Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Sales Pipeline

Metadata

• Title: Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Sales Pipeline
• Author: Marylou Tyler and Jeremey Donovan
• Book URL: https://amazon.com/dp/B01H5SHIYU?tag=malvaonlin-20
• Open in Kindle: kindle://book/?action=open&asin=B01H5SHIYU
• Last Updated on: Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Highlights & Notes

It is almost impossible for a single salesperson to balance prospecting and closing in a way that delivers consistent results. To get predictability in revenue, you have to have predictability in lead generation. The way to achieve that is by having dedicated prospectors who feed experienced closers.

The second breakthrough idea was that phone- and e-mail-based outbound prospecting is the most predictable way to create qualified appointments.

prospects don’t care what you do. They care about what you do for them.

Prospects need to connect with you and to trust you as a partner who is helping them achieve their goals.

Broadly speaking, a complete sales training program consists of insight into (1) specific clients and their use cases; (2) the company’s products, marketing, competitive positioning, and so on; (3) selling skills such as communication, time management, goal setting, and negotiating; (4) technology platforms, especially customer relationship management (CRM) tools; and (5) sales processes.

An Ideal Account Profile is simply a set of market segments that meet the criteria of high lifetime value and high likelihood of purchasing.

Microbusiness and/or small office or home office: 10 employees or fewer; up to $5million;228,657companiesSmallbusiness:11to100employees;$5 million to $50million;114,187companiesMediumbusiness:101to1,000employees;$50 million to $500million;23,653companiesLargeenterprise:1,001to10,000employees;$500 million to $5billion;5,119companiesExtra-largeenterprise:Morethan10,000employees;over$5 billion; 983 companies

There is an old adage in sales that it takes as much effort to win a deal with a large company as it does a small one. If that assumption is correct, then why not just focus on selling to the Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000? As of 2015, all Fortune 500 companies fit in the extra-large enterprise category by revenue ranging from number 1 Walmart at $485billiontonumber500McGraw-HillFinancialat$5.2 billion. The Fortune 1000 cuts off at E*TRADE Financial with revenue of $2.0 billion. The problem is that it is actually easier to sell to smaller companies. Jumbo companies are highly risk averse, and they have many hoops to jump through; it takes only one no to scuttle the deal. Moreover, competition is more intense when trying to sell to a Fortune 1000 company.

CEO Mark Benioff confirmed this by saying, “It turned out to be a very good decision to focus more attention on smaller businesses. The close rates were high, and the sales time and cost of sale were low. We experienced phenomenal growth in this area and expanded from 4 sales reps to 20 reps in just six months.”

Being able to achieve actionable insight on message depends on knowing who the buyers are, what they care about, and how they communicate.

The only knowledge and skills worth outlining are those that strongly differentiate the target persona from similar but less attractive professionals.

Parsing job postings is the most efficient and effective way to develop a holistic picture of the objectives included in an Ideal Prospect Persona. It is important that the jobs chosen to parse are the ones posted by the companies that match the ideal customer profile and are for positions matching the target job title.

When making initial contact via phone or e-mail, a sales representative must understand and acknowledge the prospects’ current level of purchase intent and work to advance that intent one or more stages into the buying cycle. Since prospects contacted during an outbound campaign are typically in the unaware stage, messaging should focus on education directed at the problem rather than on the features of the salesperson’s products or the bona fides of her company. One may conjecture that inbound leads are aware, interested, or evaluating. However, all inbound leads are not created equal. While an inbound prospect requesting a demo will at least be interested, another prospect who merely downloaded a white paper on industry best practices may be just as unaware as a random outbound contact. Hence, both content and context matter in crafting messages for Predictable Prospecting.

The first set of resources is discussion boards, especially those on LinkedIn Groups and Quora. More broadly, sales professionals should search anywhere they know their prospects and customers congregate, such as blogs and industry and trade websites. Among all of the options, we find Quora especially useful because participants formulate issues in the form of questions that get Upvoted by other readers.

The Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a great starting point since it is a hybrid of both subsets and relies on an incredibly sophisticated algorithm.

Get a second opinion by using one of the countless Internet options by simply searching “keyword generator” (without quotation marks). Our favorite sites are Ranksonic.com, Keywordtool.io, and ubersuggest.org. We even built one of our own, which you can check out at keyword-oracle.com. In contrast to Google’s Keyword Planner, these tools are narrower in scope, allowing users to view suggestions after entering either a URL or a phrase.

Keep in mind that messages designed to move prospects from unaware to aware and from aware to interested are primarily if not wholly emotional. Messages designed to move prospects from interested to evaluating and from evaluating to purchase are predominantly rational.

Obstacle presents a single problem and/or challenge from the prospect’s perspective. Often, one can leap right into the problem; other times, a sentence or two is necessary to provide situational context. Outcome presents the solution. Dramatic examples of how a salesperson has helped other customers turn their businesses around, particularly those similar to the target prospect, represent better solutions than product benefits. Opportunity refocuses attention on the prospect and provides a single call to action. We emphasize single because sales professionals often cram multiple calls to action into a single e-mail or voice mail. As we will explore deeply in the next chapter, Predictable Prospecting involves many touches, providing ample time to try out different problem-solution sets and a variety of calls to action in front of any given prospect.

Subject: Inbound Lead Generation Survey Findings Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, We recently surveyed 500 CMOs at information technology companies about their marketing strategies, and I thought you’d like to see the results. The survey reveals that the number one priority for marketing leaders is increasing the number of inbound leads. However, only 10 percent of those same leaders felt their programs were highly successful. You can download the report now to discover the best practices of companies with winning inbound lead generation programs. Warm regards, <Rep_First_Name>

One of the biggest mistakes sales professionals make is assuming that prospects are ready to buy from the moment of first contact.

Over the course of several days, we saved and analyzed 281 unsolicited sales and marketing e-mails. Among those, 43 percent asked for a meeting! Although it is possible for individuals to skip buying-cycle stages, we recommend crafting Predictable Prospecting messaging with the goal of moving forward one stage at a time. To that end, we begin by crafting content designed to move a prospect from unaware to aware. This process, especially if it contains great messaging, increases the prospects’ awareness of the problem and their trust in the ability of a company and salesperson to provide a low-risk, high-return solution. During outbound campaigns, the salesperson should start with the expectation that prospects are unaware or unappreciative of the problem or of the salesperson’s ability to solve it. When prospects are unaware, it is too soon to ask for a meeting. Instead, the relationship should be initiated by the salesperson by sharing resources that are brief, high value, educational, and product-agnostic such as blog posts, infographics, and video clips.

• Importante

The more personalized the communication, the higher the likelihood of a response. It’s true that personalized communications take time to research and write, but with plenty of inexpensive and sophisticated e-mail marketing tools available, mass-personalized communications easily eliminate the need to ever deploy fully generic messages.

