cold calling and sales prospecting

COLD CALLING AND SALES PROSPECTING: A Day in the Life of a Top-Performing Sales Rep

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INTRODUCTION

A day in the life of a sales prospecting team has changed dramatically in the last 10 years.

Traditional smile-and-dial cold calling cam-paigns arent as effective as they used to be. In fact, what most successful sales prospect-ing teams do now isnt really cold calling at all, even though many still use the term out of habit.

The new approach to sales prospecting is far more strategic and targeted, which creates a better experience for both the salesperson and the buyer. Todays top sales prospecting teams use data science to predict the best prospects and to prescribe when and how to contact them. They combine these action-able insights with powerful sales acceleration technologies, including prescriptive dialers, email and engagement tracking, gamification platforms and cloud-based hiring assess-ments, to dramatically improve visibility, productivity and effectiveness ultimately increasing revenue by as much as 30% in as little as 90 days.

COLD CALLING AND SALES PROSPECTING: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TOP-PERFORMING SALES REP

As a sales leader, the most valuable thing you have is your teams time. In some companies weve studied, reps spend 40% of their time just looking for someone to call. What if you could optimize your reps workday to ensure they were prospecting and performing at the highest possible level at any given moment?

Well, buckle in, because youre about to see what this kind of day looks like in action.

In this guide, youll discover how to mar-ry sales prospecting best practices with breakthrough sales acceleration technology to achieve remarkable results in some cases increasing your prospecting pipeline by up to 4x.

Just follow along as we walk you through a day in the life of a top-performing sales pros-pecting rep. It should be a lot of fun.

HERES WHAT YOULL FIND INSIDE:

See how Stephen Lang, a sales develop-ment rep, structures his day to dramat-ically increase visibility, productivity and effectiveness.

Learn how sales acceleration technology combined with prospecting best practices can increase revenue by 30% or more.

Get Team Tear-Aways designed to help you coach your sales prospecting team.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A Day in the Life of Stephen Lang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Science of Lead Scoring, Prioritization and Sales Prospecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Team Tear-Away: Prescriptive Analytics, Are You Ready? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Sales Prospecting Powered by a Prescriptive Dialer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Team Tear-Away: Cold Calling Templates From Michael Pedone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Sales Prospecting Enhanced by Email Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Team Tear-Away: Cold Email Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Increase Sales Prospecting Output with Gamification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Team Tear-Away: 12 High-Velocity Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Build a Better Sales Prospecting Team Through Predictive Hiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Team Tear-Away: How to Hire a Sales Prospecting Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

See the Entire Day in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Summary and Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Published by InsideSales.com1712 South East Bay Blvd. Suite 100Provo, Utah 84606877-798-9633

All Rights ReservedCopyright 2015 InsideSales.com / 08v2

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Hi, my name is Stephen Lang. Lets look at a typical day as an SDR at Vandelay Industries.

Last Friday, my manager kicked off a weeklong SMB Blitz campaign.

The daily goals?

89 dials 12 connected calls 3 appointments

That is some serious sales prospecting.

I am going to show you how I accelerated the sales process by making my sales prospecting activities more visible, productive and effective.

It starts with a sales acceleration platform that tells me who to contact, when to call and what messaging to share.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF STEPHEN LANG

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THE SCIENCE OF LEAD SCORING, PRIORITIZATION AND SALES PROSPECTING

Is your prospecting team working the right leads? Sales prospecting is all about quickly generating qualified opportunities and ulti-mately revenue.

Lead scoring has long been a part of the sales prospecting process, but it has a bad reputation on the sales floor.

Why?

Simply put, marketing-based lead scoring systems have never added much value when it comes to sales.

NeuralView, InsideSales.coms lead scoring and prioritization application, provides a different approach designed for salespeople, by salespeople.

With NeuralView you can know more, do more and sell more by applying proven sales prospecting best practices to the right leads at the right time.

THE PROSPECTING FORMULA WITH NEURALVIEWManager Sales Rep

Know More View Trust Reports that detail the inner workings of data in your sys-tem. Discover how many calls are required to reach high-scoring leads, how much revenue to expect from each score range and what specific makeup of customer your company serves best.

See which of the leads in your pool are most likely to contact and most likely to close as data science automatically sorts your best op-portunities.

