The Must Have Sales Tool for Managing Smart Lead Response

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Alex Orton

Have you ever wondered how your sales reps were processing that most valuable of marketing resource – a lead?  Why do so many leads get thrown into the “unresponsive-no contact” category?  Is this a marketing or a sales process problem?  Want to find out?

Request a ResponseAudit. This lead response assessment enables a company to view real response times from the eyes of a hot lead.

ResponseAudit was introduced by InsideSales.com as an unbiased assessment tool for the curious or frustrated sales manager. The audit enables a company to benchmark their lead response times (through both email and telephone) and rep persistency in contacting leads against industry norms based on our  2007 published research findings*.
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Looking for a first job? Thinking about changing jobs? Check out InsideSales.com. Here’s Why…

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Jan Johnson

Last month there were 6 new hires. This month, I was one of 18 in the InsidesSales.com training class.  Next month that number is likely to be even higher, so HR tells us. What the heck is going on here? They are hiring like crazy.

After spending about two weeks in the most amazing, confidence-building, on-boarding experience I’ve ever had – and I’ve worked at a number of technology companies both in Utah and the Bay Area -  I can say from experience: This IS the place.

InsideSales.com is the place to be if you want to be a part of the next new thing. The company develops and delivers a sales automation, cloud-based platform to support the new, rapidly growing numbers of inside sales professionals, a trend quickly displacing the traditional outside sales force model.
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Build a Successful Inside Sales Team: 15 Time-Wasters to Avoid

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Alex Orton

Everyone knows that technology increases productivity. This idea is something InsideSales.com has taken to heart in designing our hosted CRM and dialer – we see the value and the returns that can be generated from increasing productivity. It can’t be ignored, though, that some inefficiencies aren’t quite within the reach of technological fixes. Below are 15 time-wasters Ken Krogue has discovered while observing inside sales teams.

15 Time-Wasters

#1: Poor Sales and Marketing Strategy
#2: Poor Hiring
#3: Poor Performance Management
#4: Low Levels of Motivation
#5: Poor Lead Generation Resources
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Build Influence, Leads, and Sales Using Social Media

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Alex Orton

SEO will be dead in two years. Ken Krogue, President and co-founder of InsideSales.com, recently predicted it in a recent blog post of his own. He’s not the only one, either. Other SEO experts have said the same thing. What can you do to ensure a high rank in Google? The key to building an organic ranking in a search engine is by creating an influential presence on social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) with quality content that is relative to your target audience.
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Tips for Inside Sales Teams — Six Steps for First Call Success

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Alex Orton

Making that first call on a hot lead is huge. It can make or break a sale. Ken Krogue, our President and co-founder with over 20 years of experience in the industry, thinks it’s so important that he spoke for an hour about it in our weekly company meeting. Below is his six step sequence to make sure you nail the first call.

Step 1: The Opening – This is where you introduce yourself, where you’re calling from, and why you’re calling. Reinforce what the lead expressed interest in.

Step 2: The Trust Ladder – In this step, you start as high up as you can on the trust ladder. (For an in-depth discussion, visit this previous blog.)

Step 3: Positioning – Where do you stand in the race? What does your company offer, and how is it different from competitors in your industry?
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ResponseAudit Research – AA-ISP 2012

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Dave Elkington

ResponseAudit LogoSince 2007, we at InsideSales.com have published research on the best practices around how and when to respond to marketing-generated leads.  In October 2007, we presented early findings at both the Boston and San Francisco Marketing Sherpa B2B Demand Generation Summits.  Since then, we have published our landmark Harvard Business Review article, “The Short Life on Online Sales Leads,” and later were covered in the Inc. Magazine article, “How to Best Harness Inbound Marketing Leads.”

All of our lead management research demonstrates the need to be extremely responsive and persistant to people who express interest in your product or services by filling out a web form, calling, or in some other way.  We recently created a lead management infographic summarizing the findings.

However, we have a less-known solution and research that explains the current state of the lead response industry in terms of typical response time, efforts and follow-up strategies to web leads called ResponseAudit.
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5 Stages to Growing a High Velocity Business

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Ken Krogue

When Dave Elkington and I got together to start InsideSales.com in 2004 we put a plan in place with five stages to grow our business. Having been through some hyper growth companies in the past I wanted to avoid problems we had learned from.

Here are the stages:

Stage 1 – Product: If you are a company that sells a product you need to get it ready for prime time quickly and get it to market. I’ve seen companies that spend all their time preparing to launch and never do. I call this my Business Card Rule.

Stage 2 – Support: Don’t build something you can’t support. Customers will come in the front door and walk out the back door. If it is simple, use self support. If it is complex, hire lot’s of great people and train them like crazy.
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Building a Productive Sales Department: Equality of Lead Distribution and The Impossible Sales Trinity

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jonny Miller

One of our customers approached us with a dilemma they were facing: “Our reps are assigned to regions and we only have a few setters who set appointments for all the reps. We prioritize the leads we want our setters to call. Problem is, we have an unequal distribution of leads per rep by the setters.”

The solution to this problem is similar to the popular economics idea – the Impossible Trinity.

In a sales department the impossible trinity is:

  • lead priority
  • equal distribution of leads
  • defined parameters of sales rep role (i.e. geographic region, vertical, deal size, etc.).

You cannot have all three as top priorities and maintain productivity. Our customer was facing this exact problem.
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Disney Institute Offers Perspectives all Inside Sales Managers Can Use

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Chris Jorgensen
Chris Jorgensen attended Disney's Approach to Leadership Excellence

Disney's Approach to Leadership Excellence offers incredible insights that can help an inside sales team

Many of these principles can be applied by management of an inside sales team. The best practices of leadership excellence, people management, and quality service are universal regardless of the industry.

I recently attended three sessions at the Disney Institute in Anaheim, CA. While the basic information concerning Leadership Excellence, People Management, and Quality Service was not new, the Disney perspective and implementation of best practices was impressive and inspiring.

I’ll share some insights I gained.
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How to Build an Inside Sales Team: Best Practices in Voicemail

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Alex Orton

A key tip most professionals in the inside sales industry will tell you is it’s a best practice to not leave voice messages. The truth of the matter is that voicemail is one of the most misunderstood and misused tools in terms of gaining a better lead response. To follow is a list of some best practices we have found from our research and experience regarding effective use of voicemail.

Best Practices of Voicemail

  1. Leave a message with the person you are directly trying to reach. You may need to get permission from their secretary in order to do this.
  2. Keep your message brief (30 seconds on less.) Research shows the optimal length is no more than 18 seconds.
  3. Give enough information that your lead wants to call you back. This means, don’t tell them everything.
  4. Don’t be irritating – only leave three voicemails over a two week period, tops.
  5. In conjunction with your voicemail, send a follow-up email. Even better, mention the voicemail you left in the email and vice versa.
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