From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Mobile Optimization Renaissance Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, I thought you’d find this article on mobile optimization helpful—about 50 percent of consumers say they won’t return to a website if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile device, meaning nearly half of potential customers could be turned away if a website isn’t optimized correctly. <Blog_Post_URL> If you’d like to learn more about our approach to optimizing and creating breakthrough mobile experiences, I’d love to set up a short call. Are you available anytime in the upcoming weeks? Or, if you don’t oversee the digital agency selection process, would you please refer me to the best contact? Thank you, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number> <Rep_Company_URL> *<Rep_Company_Name> is a digital agency that lives at the intersection of marketing and technology. We design and develop award-winning mobile solutions for clients such as FreshDirect, IDT, and Hewlett-Packard.

This e-mail demonstrates many best practices for engaging prospects in the unaware stage. We appreciate that the e-mail appears to have been sent by a real person: it has a nongeneric sender address, it is written in simple text without images, and it has a normal signature. Of the 281 unsolicited sales and marketing e-mails we received, 66 percent came from what appeared to be a real person’s e-mail address. The other one-third were the equivalent of presorted postal mail and faced the same fate of being sent straight to trash without a moment’s consideration.

MailChimp, a popular e-mail marketing service provider, analyzed 40 million e-mails sent via their platform and concluded, “This might sound dead simple, but here you have it: your subject line should (drum roll please) describe the subject of your e-mail. Yep, that’s it… . When it comes to e-mail marketing, the best subject…

Urgency is king. “Subject lines that convey a sense of urgency were the top performers.” Effective keywords include “still time,” “limited time,” and “expiring.” Though ReturnPath did not comment on the word…

Subject line length does not matter! While the majority of e-mails have subject lines between 41 and 50 characters, there was no correlation between subject line length and read rate. The only noticeably bad length is anything over 100 characters. In our 281-e-mail sample, the average subject line length was 44 characters, and only 3 percent were over 100 characters—the longest of which, 115 characters, read as follows: “<Live…

Prospects want new, fast, elegant, and easy but not cheap solutions. The keywords “new,” “fastest,” “prettiest,” and “easiest” had a positive influence on read rates. However, almost every word describing price had a negative impact, including “cheapest,” “clearance,” “sale,” percent,” “$,” and “free.” As…

Prospects can smell clickbait from a mile away. The provocative subject line “Shocking secrets you won’t believe” is about as ineffective as it gets because the words “shocking,” “secret,” and “won’t believe” all perform well below average. The only phrase of this ilk that works…

Call-to-action words are effective. Imperative words, such as “register,” “open,” and, to a lesser extent, “download,” have a positive influence on read rates, but “buy” and “call”…

Nobody wants to read about you or your news. “Announcing,” “introducing,” “learn,” “read,” and “see” all perform poorly since they ask recipients to expend effort with little implied benefit, as do the personal pronouns “I,” “me,” my,” and “our.” By the same token, please do not send out press releases,…

Convey concrete, immediately actionable recommendations. “Steps” and “ways” work better…

Subject line name personalization, particularly using both first and last names, is highly effective. (Note: In our study of 281 e-mails, 89 percent had no subject line personalization, 5 percent included only one of our company names, 5 percent included only the first name for one of us, and 1 percent included both of our first names and both company names. None included both first and last names, suggesting this practice may have gone out of vogue. Another study by…

“Thank you” is highly effective, but this may be because the phrase is common in confirmation e-mails and therefore not…

Capitalizing the first letter of every word is better than capitalizing only the first letter of the first word. (Exclamation marks and ALL…

“Sign up” is not effective. It implies effort with…

Subject lines that pose questions…

The body of the e-mail is also well crafted. Rather than starting with the overused and ineffective “My name is <rep_first_name> from <rep_company>,” the text opens with value by offering exactly what we prescribe—a short, educational, and product-agnostic resource. The text immediately establishes the problem: “Nearly half of potential customers could be turned away if a website isn’t optimized correctly.”

Let’s turn briefly to hyperpersonalized messaging for unaware prospects. In broad brushstrokes, the e-mail should read as follows: From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: <Hyperpersonalized_Subject_Line> <Prospect_First_Name>, I noticed <relevant_professional_or_business_finding_from_precadence_research>. The reason for my e-mail is that I’d like to share how we partnered with <company_similar_to_prospect’s_organization> to achieve <results_relevant_to_prospect>. Do you have time for a quick call to explore whether or not we might be a fit for <accelerating_a_specific_prospect_initiative_or_solving_a_specific_prospect_problem>? Please advise, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number> <Rep_Company_URL>

The following is a good example of a mass-personalized e-mail designed to move a prospect from the aware stage to the interested stage: From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Simplified Analytics Dear <Prospect_First_Name>, I thought you would find this Gartner Market Guide valuable as the quarter is still at an early start. Predictability for the Sales Executive: Simplifying Machine Learning Analytics for Sales & Marketing Expectations for growth and revenue have never been higher for sales teams than they are today. Fortunately, the technology we now have available is making it possible for companies to have a predictable pipeline. <Company_Name> is revolutionizing the sales process by making the forecast more reliable, enriching data in the CRM, and applying smart analytics to define, align, and evolve. Find out how you can start closing 90 percent of your forecasted deals here. Thanks, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Title>

it is considered a best practice to include links three times: once at the beginning, once in the middle, and once at the end.

To recap: Provide value, set up the problem, suggest the existence of multiple solutions, present the company and/or product and its high-level value proposition, and embed a single (although it’s fine if it is repeated) call to action. In all, the body of this e-mail is a mere 104 words. By comparison the average body length of the 281 e-mails we studied was 253, or more than double that.

Once a prospect is interested, the salesperson has the opportunity to provide an array of resources proving the company’s differentiated ability to solve the problem. Effective assets designed to move a prospect from interested to evaluating include case studies, testimonials, product reviews, product-centric webinars, on-demand demonstration videos, comparison charts, and discovery meetings.

Here is an example of a mass-personalized e-mail we received that encouraged us to register for a product-centric webinar: From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Exclusive Invitation for <Prospect_Company_Name> Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, On behalf of <Rep_Company>, I would personally like to invite you to an exclusive preview we are hosting on <Event_Date_and_Time>, where our <Executive_Title>, <Executive_Name> will be giving a tour of <Company’s_Product>. This <short_product_description> is being released on <Release_Date>, and we are pleased to offer you a first peek at this new and exciting subscription-based service. Please join us to see firsthand how <Company’s_Product> empowers you to enhance your market research and deliver tangible results by: • <Benefit_1> • <Benefit_2> • <Benefit_3> Please reserve your spot at: <Registration_Page_URL>. (Please note: Space is limited. Deadline to sign up is <RSVP_Date>.) If you’re not able to attend on this date, please reach out to me directly, and we can arrange a personal demonstration. Sincerely, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Title>, <Rep_Company> <Rep_Phone>

As one might expect, e-mails and voice mails in this stage must be completely personalized and must offer superior value in the form of trials (free or paid), consultative diagnostics, ROI calculators, references, and, ultimately, proposals. Many of these assets are scarce, expensive, time-consuming, or all three. Hence, they should be leveraged only when a salesperson has a reasonably high degree of confidence that a prospect is near purchase.