Do More Armed with data-driven insights, focus your reps efforts on the pros-pects most likely to be contacted and most likely to close. Spend less time manually building lists for your reps to dial through.

Target your efforts against the leads most likely to contact and close. Trust your dialer to automatically queue the best lead, at any given moment, for you every time you click the Next Record button.

Sell More By prescribing your sales teams day according to advanced data science, you ensure your reps spend more time calling the right leads, engaging more decision makers and closing more deals.

NeuralView gets you on the phone with the right people at the right time so no business slips through the cracks.

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57% Of high performance sales teams rely on sales analytics (2)

In 12 18 monthssmart selling with predictive analytics will jump 77% insales organizations (5)

CIOs rank analyticsas the #1 factor to an organizations competitiveness (6)

Marketing and sales centerd on predictive analytics improve ROI by 15% 20% (4)

24%Revenue increasein closed business (1)

Without WithPredictive Analytics

Self-learning Analytics Engine (7)

Organizations that embrace analytics are 2x more likely to outperform their peers (3)

150 Millioncustomer profiles

87 Billionsales interactions

1 Billion unique data points added each month

TEAM TEAR-AWAY: PRESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS, ARE YOU READY?

1. InsideSales.com2. 2015 State of Sales Report from Salesforce.com3. MIT Sloan Management Review & IBM Report4. McKinsey Analysis Via Forbes Article5. 2015 State of Sales Report from Salesforce.com6. IBM CIO Study 20097. InsideSales.com

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http://www.insidesales.com/about-us/customers#/http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/07/11/high-performing-sales-teams-4x-more-likely-to-use-predictive-analytics/http://sloanreview.mit.edu/reports/analytics-advantage/http://www.forbes.com/sites/mckinsey/2013/07/22/big-data-analytics-and-the-future-of-marketing-sales/http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/07/11/high-performing-sales-teams-4x-more-likely-to-use-predictive-analytics/https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28314.wsshttp://www.insidesales.com/products/predictive-analytics/neuralview

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Once predictive and prescriptive analytics help me identify who to call and when to contact them, I can use PowerDialer to ensure I am calling people in the most efficient way, and capturing any impressions from those calls.

The first thing I do is head into my CRM to make sure things are in order for my campaign.

I know that for every 52 calls I make, I am only likely to connect on 8 of them. This offers 44 opportunities to leave a voicemail. So one of the first things I do is create a pre-recorded message tailored to the campaign that can be left automatically as I move from one call to another.

Because industry research shows that voicemail and email are most effective when used together, I then set up an email specifically tailored for the SMB Blitz campaign templates from my manager.

When I start dialing, I know that the analytics engine in the background of the dialer is serving me the best leads first. When I see my first lead has a score of 95, I know it is a hot lead.

I call, she answers and we set an appointment.

The call is automatically logged in PowerDialer, which saves my lead in Sales-force, and Im onto my next sales prospect. If they dont answer, I just click to leave a pre-recorded voicemail and send a pre-written email.

SALES PROSPECTING POWERED BY A PRESCRIPTIVE DIALER

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The rise of remote selling technologies fully equips sales teams to run successful sales prospecting campaigns without on-site visits.

With inside sales positions growing 300% faster than field reps, the industry landscape is changing (2013 Market Size Study). Gone are the days of blind cold calling.

As reps rely on telephone, email and remote presentations to communicate with cus-tomers more than ever before, their efforts should be more precise, eliminating the cold calling model of the past and accelerating sales with intelligent dialers.

By using a dialer powered by predictive ana-lytics, sales teams can increase their sales by 30% or more.

Your sales prospecting process must have these crucial components:

Rules-based call lists that target specific industries, titles, time zones, etc., so calling is deliberate and focused

Data intelligence seamlessly injected into workflow

Automated voicemail and email

Click-to-call functionality from a CRM

Ability to call from local numbers

Automated tracking and recording

Automatic data capture to CRM

The information gathered through this approach gives you the ability to know more, do more and ultimately sell more.

POWERDIALERManagers Sales Reps

Know More Learn what individual reps and your collective sales team are doing. Call recordings, the abil-ity to whisper to reps during calls and join calls in progress aid in coaching your team.

