I feel like a Traitor. After 20+ years in sales, believing that a rep who couldn’t do their own teleprospecting was a useless as tits on a bull, I’ve recently been forced to concede that for B2B, in this day and age, teleprospecting might be better managed by marketing.
This blog recently ran a post that linked to an article on the subject by David Green and to that earlier post I’d like to add these points.
Ten More reasons why marketing should manage teleprospecting:
- Above anything else, in sales we are judged against the question “Did you hit your quota?”. Nothing else is as important and therefore, we must always prioritize those actions closest to that quota meeting close. Tele prospecting is too far from the money and will never be a priority.
- Many companies encourage competition among their reps. So tell me why, if I want to be the one to “win”, I’m going to share my best prospecting ideas and approaches with my colleagues/competition?
- Some reps are lousy prospectors, but might just be terrific in other areas. Don’t restrict sales achievements to the lowest common performance denominator. If everyone in your company could do what they’re great at, do you think it would change your results?
- Low connection and returned call rates make one-off smiling and dialing inefficient. Sales people though, either by training or inclination, are rarely equipped or willing to create and manage a campaign approach with larger numbers. But, this is marketing’s bread and butter.
- Spoiler Alert! Sales reps cherry pick! We evaluate a new contact opportunity based on our past experience and place restrictions on what calls are or are not worth our time. Prejudging an opportunity leaves thousands of dollars of potential sales un-prospected.
- When quota deadlines loom, prospecting calls are only made out of desperation. Those contacts are often pushed prematurely towards a close. It’s a great way to kill sales.
- Most potential prospects are not “open” to conversations 12 months of the year. There are windows of opportunity if you want to engage them. When prospecting is not executed consistently, year round, these opportunities are lost until next year.
- Prospecting can uncover many different opportunities, but if your sales team is specialized it’s entirely possible that even when conversations are engaged, opportunities will be ignored. To put it simplistically, if I’m only selling a copier (or software upgrade) and you turn out to be a potential laptop prospect, many reps will not take the time to either collect the relevant information or pass the name to another rep. Some do, but don’t bet the bank on it.
- With longer buying cycles and more influencers involved in the decision, many sales take more time and work to close than before. Your reps are already managing a bigger workload, potentially to turn the same revenue. Somethings got to give. Guess what it will be.
- Finally, have you noticed that almost every job is more specialized than it used to be? The marketing person who used to do everything has been funnelled into areas that are increasingly specialized. So, why do your sales reps still need to manage the entire process? Don’t forget a Jack of all trades is a Master of none.