The following e-mail is from a sales executive who completed a consultative analysis, an audit of inbound sales response effectiveness, for one of the authors: From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Results of Interviews/<Prospect_Company_Name> Sales Process Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, As we talked about in our conversation a couple of weeks ago, I’ve reviewed the “response audit” we provided, and I have taken it a couple of steps further. I took information gathered from you and your team, and we’ve come up with some recommendations and a couple of case studies (see attached). A couple of points: • Each rep is spending at least 40 minutes per day leaving voice mails (7,280 hours per year for the team). We can help you get much of that time back. • Inbound calling time is not measured or monitored, and that seems to be where a lot of sales value-added is occurring (or being lost). We can help you track, measure, and tune inbound activities. • We can minimize inter-team conflicts (different teams going after the same business); we can help draw clear lines within the Salesforce.com environment. • Sixty dials is a great metric. Ten percent contact rate isn’t. We can help you increase that contact rate. Take a look at the document, and let me know your thoughts. Based on what we’ve learned, I’d like to talk further about the possibility of implementing <Rep_Product> concurrently with Salesforce. I believe we can present a strong business case. Sincerely, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Title> <Rep_Phone>

Once a salesperson does accept a lead, it advances into the Working contact status. Some sales organizations refer to this status as Attempting, Contacting, or sales accepted lead (SAL), and we will concentrate the bulk of this chapter on this contact status since advancement to the next stage depends upon securing this first meeting. If the salesperson is unable to secure a meeting either because the prospect was unresponsive or was unambiguously uninterested, then the contact status should be set to No response or interest so the prospect can be returned to automated nurturing after a cooling off period. Critically, the Predictable Prospecting system recommends holding prospects in the Leads category for as short a time as possible, which is why accepted New leads advance to Working contacts. By way of reminder, most CRM systems treat leads as independent entities. Leads convert to contacts when associated with a new or existing account. In addition, the account (and selected contacts) may be linked to a new or existing opportunity. We strongly prefer working prospects as contacts rather than as leads in order to have a persistent picture of inbound and outbound prospect activities for a holistic view of what is happening in each account. After that most important first meeting is secured, the prospect advances to Qualifying contact status, sometimes labeled Converting. (The next chapter covers this richly detailed and highly nuanced stage.) If the prospect fails to meet qualifying criteria, the salesperson sets the account status to Disqualified so the prospect may return to automated nurturing. Once a lead is qualified, it converts to the Closing contact status. If all goes well, a prospect advances to the final contact status, Customer, commonly labeled as Client, Transacted or Won, or simply Won. Alternatively, if the prospect does not purchase, the account status is set to Lost and returned to automated nurturing.

for those organizations using the ubiquitous BANT approach, one would have Disqualified—budget, Disqualified—authority, Disqualified—need, and Disqualified—timing.

the right reason to add a lead or contact status item is if the new item is crucial for optimizing pipeline velocity and success. For instance, if prospects begin to pile up in the New Queue, then marketing may need to increase its scoring threshold to provide fewer higher-quality leads. Or if prospects get stuck in the Qualifying Queue, then the qualification process likely needs evaluation and additional structure. Avoid adding granularity when doing so only enhances reporting. For example, it may not matter from a sales process optimization perspective whether contacts were not responsive versus not interested in which case the deeper…

The top of the sales funnel starts with a robust volume of prospects in the New lead status queue who, importantly, match the ideal prospect profile. At a high level, there are two…

Inbound leads are generally the most desirable since they indicate some degree of recent exposure to the salesperson’s company or products or some degree of recently expressed interest in solving a problem addressed by the salesperson’s company. Most inbound leads come from digital and traditional marketing programs, including digital content marketing (webinars, white papers, blog subscriptions, and so on), trade show badge scans, and events. Response time for online leads is particularly critical as proven by an oft-cited study jointly conducted by MIT and InsideSales.com.1 The researchers found the odds of contacting a lead are 100 times higher in the first 5 minutes compared to the first 30 minutes and 10 times higher in the first hour compared to all longer durations combined; the odds of reaching a prospect exhibit rapid exponential decay. Even more importantly, the odds of qualifying a lead, which the researchers defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker, are 21 times higher in the first…

Outbound leads can be broken down into three types, two of which we recommend. The best starts with an organization’s house list. Usually, the most valuable prospects on a house list are former clients, followed by prospects lost after qualification, followed by prospects who were disqualified, followed by prospects who were not interested or did not reply to prior attempts to set a discovery meeting. In addition, many sales and marketing organizations supplement their house list by gathering ideal prospects from high-quality sources such as LinkedIn. The next best type is rented lists. Among rented lists, the best ones for B2B are supplied by trade publications since prospects are fresher and have opted in. In the case of e-mail-only (or direct-mail-only) lists, the owner deploys a campaign on the renter’s behalf not only reducing effort but also protecting the e-mail reputation of the renter. (…

The third type, and one which we do not recommend, is purchased lists. If a provider is willing to sell a list, the list has almost certainly been spammed beyond recognition, collected through illicit or unethical means, or filled with out-of-date records.

Regardless of source, all lists must be judiciously cleaned before distributing contacts to salespeople. In our experience, the three most important fields to append and verify are e-mail address, phone number, and LinkedIn profile URL. With respect to phone number, strive to acquire the direct dial. If you cannot obtain the direct dial, then try to find a number to access the company’s dial-by-name directory; access the dial-by-name directory from voice mail using the key combinations shown in Table 5-2. Worst case, you will need to dial the company’s main number. If you end up in this last situation, be prepared to develop a friendship with the switchboard operator.

A sample list replenish waterfall looks like this for every 100 records: 3 prospects are actively looking for a solution. 7 are open to hearing about what you have to offer. 30 know they do not want your product. 30 aren’t sure how relevant your product is for them. 30 don’t know they need what you have. Given these numbers, it is likely that after one full prospecting cycle, approximately 40 percent (3 percent actives plus 7 percent maybes plus 30 percent don’t want it) of your initial list needs to be replaced for the next prospecting cycle.

As a New Queue lead source, referred leads are distinct from inbound and outbound leads. Referral programs generate higher win rates, faster deal velocity, and higher lifetime value. In addition, customers who provide referrals are likely to have higher retention rates, even when compared to other customers with the same satisfaction, due to the psychological principle of consistency.

One of our favorite turns of phrase describing the most important factor of a successful referral program is “Be referable.” When a company delights its customers with exceptional product and service experiences, customers are delighted to provide referrals as a gift to their friends and colleagues.

Current customers are often the best source of referrals, but they are not the only source. Particularly in B2B, a customer’s social sphere is limited to colleagues and vendors; customers are unlikely to know and highly unlikely to provide references to their counterpart at a competitor. When the direct route doesn’t work, there is an effective indirect route. First, ask a customer to connect you with their other favorite vendors or partners. Then, simply trade leads informally or formally (via affiliate marketing) with complementary suppliers. Finally, include employees across the company in lead referral programs.