PowerDialer helps you know more about your prospects, giving you confidence the next record you dial is the best. You also have a more granular view of previous touches on the accounts.

Do More You can build reports to learn best practices and push them across your team. You can also create prioritized call lists and email templates.

Stop switching between screens and apps and accom-plish more in a shorter time. Data is automatically cap-tured each time a lead record is touched.

Sell More Increased visibility into your reps prospecting practices enables better pipeline man-agement and forecasting.

With PowerDialer you have more conversations with quali-fied leads who are ready to buy.


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PowerDialer

Sales calls have come a long way.

There was a time when reps relied on tra-ditional cold calling, feverishly dialing num-bers and trying to interact with people with whom they had no prior interaction. While old-school cold calling still happens, it is no longer as effective as it used to be.

Today the most effective sales prospecting is informed by data science and carried out with technology.

New technology has dramatically improved the cold calling and sales prospecting pro-cess. Not only can reps do more with pros-pecting applications designed to automate their workflow, but they can rely on sales data to help them sell more.

Automatically Capture Data to CRM

Management wants reps to gather more data, but sales reps are notoriously allergic to things that take their time.

In some ways, reps are right. Do you want them to spend 10 minutes writing up notes

on a 5-minute call? Could they be setting another appointment if they were back on the phone?

PowerDialer automatically captures all of the meta data surrounding each call your reps make.

This information number of rings until pick up, time of day a call is answered, day of week a contact is reached, etc. is used to make the NeuralView application of PowerDialer more intelligent and accurate.

Whats more, calls are recorded and stored with the lead record, so that it is easy for a rep to access the most accurate records rele-vant to the lead instantly.

Automatic data capture to CRM lets reps make more calls, which is what they really want to do.

Automated Workflow

If reps make more calls and talk to more people, they make more sales. Simple, right?

Automation allows reps and managers to do more by reducing the time it takes

to make calls, leave voicemails and send email messages.

Lets say reps manually enter numbers from a list before making a call and that it takes about 10 seconds per number. That may not seem like much, but if a rep makes 52 calls a day, those 10 seconds turn into more than 8 minutes. In a month, that becomes 3 hours.

InsideSales.com PowerDialer is built on click-to-call technology. Reps make phone calls, send SMS messages, schedule future call-backs and leave prerecorded voicemails all with a simple click of their cursor.

Many reps avoid leaving voicemails because the time it takes to leave a message creates a huge time sink. Not to mention, after about 30 voicemails, enthusiasm and energy arent at their peak. Automated voicemails mean consistent, quality messages that take only seconds to leave.

Managers can also guide reps by crafting email templates they can share with their team. To send an email prior to a call, reps can simply select that option from the dialer, and choose which template theyd like. No more cutting-and-pasting or rewriting emails.


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Prioritization

While the more-calls-equals-more-sales model holds true, its not just about dial-ing more numbers, its about dialing the right numbers.

PowerDialer, when enhanced with NeuralView, prioritizes lists so reps focus their time on the prospects who are most likely to pick up the phone and begin their buying journey.

Prioritization is measured in two ways:

Likelihood to contact Likelihood to close

You may have prospects in your lists who are very likely to purchase from you, but if your reps call when those prospects hap-pen to be out of the office, and only make one or two contact attempts, then the opportunity is lost.

PowerDialer is designed to solve this prob-lem. The application analyzes information about a prospect in the context of trillions of external data points related to the sales process, and then assigns each prospect a

score out of 100. The higher the number, the more likely they are to close.

Additionally, PowerDialer powered by NeuralView shuffles prospects to the top of a reps list according to the likelihood that they are available by phone at any given moment. This prioritization is refreshed hourly.

LocalPresence

When your phone rings and the call is from a toll-free number, how likely are you to answer it?

What if the call is from a local number?

Contact rates increase by 38% when reps are using a local phone number. Additionally, op-erating with local numbers creates a virtual presence in any market.

Of course, owning great amounts of local numbers your reps can call through is ex-pensive. One way around this is to let some-one else carry the bill.

InsideSales.com owns local numbers from all across the country. Customers oper-ate through InsideSales.coms proprietary

numbers when they use PowerDialer with LocalPresence.

Not only does this feature help reps contact more people, but it grants managers greater insight into information regarding geo-target-ed tracking metrics. If teams begin to notice a higher contact or conversion rate with people in Texas, they may want to prioritize all prospects from that area.

