teleprospecting (28)
Cold calling is a potent B2B sales tool, but is very misunderstood by sales people and B2B sales "thought leaders". I've included a link to a great article that presents a fairly unbiased review of cold calling.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-05-30 14:32 
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There is a way to validate how the number of calls affects the outcome, but it would be impractical to apply. The notion that prospecting is a numbers game is outdated in today's complex selling environment, but that doesn't stop management from believing it's still holds true.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-05-02 21:17 0 comments
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-03-31 12:56 0 comments
Best of all worlds--highly-paid senior sales executives are inserted into buying cycles, improving their productivity and fattening up their pipelines
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-03-28 19:21 0 comments
The message sent to inside sales is that the individuals can be moved from task to task. If they're taken off of teleprospecting, the received message is that they don't have to cold call.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-03-18 00:46 0 comments
What we've discovered over the years is that in very large organizations there are a lot of competing fiefdoms and scattered silos of technology solutions. Just because you've managed to make a sale into one of the company does not give you carte blanche in the rest.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-02-03 23:07 0 comments
Most sales organizations are not disciplined enough or motivated enough to develop this level of buyer introspective. Sales people have way too much on their plates to conduct this kind of due diligence UNLESS they get some help
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-02-03 14:14 0 comments
Don't overspend on lead qualification and development enroute to conversion.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-27 14:15 0 comments
Brian Berlin, President of Straightline Strategies, is one of the prominent authorities on outsourced prospecting interviewed for an article in 1to1 Media.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-26 22:01 0 comments
As salespeople we're trained to attack a hot lead, but the prospect may only be in the research phase. So typically sales categorizes this kind of prospect as a "tire-kicker", and the info goes into the deep freeze.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-25 01:01 0 comments
Think of it as a process of elimination.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-18 14:53 0 comments
The tightest, most economic "script" will still sound like a script, which is off-putting to any potential prospect.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-18 06:00 0 comments
Organizations that utilize outsourced prospecting firms effectively can shorten their time-to-market by eliminating wasted efforts on hurried plans. Armed with better data, managers can hire better and faster, and arm the sales team with more prospects, create a fatter pipeline and gain a more realistic view of revenues.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-08 13:53 0 comments
My sales manager DNA makes it impossible for me to equate Sales 2.0 tools as a replacement for phone calls. Plus I just know better.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-07 13:53 0 comments
Prospects won't commit their time unless they understand the value and believe they might need the associated benefits.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-07 06:00 0 comments
The role of insides sales is to make sales, not cold calls. Selling cloud computing and web-based applications has created the rise of the "sales-inside" professional, and as such requires the same support as the field-based counterpart.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-06 14:24 0 comments
Pull marketing and other 2.0 strategies and tactics are important, but are limited in the types of respondents that are captured. Teleprospecting provides the necessary "push" marketing component to give B2B companies balanced go-to-market execution.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-06 06:00 0 comments
What if you could reduce on-boarding to three months from seven? That’s a 57% decrease in on-boarding time. Imagine what that could do for your forecasts!
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-04 13:48 0 comments
As a former VP Sales, I can tell you exactly where to find the money to pay for outsourced teleprospecting.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-12-24 06:00 0 comments
The difference between a lead and a meeting is not to be underestimated, particularly in a complex technology sale to a university. Identifying decision makers and influencers is very challenging in higher education because it’s difficult to identify a true economic buyer while building consensus among the many influencers.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-12-22 21:53 0 comments
Unless your company coffers are brimming, you should outsource teleprospecting.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-12-22 06:00 0 comments
Cost reduction came in dead last as a reason to outsource prospecting. Hmmm....
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-12-21 00:00 0 comments
I once had a client tell me there were "a jillion" prospects in their target market. Turns out it was 100 or less.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-12-16 15:30 0 comments
After hearing the term Sales 2.0 get thrown around with great frequency, I decided to determine the real meaning. As it turns out, teleprospecting fits very well in the Sales 2.0 world.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-08-23 17:01 0 comments
The rule of thumb that I've always followed: a lead becomes an opportunity when the prospect is going to buy something, from someone (maybe your company) in a defined timeframe.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-08-22 00:45 0 comments
If you engage with the right (ahem) outsourced business development firm, what you should get is comparable to a prospecting event planner and concierge. Now, I know that sounds odd, so let me explain.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-06-25 03:41 0 comments
LinkedIn is a very popular destination for B2B folks looking to make and maintain connections. It's used heavily by recruiters to identify candidates for positions they're trying to fill for their clients.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-04-08 00:25 0 comments
Teleprospecting to fairly high level enterprise B2B targets is best outsourced to a professional firm that understands the process. If your inside sales team is focused on this kind of activity, it may be time to rethink the strategy.
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Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2008-04-21 05:44 0 comments