The best referral programs are characterized by the following: Simplicity: Make everything about the referral program simple and easy, including communications, landing pages, and forms. Transparency: Provide transparency at the beginning, middle, and end of the referral process. At the beginning, share details about how the referral process will work, and convey the program’s benefits for the customer and the referral. Include the customer in the cc or bcc (with disclosure) in the first e-mail communication with the referred lead. During the process, provide the customer with the means to check referral status. Finally, provide closure to the customer whether the deal results in a win or a loss. Incentives: Provide appropriate monetary and/or nonmonetary incentives to both the customer and the referred lead. Incentives should not be so large as to be judged a bribe and must comply with applicable laws and with the customer’s business ethics policies. In most cases, this means monetary rewards should be less than $100 per referral. Quite often, nonmonetary incentives are a better choice, especially those tied directly to the product or service (for example, beta tests, priority support, or added features). Donations to charity are another compelling option.

Though it falls into the “simplicity” category, we have saved the ultimate referral best practice for last. Most salespeople approach referral requests in an open-ended way. However, there is a simple way to increase your odds of success and make it easy for your prospects to help. Check your client’s LinkedIn profile and identify three to five connections that you want to engage as prospects. Then ask your client for permission to mention him or her in your communications to the prospect. It truly is that simple.

The goal of the first meeting, especially with complex B2B sales, is not necessarily full-blown qualification; rather, the goal is to determine “Are we a fit?”

toughing it out for six calls instead of one can increase the chances of making contact from the mid-30s to as high as 90 percent!

SalesLoft found prospects replied to 2.7 percent of generic e-mails and to 8.0 percent of personalized e-mails.

The first piece of information should be about the prospects as individuals. For B2B sales, seek professional information starting with LinkedIn and possibly Twitter.

Touch 1, Day 1, E-mail, Call to Action (CTA): Internal Referral From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Potential Lead Generation Partnership Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, I’m just checking in to see if you are the person responsible for lead generation at <Prospect_Company_Name>. If you aren’t the right person to contact, can you please forward me on to someone more appropriate? Please advise, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number>

From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Sales Messaging at <Prospect_Company> <Prospect_First_Name>, If you are focused on driving growth in 2016 through new sales messaging at <Prospect_Company>, our firm could potentially help. Through our , <Company_Name> specializes in equipping B2B salespeople to <value_proposition>. Clients including <companies_similar_to_prospect_company>, partner with <Company_Name> to create . I would be happy to share <specific_work_samples> that have led to consistent results. Is the timing right for a brief meeting regarding 2016 priorities? Best, <Rep_First_Name>

From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Should I Contact Jeremey Donovan? <Prospect_First_Name>, You may or may not have seen the e-mail below. As you consider whether a conversation with <Company_Name> makes sense based on current <Prospect_Company> priorities, I wanted to provide additional background to help determine if there is any relevancy. Recent client scenario: <Company_Name> was engaged by <company_similar_to prospect_company> to <value_proposition_with_link_to_case_study>. <Short_description_of_the_case_study_including_ROI-focused_outcome.> If you would like to learn more about , please send a quick reply and we can set up a short web meeting. If someone like Jeremey Donovan is a better contact for these topics, please send me in the right direction. Best, <Rep_First_Name>

Touch 2, Day 3, E-mail, CTA: Internal Referral From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Re: Potential Lead Generation Partnership Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, Hope you’re doing well! Just wanted to shoot you a quick note to follow up on my e-mail from the other day. We recently surveyed 500 CMOs at information technology companies about their marketing strategies. The survey has revealed that the No. 1 priority for marketing leaders is increasing the number of inbound leads. However, only 10 percent of those same leaders felt their programs were highly successful. Are you the right person to share the survey results with? If not, can you please refer me to the person in charge of lead generation? Thanks, <Rep_First_Name> Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, I’m just checking in to see if you are the person responsible for lead generation at <Prospect_Company_Name>. If you aren’t the right person to contact, can you please forward me on to someone more appropriate? Please advise, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number>

Yes, salespeople have to sell. However, ethics wins in a relationship-driven world. Sales guru Zig Ziglar said it best, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

• Importante

Touch 3, Day 6, E-mail, CTA: Unaware to Aware Asset Click From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Lead Generation Infographic Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, We just synthesized a number of lead generation best practices from the CMO Survey I mentioned last week into an infographic. The survey revealed that next-generation content assets like infographics, videos, and e-books are outperforming traditional assets like white papers and blogs. However, most CMOs are struggling to shift resources to the newer, more effective options. Check out more about content marketing and other lead generation best practices by viewing the infographic. Thanks, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number>

Here we pick from our list of short, high-value, vendor-agnostic content types such as short videos, blog posts, and infographics. Once again, we have one problem-solution and one call to action.

Touch 4, Day 8, E-mail, CTA: Secure a Meeting From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Lead Generation Insights Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, I’m a solutions advisor with <Rep_Company_Name>. We work with companies like <Prospect_Competitor_1> and <Prospect_Competitor_2> to help them increase the return on investment of their lead generation programs. Do you have 15 minutes to chat next week about how we have helped organizations like yours? We’ll know right away if it’s something that makes sense for <Prospect_Company>. Please e-mail me with a date and time that works, and I’ll send you a meeting request. Thanks, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number>

After providing value with nothing in return during the prior two touches, we have earned the right to ask for a meeting in touch 4.

Touch 5, Day 8, Phone, CTA: Secure a Meeting Hi <Prospect_First_Name>, This is <Rep_First_Name> with <Rep_Company_Name>. I sent you a few e-mails lately on a CMO survey we recently completed. Like most of our clients, I’m guessing you are pretty busy so I figured I’d reach out to you to see if you wanted me to walk through some of the findings and explore how we might work together. If you have time for a quick call, just reply back to the e-mail I sent earlier today or give me a ring. Again, it’s <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> at <Rep_Phone_Number>. Take care.

In this campaign, we wait until the fifth touch to call for two reasons. First, a sales professional should figure out if the contact is even the right person before devoting time to calling. Second, as mentioned in our commentary for touch 4, the salesperson has to set the expectation that the prospect will get value out of the relationship by giving before the prospect asks—relying on the psychological principle of reciprocity.

Voice mail scripts, such as the one above, should be written conversationally using less formal language and short sentences. Even better, consider drafting voice mail recommendations as bullets. For example: Greeting: Hyperpersonalized Benefit: Offer to walk through CMO survey findings Call to action: Reply to e-mail to set up time We strongly recommend that sales professionals practice the script to internalize it rather than memorize it. Furthermore, to sound more friendly and authentic, we encourage salespeople to stand up and smile while leaving voice mails. A salesperson will connect live with a prospect 20 to 30 percent of the time; the rate is even higher for rapid response (defined as less than 5 minutes) to inbound leads. In the happy event of reaching a person on a cold call, especially in complex B2B selling situations, we urge salespeople to resist the temptation to qualify the prospect then and there. Instead, they should use those precious moments to set up a meeting to further explore their situation and needs.