Immediate Response

A lead called within 5 minutes of requesting information is over 10x more likely to answer, and is 4x more likely to qualify, according to the July 2014 Lead Response Report.

Yet, the same research also indicates that 71% of internet-generated leads are never called.

PowerDialers immediate response feature automatically places new incoming leads at the top of sales reps lists, so your reps are responding to these leads that are already raising their hand.


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SEE IT IN ACTION

Hi Joan, this is Michael Pedone with SalesBuzz.com.

The reason for my call is that I have an idea on how to possibly help you avoid being rejected by gatekeepers in your sales calls.

I wanted to see if it would make sense for us to have a quick conversation to find out a little bit more about what we have to offer.

I can be reached at 888-123-4567.

Again, this is Michael Pedone with SalesBuzz.com and my number is 888-123-4567. Thanks Joan.

Tips:

The word avoid intrigues your prospect and immediately allows you to mention a common pain point they can relate to.

Other intriguing words include:

Cut, reduce, eliminate, prevent, solve, improve, enable, allow

Write down your phone number as you say it. This ensures you are speaking slowly enough for your prospect to write it down.

TEAM TEAR-AWAY: COLD CALLING TEMPLATES FROM MICHAEL PEDONE

The Cold Call Template Hi {Prospects Name}, this is {Your Name} with {Your Company}.

Im calling because I have an idea on how to possibly help you avoid {specifics of com-mon pain} and wanted to see if it would make sense for us to have a quick conver-sation to find out more. I can be reached at {Your Number}.

Again, my name is {Your Name} with {Your Company} at {Your Number}.

Thanks {Prospects Name}.

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SEE IT IN ACTION

Hi Warren, this is Michael Pedone with AccountingXYZ.

I was speaking with Jim Green over at TWorks3 regarding how we helped him reduce costs associated with Sarbox compliance, and he mentioned I should give you a call to get your opinion.


Again, this is Michael Pedone with Account-ingXYZ and my number is 888-123-4567.

Thanks Warren.

Tips:

Get your opinion

Industry research will enable you to pinpoint specific pain points that will compel your pros-pects to call you back.

The best industry research will take into account firmographic, demographic, geographic, psycho-graphic and histographic considerations about your prospects.

Always thank

Be sure you always thank your prospect for their time. Courtesy is contagious, and your prospect appreciates your politeness.

The Referral Template Hi {Prospects Name}, this is {Your Name} with {Your Company}.

I was speaking with {Referral Name} over at {Referrals Company Name} regarding how we helped him/her reduce {common pain/concern} and he/she mentioned that I should give you a call to get your opin-ion on this strategy. I can be reached at {Your Number}.


Thanks {Prospects Name}.


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SEE IT IN ACTION

Hi Susan, this is Michael Pedone with CloudTrackingXYZ.

We recently helped MedNow, DocOnCall and FixYouUp eliminate the stress of slammed office schedules by mobilely optimizing their pa-perwork process, and wanted to see if this might be something you would possibly be interested in knowing a little more about as well.


Again, this is Michael Pedone with CloudTrack-ingXYZ and my number is 888-123-4567.

Thanks Susan.

Tips:

Recently helped

This is a powerful incentive for your prospect to call you back. C-level executives always want to know what their competitors are doing.

Be authentic. Only reference companies that you have truly worked with and helped.

Contact information

Repeating your name, company information and number at the end of the call is cru-cial. No one likes to replay a voicemail to find contact info.

The Competition Template Hi {Prospects Name}, this is {Your Name} with {Your Company}.

We recently helped {Competitor 1}, {Compet-itor 2} and {Competitor 3} avoid {common pain} while at the same time {desired bene-fit} and wanted to see if this might be some-thing you would possibly be interested in knowing a little more about as well. I can be reached at {Your Number}.



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Im ready for my next call, but before I move on to the next lead on my list, I get a notification from my email tracking application, Vision.

Remember I mentioned leaving a voicemail and email for the second pros-pect this morning?

Ive just received an alert that he clicked through the link to our website.

Now I just press the Click-to-Call button directly from the Vision notification, and in seconds, I have him on the phone.

We set an appointment, and Im ready to continue with my campaign.

