverse workforce). Often, though, women do return to the working environment after having a child. And not all women elect to have a child, either.
Let me throw a statistic in here that's food for thought. I actually keep records of individual inside sales reps that take my telesales training courses. At last analysis, roughly 133 of them have evolved from starting as telesales reps to becoming sales or marketing managers or directors. 29 of them (22% of the total) were women. But looking at executive-level position (VP or higher) of the 20 that graduated to that level, only 1 (5% of that total) was a woman. That's a pretty big discrepancy. My numbers certainly aren't a large sampling, but they do lead to a few questions that need to be asked.
1) Does the glass ceiling exist for women within the sales executive dynamic?
2) If it does, is it:
a) because women are traditionally linked to inside sales?
b) because they're perceived to be less talented?
c), because they have not socially integrated with men at the executive level?
d) because many men refuse to hire a woman to work as a sales exec, for any reason?
3) If the glass ceiling exists, are we experiencing a "brain-drain" within the sales business, as many of our best and brightest leave enterprise companies due to lack of opportunity?
Sometimes I think that we Americans complain too much, particularly about issues in the workplace. When I hear a lot of these complaints, I just want to tell the complainers to be quiet and go back to work. But when I look at my own statistics, then see how they apparently track throughout our industry, I'm wondering if there isn't a valid complaint right here.
For our country to remain successful and innovative businesswise, we absolutely must hire and promote on the basis of creativity, business-savvy, and superior communication skills. We can't afford to ignore our best and brightest as we promote.
Have we got a problem here? Maybe we do. And if we do, how badly is our business suffering because of it?
What do you think?
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Sep 14, 2009 @ 01:23 AM
Last week's post described why I feel side-by-side, at-desk coaching is a far more effective management technique than call monitoring, which is done remotely. The prime reason coaching works better than monitoring is the immediacy of behavior change.
In monitoring, discussing the call even one hour later isn't very good, because the rep has gone onto other calls, and may not remember what thought processes triggered his or her actions on the call. And "gotcha" moments aren't very much fun for the reps, either. By contrast, coaching is done at the rep's desk, in real time. It provides an opportunity for immediate success and enhances team communication, initially between the rep and the manager, and later, through sharing of best practices, throughout the entire inside team as well. As I mentioned last week, coaching is way more permissible, legally, than monitoring, according to some guidelines cobbled together by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
As a manager, it's critically important for you to allow the rep to gain a "win" immediately after feedback, and the best way to do it is to coach your reps while they're in the process of making actual calls. That doesn't mean handing them scraps of paper telling them what to say during a call, either. During the call, a good coach sits back, listens, and takes good notes. After the call, you can debrief. And if the rep missed something vital on the call, he or she can call the prospect right back, while you're sitting there, and fix it. After that second call, the rep will have demonstrably shown improvement, and both of you walk away with a win. Not only that, the rep will, in all probability, welcome your presence and opinions at future coaching dates.
Here are six great steps to becoming a superior inside sales coach:
1) Your rep may be a little nervous with you sitting in the cube. Be sure to begin your session by asking if there's anything in particular the rep would like you to listen for.
2) Ask the rep to describe the prospect and sales situation into which he or she will be calling.
3) After the rep begins the call, say nothing until the call has finished. Do not prompt the rep in any fashion or give him or her written pointers during the call. Even if you're jumping out of your shoes, ready with a great suggestion, let the rep finish the call on his or her own.
4) After the call, begin by telling the rep what you liked about the call. Be sincere, and describe, from your notes, what you liked about the call.
5) If there are areas for improvement, discuss them, and ask if the rep agrees with you. If he or she doesn't, have a discussion about it, and describe why those areas are critical.
6) Ask the rep to call the prospect right back, right while you're sitting there, and address the areas for improvement you just discussed. The prospect won't be offended by the return call. In fact, he or she will be pleased that the rep thought enough about the conversation to call back.
We teach these coaching techniques in our coaching classes for managers, but you can begin employing them right now. Improving rep performance is an educative process, and giving your reps instant wins is critical to behavioral change. If you're currently monitoring instead of coaching, please reconsider coaching as a faster and more effective way to improve the performance of your inside sales and lead qualification reps. And add coaching to your Best Practices playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Tue, Sep 08, 2009 @ 01:13 AM
Today's post is for managers, but you telesales reps will want to read this, too, because it affects a lot of you directly. It's about a practice common in the inside sales business that is widespread, and not as effective as a lot of managers think it is. It's called call monitoring.
Monitoring is the practice in which inside sales managers, from their own desks, listen to taped or real-time inside sales calls from their reps. In this practice, managers take notes on the call and then later review the call with the rep at some future time. So what's wrong with that? Since the rep cannot immediately achieve success by correcting call issues immediately, effective learning-by-doing doesn't occur. Discussing the call even one hour later isn't very good, because the rep has gone onto other calls, and may not remember what thought processes triggered his or her actions on the call. And "gotcha" moments aren't very much fun for the reps, either.
There is a better way to ensure rep success, and it's called side-by-side coaching. It's done at the rep's desk, in real time. It provides an opportunity for immediate success and enhances team communication, initially between the rep and the manager, and later, through sharing of best practices, throughout the entire inside team as well. In addition, coaching is way more permissible, legally, than monitoring, according to some guidelines cobbled together by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
I've long been an advocate of coaching inside sales reps as a more effective alternative to monitoring calls. Let's face it, all reps want to improve their inside sales skills, to accelerate the sales cycle and make more money. That's a real motivator. They want their managers to partner with them to achieve success, but monitoring is often perceived as micro-managing, because it's done from afar, and doesn't allow for the rep to give immediate feedback. As a manager, it's critically important for you to allow the rep to gain a "win" immediately after feedback, and the best way to do it is to coach your reps while they're in the process of making actual calls. That doesn't mean handing them scraps of paper telling them what to say during a call, either. During the call, a good coach sits back, listens, and takes good notes. After the call, you can debrief. And if the rep missed something vital on the call, he or she can call the prospect right back, while you're sitting there, and fix it. After that second call, the rep will have demonstrably shown improvement, and both of you walk away with a win. Not only that, the rep will, in all probability, welcome your presence and opinions at future coaching dates.
How effective is side-by-side coaching? Here's a statistic that's pretty telling: over 130 inside sales reps that have taken my telesales courses have become sales managers or execs, and they did so by learning to think like managers, while they were reps. And many of them tell us that those coaching sessions we conducted served as the template they use today when coaching their own reps. Yes, we do teach managers how to coach in our coaching classes for managers, but for those of you that haven't taken our classes, in next week's post, I'll give you 6 great tips on what you can do to either jump start or improve your own coaching techniques right now.
To sum up: Improving rep performance is an educative process, and giving your reps instant wins is critical to behavioral change. If you're currently monitoring instead of coaching, please reconsider coaching as a faster and more effective way to improve the performance of your inside sales and lead qualification reps. Add side-by-side coaching to your Best Practices playbook.