1. Introduction (Let’s make a deal.) Hi, Betty? (wait for response) I’m Wilma from SalesCo. I lead our practice serving product managers at financial services companies. I appreciate that you were not expecting my call, but let me borrow two minutes of your time. If you think we might work together, we can schedule a follow-up call. If not, you can go on with your day. (Alternative: I just want to make sure I’m calling the right person at PropsectCo. Are you responsible for new product development?) 2. Show me that you know me. I just reviewed the transcript of ProspectCo’s most recent earnings call and noticed that your CEO has committed to increasing the percentage of revenue from new products introduced in the last 18 months. Did I understand that right? (wait for answer) 3. Value pitch At SalesCo, we help product managers at financial services companies implement agile new product development practices by providing a software platform along with services and training. In fact, we just helped another Fortune 50 financial services company increase its percentage of revenue from new products to 30 percent from 20 percent. 4. Objective Since I’m assuming you are really busy right now, can we schedule a 10-minute call to discuss your business and some ideas I’d like to share?

Salespeople are ever on the hunt for effective pattern interrupts—that is, in this context, conversation starters that disrupt a prospect’s behavioral pattern for rejecting unsolicited calls.9 A couple of fresh ones to emerge include “I’m guessing I caught you at a bad time. What were you doing?” and “How do you typically handle cold calls?” A particularly interesting one we heard at a conference10 was “Are you sure you want to do that?” in response to the “Please send me an e-mail” objection. Of course, today’s killer pattern interrupt will become tomorrow’s cliché as it gains popularity in the sales community.

Social proof is extremely effective since it triggers loss aversion; people do not want to be left out of an opportunity or left behind their competitors.

One should expect objections. Here is how we would respond to the most common ones: Objection: I’m really busy right now. Response: I know you are busy, so I’ll be brief. Objection: Can you call me back next week (or next month)? Response: Sure. Let’s put a time on the calendar to reconnect. Would (specific time) on (specific day) work for you? Objection: OK, why don’t you send me some information via e-mail and I’ll have a look. Response: Sure, I’ll send you some information. Since we have a lot of material, can you give me an idea of what might be most helpful? Followed by: And let’s schedule a quick follow-up call since people find it more valuable to hear how this works given their specific needs. Objection: We already have an internal (or external) solution. Response: That’s excellent since many of our clients find that we complement the great tools they already have. Which ones are you using? Objection: I have no budget. Response: Understood. I’m really just looking to have an introductory conversation and don’t expect you to have budget right now. I’d like to understand your needs. If you see value after we meet, then I can partner with you to bring the opportunity to your colleagues. Objection: This sounds expensive. Response: Yes, I completely understand. I’m focused on my clients’ return on investment. Let’s take time to figure out if this might be valuable first. Then we can talk about price. (Note: The previous sentence is also the answer to someone who asks about price too early.) Or ask: Is this a value issue or a budget issue?

At a high level, the responses above follow the golden rule of improvisational comedy: “Yes, and …” More specifically, objection handling follows a general pattern. First, pause briefly to think. Even though the silence may feel awkward to you, the prospect either will not notice or will appreciate that you are taking the time to process what he said. Second, acknowledge the objection with empathy. To acknowledge does not necessarily mean to agree; it means to understand. In certain circumstances, saying, “That is a great question” works well. Third, ask probing questions to isolate the issue. Consider asking, “Why do you feel that way?” Fourth, handle the isolated objection. While there are many ways to do this (entire books have been written on the subject), our go-to approach is to share a specific case study of a similar client with the same objection who realized significant value. Fifth and finally, confirm that you have addressed the prospect’s concern. Ask, “Did I answer your question fully?” Then pause. You need to make sure the objection is closed so that it does not linger in the prospect’s mind and resurface. If a prospect pushes back three times, then we relent and move into referral mode: “It sounds like you are really busy, or I may not have done a great job of explaining how we can help you. Is there someone on your team I could speak with who could report back to you?”

From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Follow-up <Prospect_First_Name>, I have been trying to connect with you over the past two weeks to explore ways <Rep_Company> can help increase the ROI of your lead generation programs. Since I have not heard back from you, I’m left to draw a few possible conclusions: 1. You are all set with lead generation partners, and if that is the case, please reply with “1” so that I stop bothering you. 2. You are interested in what <Rep_Company> can do, but you are just very busy right now. If this is the case, please reply with “2.” 3. You got attacked by a lemur and want me to call for help. If that is the case, please reply with “3.” Please advise, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number>

From: <rep_e-mail_address> Subject: Follow-up <Prospect_First_Name>, I have been trying to connect with you over the past two weeks to explore ways <Rep_Company> can help increase the ROI of your lead generation programs. Since I have not heard back from you, I’m afraid I have done a poor job of showing you the value we can offer as a partner. We have made great strides helping our clients increase lead volumes and win rates. Let’s schedule a 5- to 10-minute call so that I can understand your lead generation needs. When are you free to talk? Just let me know either way, <Rep_First_Name> <Rep_Last_Name> <Rep_Phone_Number>

For starters, we think social media is more valuable as a research tool than as an outreach tool. LinkedIn and, to a lesser extent, Twitter are valuable for discovering professional interests and mutual connections. Those two channels plus Facebook also provide a glimpse into your prospects’ personal and social interests. Given how much it is possible to learn about people from their digital tracks, remember to exercise restraint so as not to be off-putting.

We recommend spending 30 to 60 minutes per day establishing a professional presence on social media. Blog, share, answer questions, and comment thoughtfully on others’ contributions, particularly those of your ideal prospects. Additionally, spend time polishing your LinkedIn profile because prospects will check you out to see if they can trust you. Some of the more important elements of the profile include your photo, your professional headline, your skills, and especially your recommendations. Avoid boasting of your sales acumen, and instead focus on the value you bring to clients. Last, with respect to recommendations, give and ye shall receive.

First, as cited earlier, a salesperson can pursue prospects who endlessly string them along. Second, a salesperson can sign up a customer who does not get sufficient value and therefore does not renew, and, possibly, becomes a vocal detractor.

AWAF criteria useful in qualifying prospects include physical or technology infrastructure, regulatory requirements, and cultural compatibility.

AWAF criteria can be any information ruling out a prospect that could not have otherwise been researched in advance.

In order to better guide the AWAF call conversation, many SDRs use a sales presentation or pitch deck. We support this practice, provided that the presentation is prospect centric, short, and high level. Here is a way to pull off this technique with as few as six slides: Slide 1: The cover slide positions the primary benefit of the product or service. Additionally, the cover slide allows time for introductory pleasantries and for confirmation of the agenda. Slide 2: If customization is warranted and/or possible (don’t guess), then this slide provides an articulation of the prospects’ top challenges. Slide 3: This slide presents solutions to challenges illustrated through one to six use cases. Slide 4: This slide expresses how the value from the solution will be realized through features and attributes. Slide 5: If the solution involves product or service options, then this slide provides an overview of the recommended configuration. (For SaaS companies, this would also be the time to conduct a demonstration.) Slide 6: This slide offers proof that the salesperson’s company can deliver value: customer logos, testimonials, independent reviews, and analyst findings.