SALES PROSPECTING ENHANCED BY EMAIL TRACKING

Hyperlink: Vandelay Product Pricing20 Minutes Ago

William Lindeman

Link Clicked

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Sales prospecting is no longer a one-channel approach. Reps cant expect to use phones exclusively and still be successful.

In fact, email is the most effective means of contacting prospects both in the office and outside of work. A whopping 87% of execu-tives self-report as likely to respond to email, according to the 2014 Research Report: Optimizing Business Communications.

With such an evident opportunity, it may sur-prise you to learn that many reps remain inef-fective when it comes to email prospecting.

Email tracking technology can change that.

Traditional email prospecting only provides useful information when a prospect re-sponds. Until then, reps and managers are left in the dark.

Sales email tracking shows reps and man-agers whether or not prospects are reading emails and engaging with content.

Every email sent is an opportunity to place a marker with a prospect that can then track engagement from that point forward.

Reps Know in Real Time:

VISIONManagers Sales Reps

Know More You know what content is performing well, and can ensure you have the right types of collateral coming from your marketing department.

You can see in real-time when pros-pects open emails, which content they engage with and which websites and pages they visit.

Do More Create templates and progress reports that are shareable with your sales team and superiors.

Automatic pop-ups improve efficiency by allowing you to call prospects with the click of a button.

Sell More Knowing which content and collateral move engagement, you can more suc-cessfully strategize email campaigns.

You can immediately respond to buying signals and include the best content with each email.

1. When an email is opened

2. Which links are clicked

3. When a prospect visits their website and how long prospects viewed specific pages

4. Which attachments are downloaded

5. Who an email was forwarded to

6. Which content is most effective

Consider the benefits of tracking this information in real-time. Just like with Immediate Re-sponse, you could swiftly respond to buying signals and with integrated telephony, your quick response will result in greater conversions.

Managers can see what kinds of emails and offers lead to better engagement. With that infor-mation, you can design future templates for improved results.

SALES PROSPECTING ENHANCED BY EMAIL TRACKING

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TEAM TEAR-AWAY: COLD EMAIL TEMPLATE

Vision InsideSales.coms email tracking application, Vision, was built specifically to give managers and reps the visibility they need to prospect more effectively in order to quickly close more deals. Vision tracks website and email engagement, provides real-time alerts to sales reps, and automatically syncs all email communications to CRM.

When integrated with the InsideSales.com sales acceleration platform, Vision enables sales teams to leverage data intelligence to prescribe who to email, when and with what content.

Managers also can use Vision to improve sales team performance with visibility and reporting on all email communications between reps and prospects. Some have cal-culated an uplift in sales, which usually falls between 3% and 7%.

Cold Email Template Cold emails that provide prospects with an enticing offer net higher open rates than those that feel generic and impersonal. A simple call-to-action resonates with readers. Once you receive a Vision alert that your

email was received and opened, you can confidently call your prospect, knowing your offer is top-of-mind.

The following is an email template you can use with email tracking software:

COLD EMAIL TEMPLATE EXAMPLE

Subject Line: 10 minutes to get a 27% increase in revenue

Hi {Prospects First Name},

I have an idea that can be explained in 10 minutes that can get {Prospects Company Name} its next customers.

I recently used this idea to help a client {SaaS Company/Competitor} see an immediate 27% lift in business.

{Prospects First Name}, lets schedule a quick 10-minute call so I can share this strategy with you.

I can be reached at {Your Number}.

When is best for you?

Thanks,

{Your Name}

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His Throwdow appears right in my CRM where PowerStandings usually shows my standings and my key metrics.

Throwdown accepted.

Game on.

INCREASE SALES PROSPECTING OUTPUT WITH GAMIFICATION

As Im working my way through my campaign, I suddenly get a Throwdown notification from another rep on my team.

He thinks he can set more appoint-ments than me.

PowerStandingsby InsideSales.com

Metric Rank You NextDials 7 32 31Contacts 2 7 6Total Talk 8 00:36:02 00:26:39Appts Sets 1 2 1

7385 PointsStephen Lang

PowerStandingsby InsideSales.com

Metric Rank You NextDials 7 32 31Contacts 2 7 6Total Talk 8 00:36:02 00:26:39Appts Sets 1 2 1

7385 PointsStephen Lang

THROWDOWNISSUED

Henri Lesueur challenged you to a throwdown!

