Everyone goes through sales slumps. If you haven’t yet, you’re either too new to the profession . . . . or you just haven’t been doing it long enough.

We’ve got some sharp sales reps here at XANT, so I thought I’d talk to them about what they do to get out of their personal pipeline woes.

  1. Separate the real opportunities from the fluff: “When I hit a slow period, sometimes I’ll throw some stuff overboard and just start over. When your pipeline sucks, it means you’re wasting time chasing stuff you can’t really close. Focus on generating better deals instead of chasing garbage.” — R.J. Tracy
  2. Focus on “touch” quality, in addition to quantity: “Our software [the XANT Lead Response Management Suite] has built-in safeguards to make sure we do enough follow-up, but let’s be honest, not all follow-up activity is created equal. A call is a call, as far as your numbers are concerned, but being ready and engaged . . . .
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Unless your entire business is based on a “1-click” transactional sales model, the old rule of “You don’t have a sale until you have a conversation” remains pretty well entrenched. Sure, there’s lots of companies doing great things with inbound marketing, demand generation, lead nurturing, and “pre-qualifying” of prospects–but even then, unless you’ve got a relatively simple product with few set-up requirements, at some point a prospect is going to need a sales rep to step in and “bridge the gap.”

And as we’ve been preaching for years, the trick is giving yourself every possible opportunity to actually have that conversation.

With that end in mind, B2B lead generation outsourcers Green Leads has a “standing policy” for reps to work harder on “off peak” holidays (e.g., President’s Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day).

Why?

Because a lot of companies, even if they don’t take the day off, they “take the day off.” There’s less noise, less static floating around the prospecto-sphere. It’s about better opportunities for getting a decision-maker’s undivided attention. And Green Leads has had a lot of success doing it . . .

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Two quick hits on some stuff I found interesting: I. Craig Rosenberg is generally a pretty smart and insightful guy. As the self-proclaimed “Funnelholic” and Focus.com VP of Products and Services, his extensive background in B2B sales and marketing gives his voice some weight in our space. So when Craig (@funnelholic on Twitter) recently posted…

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Just when you think the business world is changing for the better, that marketing and sales professionals are starting to “get it,” that a new age of enlightened prospecting is on its way, based on serving the customer and truly providing strategic value to them, rather than just pushing product . . . you have a meeting like the one I sat in on last week.

Well, to be honest, calling it a “meeting” is a bit disingenuous; a live-action comedy of marketing errors is a bit nearer the mark.

I can’t reveal names or the organization involved, because it would be a blow-up embarrassment for them. But let’s just take you through
the last bit of our collective conversation . . .

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It’s been on their Web site since September 2010, but I loved this blog from lead generation company Green Leads revealing some “superstar” tips for doing outbound prospecting over the phone.

It spoke to me because when push comes to shove, when the rubber hits the road, when its put-up-or-shut-up time (okay, you get the picture) outbound phone prospecting still happens.

A lot of people talk about the end of the cold call, that “inbound” is the new panacea. That “real” sales reps build pipeline through a steady stream of referral business. No more of those itchy-scratchy uncomfortable sales calls, no more angry prospects tired of our pitch, no more “dialing for dollars.”

To which we at XANT add, “Yeah right.” Don’t get me wrong, if you’re in the right vertical, with the right connections, with the right product at exactly the right time, maybe you can get away without doing outbound prospecting in B2B . . .

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