Customized presentations, provided that they are based on adequate discovery, are better because they “show me that you know me.” However, allowing sales professionals to customize pitch decks carries two risks. The rarer, and therefore less concerning, of the two is that a salesperson will make false claims about the product in order to get the sale. The greater risk is that account executives will waste massive amounts of time modifying presentations—something we see all the time! With high legal risk aversion and a strong brand, large companies such as Salesforce.com tend to standardize sales presentations.

Presentations should be guided conversations, not one-way pitches. To make that happen, each slide should trigger a question that is answered by the next slide. The Data.com presentation started by promising to accelerate our growth. Being skeptics, we thought, “How so?” That question was answered by the solution slide (Figure 6-2) examining our use cases. Our next question, “How will you deliver improvement on those processes?” was answered by the features and attributes slide (Figure 6-3). After that, we wondered, “How will the solution be packaged and sold?” which was answered in the Figure 6-4 slide. Finally, we asked, “What proof do you have that we will get a return on our investment?” The answer, provided in Figure 6-5, set our expectations for improvements as measured by an independent, presumably objective third party.

• Importante estructura de presentaciones

Applying a broader interpretation may help: (1) budget may be expressed as money, funding, spend, or resources; (2) authority may be expressed as control, power, or responsibility; (3) need may be expressed as want, desire, opportunity, pain, challenge, goal, or plan; and (4) time frame may be expressed as urgency, schedule, or prioritization. Countless acronyms besides BANT can be formed by resequencing the first letters of these synonyms.

At a high level, the key points of the SPIN Selling approach pertaining to full qualification are as follows: Precall planning: Before the call, write down at least three potential problems that the buyer may have and that your products or services can solve. Preliminaries: Establish who you are and why you are there, and gain permission to ask questions. Avoid talking about your products and services until late in the process. The S in SPIN: In the situation phase, ask fact-finding questions to understand the nature of the prospects’ business and their key objectives. Critically, these should be questions a salesperson could not have gotten answers to via preliminary research. For instance, “What system or process are you using at present?” The P in SPIN: In the problem phase, the salesperson uncovers implied needs. For example, “What are the biggest challenges you are facing in meeting your strategic objectives?” The I in SPIN: In the implication phase, the salesperson asks questions designed to increase the size of the problem in the prospects’ mind. Great questions include these: “If x is happening, could that lead to an even worse y?” “How long have you had this challenge?” “What are the consequences if you do not solve this challenge?” “What benefits do you expect if you embrace this opportunity?” (Authors’ note: Avoid implication questions that feel too “slick.”). A current twist on implication questioning is the notion of challenging the prospect on predisposed belief systems. The N in SPIN: Finally, in the need-payoff phase, the salesperson shifts to positive, solution-centered questions designed to have the prospects express an explicit need. For example, “How would you find (this solution or benefit) useful in addressing (your explicit need)?”

the average B2B transaction involves not just 1 but 5.4 decision makers, each with slightly different agendas and risk tolerances.

The salesperson’s job is to prove that among the many options for accomplishing the goal of increasing profit, the supplier’s solution is worth the investment of time, effort, and energy.

By working within a more flexible definition of time frame, you have leeway to ask a range of effective qualification questions: What kind of time frame do you have in mind? Do you already have a relationship with another supplier or partner? When is the renewal? What other suppliers or partners are you considering? When was the last time you evaluated a solution to this problem? What was the outcome? Where does this rank in your overall priorities? What are the consequences if a decision is delayed?

• Preguntas buenas

Authority questions must be asked with more delicacy than need and time frame questions. Our personal favorites are these: In addition to you, who else in your organization is responsible for (will benefit from) solving this problem? What does the decision-making process look like at your company for purchases or partnerships like this? Who else do you expect will need to be involved in this project? (We doubt anyone asks the direct question, “Are you the final decision maker?”—the most direct, yet still appropriate, question.)

Though a bit more direct, some of the people we work with find success with, “Have you already set aside funds for this project?” This final question is most appropriate when a salesperson suspects the prospect is already quite far along, possibly at the early stages of vendor selection.

To recap, when sales professionals are more constrained by time than by lead volume, qualification is meant to rapidly convert the most profitable, most likely to close leads into opportunities. Are we a fit? (AWAF) should be accomplished in a 15- to 30-minute phone call. BANT, in whatever permutation applies, should be accomplished in one or two guided conversations of up to one hour each. Leads that are not yet qualified should be returned to nurturing with some notes about what made them fall short, along with further intelligence that can be leveraged for mass, data-driven nurturing.

The New Queue Leads enter the New Queue from either inbound or outbound sources. Since some sources will turn out to be better than others, new leads should be tagged with a Lead Source attribute. Our rough ranking from highest to lowest quality of sources is as follows: 1. Inbound: Become a client 2. Outbound: Reactivation (of former clients) 3. Outbound: Referral 4. Inbound: Webinar 5. Outbound: Targeted lists assembled in-house 6. Inbound: White paper or e-book download 7. Outbound: Trade show lists 8. Outbound: Targeted lists sourced from third parties Consider including a graph for volume by lead source. Sales leaders should monitor this graph to assess lead generation relative to targets or to inspect any service-level agreements established in partnership with their marketing department or agencies. Note: For the inbound sources above, we have not distinguished how the leads were pulled in. For digital inbound leads, the main channels are direct, organic, or paid. Direct leads, where individuals enter a vendor’s URL directly into their browser, are usually the best of the three. The other two are nearly of the same quality. Organic leads occur when an individual conducts a search and clicks on an unpaid link to a vendor’s website. Investments in search engine optimization (SEO) increase the volume of organic leads by helping a company rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). Paid leads occur when an individual clicks on an ad in a search engine, banner ad network, or social media property. In addition to these pay-per-click (PPC) leads, vendors can also pay third-party content publishers who host content on a per-lead basis.

• Tag leads nuevos

When possible, add one extra period to help identify deviations from normal seasonality—for example, five quarters of quarterly data or 13 months of monthly data.

The average number of New Queue leads engaged per day is instrumental for coaching. When computing the average per day, only count business days worked in the denominator; though not perfect, the simplest way to make this adjustment is…

Since leads from different sources are not created equal, the dashboard must include the ability to toggle between different types of leads. SDRs should respond within minutes to prospects who call in or submit contact forms seeking to speak with a salesperson. Inbound leads from content marketing can be responded to in hours or days; it can be unsettling for a prospect to receive a phone call mere minutes after downloading a white paper. Generally, outbound leads should be handled within days of being sourced. Based on performance to preestablished response time targets, different actions may be required: 1. If New Queue cycle time is increasing, the first option is always to improve the efficiency and productivity through process optimization, training, new technology, or job specialization. 2. If the team is efficient and sales are lagging behind targets, then the next option is adding sales capacity. 3. If the team is…

Figure 7-6 shows New Queue lead disposition by type. Read this graph as follows: Of the new leads dispositioned in January, 80 percent were advanced to Working, a quality number that would probably be too low for most salespeople. Five percent were rejected for bad data, usually malformed contact information, obvious garbage (for example, Homer Simpson, Nuclear Safety Inspector, Springfield Nuclear Power Plant), or the contact was gone from the company. Seven percent were rejected for low quality, indicating either…

The Working Queue The most important Working Queue graph is the average number of appointments set per day per sales representative (see Figure 7-8). This graph is a fairly accurate representation of reality: most average outbound SDRs produce one appointment set per day while great ones can produce two or more. We also believe it is critical to track the appointment-set-to-appointment-held rate.