Accept Reject

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Sales prospecting is not a part-time activity to be done when things are slow or when marketing-supplied leads only go so far. It is important your reps understand that in order to grow, they must refine their sales prospecting skills.

How do you motivate them to do this?

You cant pay commission on every activity that leads to a sale.

You need a motivation platform to provide visibility and incentives for sales prospecting activities executed with a level of engage-ment that will keep your activity levels high and sales funnel flowing.

Real-time motivation also means managers get real-time data, enabling them to make decisions and manage to results immediately.

InsideSales.coms sales team motivation platform is called PowerStandings and, when applied on your sales floor, it can increase the output of your team by as much as 50%.

With leaderboards, throwdowns, achieve-ments, neural notifications and measureable

KPIs, your sales prospecting team will consistently perform with a competitive drive like youve never seen before.

PowerStandings identifies the more predictive activities involved in sales prospecting that are not already rewarded with commissions and adds additional visibility and game mechanics to those activities.

POWERSTANDINGSManagers Sale Reps

Know More PowerStandings tracks, highlights and provides incentives for sales inputs, giving you more visibility about each individual reps performance.

See visual cues of your KPIs in real time and know how you compare to everyone else on your team.

Do More Regularly issue challenges to make sure your teams are meeting sales prospecting task goals.

Issue Throwdowns and bring your com-petitive edge to the sales floor. Succeed while having fun and blowing past your benchmarks.

Sell More Through automation and motivation, keep your teams performing at their highest level.

Gamification lifts the volume of your prospecting activities, thereby increasing your results

League of Legends, Call of Duty, Xbox and a host of other systems and games captivated an entire generation of millennials. Born from that phenomenon, gamification is a statistical and analytical science that reinforces effective behavior through gaming mechanics and drives incredible levels of productivity.


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PowerStandings

For a team where the sales cycle is weeks or months long, how can you keep your team doing the right daily tasks? One way is to set up key prospecting metrics and measure against them regularly. You can also do this weekly, monthly or in connection with specif-ic campaigns.

Once these metrics are in place, having a gamification platform capable of tracking them in a fun and competitive way will only increase motivation and productivity. This is the purpose of PowerStandings.

To monitor and track these metrics in an engaging and visual manner, InsideSales.com created the following features in Pow-erStandings:

Throwdowns

Competition is one of the most powerful mo-tivators. Throwdowns directly impact the DO MORE part of the sales prospecting equation, increasing rep productivity and effort.

Reps are awarded points for different sales prospecting activities. Some managers set

up rewards systems, letting reps compete for extra points or wager points in Throwdowns. Points can then be exchanged for swag, long lunches or other real-world benefits.

By providing reps with the ability to compete and see who can reach the highest number of sales prospecting KPIs, you motivate them to make more dials. More dials leads to more conversations and more sales.

Real-Time Feedback

Everyone needs feedback to understand how he or she is performing.

Leaderboards satisfy that need in real time. Reps can know if they are meeting their prospecting numbers, and how their level of performance compares with other members of their team. If theyre behind, it pushes them to do more in order to catch up. If theyre in the lead, theyll do whatever it takes to stay there.

Achievements

Salespeople are good because they love the thrill of succeeding. However, there is a lot of hard work stacked up just this side of suc-

cess. Getting motivated to do that hard work is a struggle every day.

But what if you could reward your team along the way, keeping them on track be-tween wins? This is where achievements come into play.

They could be anything from badges to spiffs. While these things alone wont be enough for motivation, just like compensation and salary arent universal motivators, they fuel the fire that drives sales performance.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards target some of the same key motivators as Throwdowns. They use the same competitive elements by allowing reps to visualize where they stand in comparison to their peers.

This sort of visualization organically creates peer mentors among the reps in your office. Consistent results showcase their floor win-ners and top performers. Other reps tend to reach out to these leaders to learn from their technique. In this way, Leaderboards help build leaders as your reps play.


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Neural Notifications

If you played sports growing up, your coach-es probably fell in one of two categories. The first was the coach who encouraged you to perform using only positive reinforcement. Then there was the other coach who thought the louder he or she yelled, the better youd perform.

