inside sales (22)
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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-05-30 14:32 
0 comments
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 The notion that prospecting is a numbers game is outdated in today's complex selling environment, but that doesn't stop management from believing it's still holds true.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-05-02 21:17 0 comments
Read more …
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
Read more …
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.
Read more …
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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-02-03 23:07 0 comments
Brian Berlin, President of Straightline Strategies, is one of the prominent authorities on outsourced prospecting interviewed for an article in 1to1 Media.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-26 22:01 0 comments
Think of it as a process of elimination.
Read more …
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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-18 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.
Read more …
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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2010-01-06 06:00 0 comments
As a former VP Sales, I can tell you exactly where to find the money to pay for outsourced teleprospecting.
Read more …
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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-12-22 21:53 0 comments
Unless your company coffers are brimming, you should outsource teleprospecting.
Read more …
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....
Read more …
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.
Read more …
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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-08-23 17:01 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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-06-25 03:41 0 comments
The only reason to have inside sales is to make sales, not appointments. So the "perfect" inside sales person is a sales representative that meets prospects by phone and internet.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2009-03-09 13:43 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.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2008-04-21 05:44 0 comments
Dreamforce is Salesforce.com's annual customer and community boondoggle. If you're involved in any way with Salesforce.com or CRM at your company, you should definitely attend. You'll need a good plan for accomplishing your event objectives because there's an information overload. Which brings me to my story.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2007-11-24 11:53 0 comments
I recently had the honor and privilege to serve as a job reference for a former sales employee. A few years ago I hired this talented young man as an inside sales representative, and made it clear to him up front that it was our (his and mine) goal to grow him into a full-fledge enterprise sales representative. The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know--that was all the motivation he needed. Within 18 months he had his own territory and we had retained a valuable sales employee.
Read more …
Posted by by Brian Berlin on 2007-10-07 15:57 0 comments