Many activities drive the appointment set rate, beginning with touches per day (or touches per account per day). The two most common types of touches to track are e-mails and phone calls as illustrated in Figure 7-9. Additionally, some sales organizations track social media such as LinkedIn connects or Twitter direct message touches.

At a high level, one must understand how many touches in total are needed to secure an appointment; the most sophisticated sales teams optimize the touch cadence—the type, order, and frequency of touches. Additionally, sales leaders should track and optimize the meeting held rate (expressed as a percentage of the number of meetings set).

At the individual sales representative level, the most common e-mail metric tracked is the volume of e-mails sent per day per SDR. More is not necessarily better because 50 truly customized e-mails may very well lead to more appointments than 100 mass-personalized e-mails. In terms of e-mail outcomes, the positive e-mail reply rate, typically around 3 percent, is the most important. For SDRs, there are several technologies that provide real-time notification when links are clicked, which is a great trigger to call a prospect to offer assistance.

Sales leaders tasked with optimization should look regularly at which e-mail templates are working best. Since it is difficult if not impossible to attribute meetings to any given touch, e-mail template effectiveness is often assessed by looking at the open rate and click-to-open rate (CTOR), or the click-through rate (CTR). The open rate is defined as the number of e-mails opened divided by the number of delivered e-mails. The benchmark for average open rate is 21 percent,1 though open rates are becoming less and less reliable as e-mail clients do a better job of protecting user privacy. The click-to-open rate is defined as the number of unique clicks divided by the number of opens, and it averages 12.6 percent.2 The click-through rate is the product of these other two, and it averages a paltry 2.6 percent. It is also wise to monitor unsubscribe rates and spam complaint rates to ensure that e-mails are not damaging relationships or your company’s domain identity; benchmarks for these average 0.13 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively.

For phone activity, sales leaders often measure the dials-to-connect rate. When doing this, here are some benchmarks to consider: Dials to connect: It takes 12 direct-line dials to reach a prospect (8.3 percent connect rate). Dials to conversation: It takes 90 dials on average to secure an appointment (30 dials per conversation and 3 conversations per appointment). By dialing a direct line, reps are 46 percent more likely to reach a director and 147 percent more likely to reach a VP as compared to dialing through a switchboard. (Bonus tip: Be sure to ask the operator, “Can I have her number just in case we get disconnected?”)

After the first appointment is set and held, leads move on to the Qualifying Queue. The primary metric to follow is Qualifying Queue lead disposition by type (advanced to closing versus disqualified; recall that we do not recommend adding reporting complexity by requiring reps to choose a more detailed reason code for not qualified). Like Working Queue cycle time, Qualifying Queue cycle time by disposition type is a secondary metric. Assuming the first appointment ends with an affirmative answer to the are-we-a-fit question, contacts become associated with opportunities and move into the Closing Queue. Here, we focus on similar metrics: first, Closing Queue lead disposition by type (transacted won or transacted lost) and second, Closing Queue cycle time. In addition, most organizations track metrics for opportunities by stage and also report on the weighted (or factored) pipeline to get a sense of revenue potential.

here is their first cold outreach e-mail template: Subject Line: <First_Name>, SalesLoft + <First_Name>, <Highly_personalized_first_line> I would like to learn about your outreach strategies at . We are working with other teams, helping their reps accelerate pipeline growth by 2 to 3 times. To keep it simple, SalesLoft is a strategic platform that combines phone, e-mail, and social touches to ensure consistent execution of your sales cadence or outreach. Don’t take my word for it; you can try it yourself. A brief screenshare on <two_business_days_from_now> or <three_business_days_from_now> would allow us to highlight how other teams are already streamlining their workflows as well as get you set up on a free trial. Which day would be better? <Highly_personalized_last_line>

Next, here are SalesLoft’s key metrics: On average, SDRs handle 700 to 800 outbound leads per month, or 35 to 40 per business day. 3.7 percent of net new outbound leads turn into a first (demo) meeting. On average, it takes six activities to secure a first meeting. Activities include e-mails, calls (with or without voice mail), LinkedIn views, Facebook likes, and Twitter follows. The average lead lifetime is 11.3 days, and 95 percent of outbound leads that convert do so in the first 30 days. 12.4 percent of inbound leads convert into a (demo) appointment. 95 percent of SalesLoft’s pipeline is generated by SDRs.

We urge sales professionals and sales leaders to adopt a “peel-the-onion” approach to optimization so as not to get overwhelmed by the many metrics presented in this chapter. Start with the most important metrics: total sales relative to target and appointments held per rep per day. Set the target so that somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of SDRs hit the quota. Next look at the New-Queue-to-customer win rate and interrogate the inter-stage conversation rates to detect any problem areas. Then, go deeper into intra-stage metrics as needed. Also, while transparency is valuable, exposing people to highly volatile data is counterproductive, so be thoughtful about who should see what metrics at what frequency.

• Metricas importante

First, sales training and sales force automation systems should be continuously aligned to best practices. Second, strive to eliminate the collection of any data that is either unlikely to be used or very likely to be garbage.

The highest-quality contact discovery tools are social networks, including LinkedIn and Facebook, where individuals maintain their own profiles.

This brings us into the world of marketing automation platforms (MAPs) such as Adobe Marketing Cloud, Eloqua, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, Marketo, Pardot, and SalesFusion.

Traditional MAPs push content (usually via e-mail) and send leads to salespeople once engagement reaches a certain level.

• Importante sales marketing automation

In Predictable Prospecting, the Working Queue starts with the first attempt to contact a prospect and ends either when an are-we-a-fit (AWAF) meeting is held or when an unresponsive lead is moved to nurturing.

For mass e-mailing, something we do not recommend unless prospects have opted in, there are many e-mail marketing services, including Silverpop and MailChimp. In addition, there are even e-mail discovery tools that allow salespeople to find e-mails with using only, say, first name, last name, and domain and not having to guess at various combinations. These include Discover.ly, eGrabber, e-mail-format.com, Rapportive, and Toofr.

quality tools are quick and easy utilities for avoiding spam filters. Many people are not even aware they exist. Just search for “e-mail spam checker” to find countless free, online resources. With some, like mail-tester.com, you can simply send your e-mail to an address for analysis. With others you can just enter information into a form, and you will get an immediate response. This functionality is also built into many e-mail marketing services.