Different people respond better to different types of cues.

Notifications keep agents updated about their place in the rankings and help them push their performance to the limit. Neural notifications take things to the next level by tailoring messages to individual agents and their unique personalities.

Whats more, using advanced analytic algo-rithms, PowerStandings times neural notifi-cations to be delivered to reps at key times, as indicated by their historical performance and real-time actions. If a reps productivity starts to dip, the system notices and sends a neural notification to help that agent return to maximum productivity.


The best implementations of PowerStand-ings are done in the context of a full sales acceleration approach. Because sales mo-tivation is designed to drive activity volume, sales calling and sales email and engagement tracking are logical companions.

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TEAM TEAR-AWAY: 12 HIGH-VELOCITY METRICS

Using a gamification platform like Power-Standings will motivate your reps to top per-formance. However, in order to really drive sales prospecting results, its important you are measuring and tracking the right metrics.

Here is a list of high-velocity metrics that actually drive results:

1. How fast does your sales team respond to leads? (Immediacy)

2. How persistent are your sales reps in responding to leads? (Persistency)

3. How soon does your sales team book appointments? (Same day, next day, 2 days, 3 days, etc.)

4. What % of your leads are actually con-tacted? (Contacted Ratio)

5. What % of your appointments come from hot transfers or same call progression?

6. How fast do you reset appointments that dont hold?

7. What is the length of your overall sales cycle?

a. By Lead / List Sourceb. By Size of Companyc. By Offer Typed. By Sales Rep

8. What is the best time of day to be calling? (Morning or late afternoon is best, ac-cording to our research. Is it true for your business?)

9. What is the best day of week to be call-ing? (We found that Wednesday or Thurs-day is best. Does your data agree?)

10. What % of direct-dial phone numbers do my reps have access to? (Instead of main numbers.)

11. How long has this prospect been without a contact or impression? (We like to stay in contact at least every 3 business days. Test to find your optimal timing for maxi-mum results.)

12. How long has this prospect been with-out progression in lead or sales cycle? (If they havent progressed in 10 business days, you may consider them a long-term marketing lead instead of a qualified sales lead.)

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BUILD A BETTER SALES PROSPECTING TEAM THROUGH PREDICTIVE HIRING

At the end of the day, I take a look at the team leaderboards.

Ive set the most appointments, earning the title of leader for the day.

My competition is fierce, though.

We are all top performers, driven to compete and win, personality character-istics that we were evaluated on before being hired.

Using Sales Indicator, our sales manager handpicked applicants that he knew would meet quota every month, with up to 75% accuracy.

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Imagine you own the worlds best race car. As amazing as it is, without a quality driver and crew, it may never leave the starting line.

Sales prospecting works the same way. While having the right tools makes sales prospect-ing effective, organizations must hire the right people to maximize the potential of their systems.

Traditional sales hiring is difficult and impre-cise. Often, recruiters and interviewers rely only on gut instincts, references and re-sumes. This process produces good, but not great, results, evidenced by the fact that only 59% of reps, on average, achieve quota.

Worse still, poor hiring decisions prove even more costly when you factor in high turnover. Unsurprisingly, 41% of companies say a bad hire in the last year cost them at least $25,000.

The infusion of data science into the hiring process helps remove much of the guess-work so companies can get the right people in the right seats. Imagine the impact on your revenue if 70% of your reps hit quota? What about 80%? Or 90%?

SALES INDICATOR Managers

Know More Youll know which candidates have a higher chance of becoming top performers and pinpoint reps who will most successfully align with culture and products.

Do More Youll be able to hire faster, with less downtime and turnover.

Sell More Youll build an unstoppable sales machine by increasing the percentage of sales reps who hit quota and decreasing ramp-up times and turnover.

Sales Indicator

InsideSales.com scientists have spent years determining which character dispositions are most indicative of top sales performers. This research underpins a cloud-based hiring assessment that allows companies to hire with confidence, predicting which reps will hit quota with up to 75% accuracy.

Sales Indicator is simple to use. As part of the hiring process, candidates are asked to fill out a short online assessment. From that assessment, inferences are made based on four promi-nent character dispositions: empathy, resilience, ambition and openness.