• Importante prevenir spam

We racked our brains to think of exceptions where we would actually recommend outsourcing. It took some time, but we eventually came up with one: the solopreneur. We know consultants who are very happy running their one-person shops and do not aspire to scale up. Many are time limited rather than opportunity limited. Consequently, these individuals need only a partial business development resource to set enough appointments to maintain a small backlog, making them the exception to the rule. Everyone else should insource sales business development, including appointment setting.

In summary, these studies confirm hiring via referral is best. While performance is ultimately unrelated to hiring source, referred employees are cheaper to hire and they tend to stay longer.

Language that gives candidates the sense

A simple explanation of day-to-day duties

Example: (Company name) is the world’s leading platform for (service). Business leaders, investors, consultants, social entrepreneurs, and other top professionals rely on (company name) to (primary benefit). Clients partner with (company name) to take advantage of (primary features). We believe strongly in our mission- and values-driven culture. Our core values drive our success. They are: (values).

The ideal sales development new hire is a highly successful hunter working for a competitor who comes in via referral from an internal star performer.

General mental ability (GMA) is the best predictor of hiring success, accounting for 26 percent of the variation in job performance.

Administering IQ tests, something almost nobody does, is way better than conducting informal interviews. On their own, unstructured interviews predict only 14 percent of variation in job performance.

A trio of researchers from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, added the missing piece. In addition to GMA (characterized as cognitive aptitude) and conscientiousness (characterized as the degree of adaptiveness and the ability to deal with role ambiguity), their study7 found selling-related knowledge to be a statistically significant driver of sales performance. They defined selling-related knowledge as that which “reflects the knowledge of both products and customers that is required to present and ‘co-create’ solutions for customers.”

As for the role-play, we recommend a test we affectionately call the Kobayashi Maru. (Star Trek aficionados will recognize this as the no-win test of character command-track cadets must endure to graduate from Starfleet Academy.) In this test, we ask candidates to call us and try to schedule an appointment for our product. We relentlessly throw objection after objection at them: “Send me some information,” “I need to run to a meeting,” “I don’t see the ROI,” “I don’t understand what you are saying,” and so on. We do not yet care about their product knowledge. Instead, we judge two factors: The most important is their ability to persevere through at least three objections. The second is the degree to which they remain articulate throughout the process.

SDRs, typically early-career sales professionals, expect and deserve extensive training. The best organizations hold weekly team meetings focused on training. Some organizations even train on a daily basis. In addition, best-in-class organizations test their SDRs and recognize success with extrinsic (money) and intrinsic (certificates, experiences) rewards. As mentioned previously, training should focus on a range of areas such as technology, sales skills, soft skills, products, accounts, and competitors. SDR leaders should maintain and share a sales development playbook that includes ideal account and prospect profiles, qualification criteria, multitouch cadences, voice mail talking points, objection handling guidance,

Organizations that are highly dependent on inbound leads tend to roll sales development into marketing to ensure the immediacy of response and consistency of message. In contrast, organizations that are highly dependent upon outbound prospecting tend to roll the function into sales to ensure that the right accounts and contacts are prioritized.

• Importante

Fortunately, thanks to The Bridge Group,9 we can at least share that most companies, 73 percent in fact, place sales development within the sales organization. Of the remainder, 24 percent roll the function into marketing, and 3 percent locate it elsewhere.

While we prefer pure managers to player-coaches, we recommend that SDR managers run a short cadence with a small number of prospects at least once a quarter to stay in tune with what is working and what is not, as well as to earn credibility with their team (even if the manager is unsuccessful in booking meetings or qualifying opportunities).

Outbound sales development professionals should be aligned with but not report to individual sales managers. Traditional B2B sales managers typically lead six to eight account executives (AEs). Since the industry average is one SDR for every four AEs,10 an average sales team could be supported by one or two SDRs. Hence, SDR territory strategy will naturally mirror AE territory strategy.

We strongly recommend centralizing the sales development function by having dedicated sales development managers, each with a span of control of six to eight SDRs. Since new hires need to respect and learn from their manager, we insist the team manager come from inside the company with success as a hunter and possess an analytical mindset as well as solid selling skills knowledge.

Though rapid response to inbound leads is critical, the decision depends on several factors, including these: The volume of inbound leads: The lower the volume, the more likely the sales development focus will be blended. The breadth of customer needs: The more diverse the customer base, the more likely the sales development focus will be blended because SDRs need domain expertise to connect on a meaningful level with prospects. The breadth of the product portfolio: The broader the product portfolio, the more likely sales development will be blended.

Common benchmarks are 50 dials and 8 connects per day; 1 appointment set per day; and 8 opportunities added per month.

While we find it useful to monitor top-of-funnel activity including dials and e-mails, we strongly recommend against elevating their stature. When those metrics become either widely syndicated or included in compensation plans, bad things start to happen. To achieve their dial numbers, SDRs may cut short what might otherwise be valuable conversations. To achieve their e-mail numbers, SDRs may underpersonalize their messages, which then come across as “spammy.” We support call monitoring and (where legal) call recording for constructive coaching purposes but not for punishment. Similarly, we find it critically valuable to monitor the ultimate bottom-of-the-funnel metric, revenue from closed-won business. What percent of total company revenue is typically sourced by SDRs?

Compensation should never be tied to factors over which employees have little or no control. This said, we support the common practice of awarding SDRs a special bonus of up to 1 percent on transacted business they were involved with; this level is subtly motivating without being distracting. The right place to find metrics for SDR incentive compensation is right in the middle of the funnel. A recent survey12 found 65 percent of sales development groups are focused on generating qualified opportunities, 26 percent on appointment setting, and 9 percent on a combination of the two. For teams that generate qualified opportunities, we believe the single metric to use for variable compensation is opportunities accepted by account executive. We prefer accepted rather than generated because it adds an important layer of quality control. If account executives are inspected on the close rate of opportunities in their pipeline, they will not accept junk just to help…

With all this talk of incentive compensation, we would be remiss if we did not suggest paying SDRs a base salary alone. This strategy is particularly effective with good management and measurement combined with an expectation that SDRs move up or out after 12 months. Often, vying for a promotion or seeing…

Our final piece of advice on managing sales development professionals is to remember to treat SDRs as human beings. This was our guiding principle when writing this chapter. Compensating SDRs on midfunnel results rather than top-of-funnel activity empowers them to do what is right for prospects and for the organization. If most associates reach out to 50 prospects per day to get one appointment and one associate accomplishes the same goal reaching out to only 10 prospects, then so be it. Countless studies13 have proven that job satisfaction is closely linked to control. Since highly optimized…

Current trends suggest a medium-term future that makes selling a little easier. The changes we anticipate include the following: Data-driven tools that make it easier to develop and evolve Ideal Account Profiles (IAPs) and Ideal Prospect Personas (IPPs) Far more accurate databases that can be used for identifying leads matching an IAP and IPP Intra- and possibly inter-company knowledge bases of which practices are working and which are not working such as touch type and frequency, and e-mail language Account-based selling tools that make personalization more painless