When integrated with InsideSales.coms sales acceleration platform, Sales Indicator is tuned to a companys individual sales metrics and specific sales roles. Advanced algorithms constantly analyze a companys data to continuously recalibrate and make the strongest predictions pos-sible about a candidates potential to hit quota.

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As you become familiar with the profiles that drive success in one role versus another, you can consider reconfiguring your team to optimize performance. For instance, if one of your account managers is not hitting their upsell quota, and their sales indicator profile indicates low empathy but high resilience, you may consider putting them in a front-line sales prospecting role.

The best implementations of predictive sales hiring are done in the context of a full sales acceleration approach. Hiring is only one aspect of managing a sales team. Managing and optimizing sales activities is another. The InsideSales.com sales acceleration platform is built to handle every step of prospecting, from helping you spot the right talent to get-ting your team to do more and sell more.


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SALES INDICATOR

APPLICANT NAME:

Closer

PROJECTED ATTAINMENT:

Michelle Lee

Empathy is the ability to comprehend precisely the emotional and psychological state of other

people. There are two components to empathetic perception: one is cognitive, i.e.

comprehending the motives, beliefs, agenda of someone else, including the ability to place

oneself in that persons belief-set; the second is affective; i.e., comprehending and feeling the

emotive state of someone else.

Attribute

Empathy

Resiliance

Ambition

Openness

Score

83

78

89

97

Description

EMPATHY:

0 100

61

RESELENCE:

100

81

AMBITION:

100

95

OPENNESS:

100

83

How is the quota projection calculated? We leverage Neuralytics neural networks to make a projection based on your candidates unique attributes compared to 1. your companys performance, and 2. the performance of countless sales professionals is similar roles around the world.

TEAM TEAR-AWAY: HOW TO HIRE A SALES PROSPECTING STAR

Predictive analytics, and the use of talent-based hiring, can transform a com-pany from below average to competitive at the highest levels.

Science has an indispensable and central role to play in the hiring process.

Any employer who wishes to remain competitive must identify the right com-bination of skills, experience and talent. In the search for top sellers, place the greatest emphasis on talent.

Exercise There are four essential elements of sales talent, described below. Weve giv-en you a few questions weve found to be extremely powerful in identifying key aspects of talent.

Empathy Are you often moved by the misfortunes of others?

Resilience Do your friends think you have a strong personality?

Ambition Do you often make greater effort than others to complete a task?

Openness Do you enjoy learning new ideas?

Empathy

Resilience

Ambition

Openness

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SEE THE ENTIRE DAY IN ACTION

Its been a great day of cold calling and sales prospecting.

Im excited to do it all over again.

To see my day from beginning to end, I invite you to watch the short video to the right.

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SUMMARY AND CREDITS

Science helps you sell more. Or, as we like to say at InsideSales.com, science holds the key to unlocking human potential. Adding sales acceleration technology to your prospecting process will accelerate the sales cycle and drive revenue growth in ways no other lead scor-ing application or workflow automation solution can.

Your team will gain more visibility, productivity and effectiveness, empowering you to KNOW more, DO more and SELL more.

Now that you have seen the benefits of predictive selling and our sales acceleration tech-nologies, its time to start implementing what youve learned.

Cold calling and sales prospecting often seem like daunting and intimidating tasks, but with the right technology and the right team, you can consistently crush your numbers.

CONTENTMichael PedoneSalesBuzz.com

Gabe LarsenInsideSales.com

Ken Krogue InsideSales.com

WRITERSChelsi LindermanJohn Ternieden

EDITORLeo Dirr

DESIGNERScott Humphries

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IntroductionA Day in the Life of Stephen LangThe Science of Lead Scoring, Prioritization and Sales ProspectingTeam Tear-Away: Prescriptive Analytics, Are You Ready?Sales Prospecting Powered by a Prescriptive DialerTeam Tear-Away: Cold Calling Templates From Michael PedoneSales Prospecting Enhanced by Email TrackingTeam Tear-Away: Cold Email TemplateIncrease Sales Prospecting Output with GamificationTeam Tear-Away: 12 High-Velocity MetricsBuild a Better Sales Prospecting Team Through Predictive HiringTeam Tear-Away: How to Hire a Sales Prospecting StarSee the Entire Day in ActionSummary and Credits

fb: twitter: li: g+: Day in a life video: