The CRAP Report

Yesterday I posed the question, “Is your teleprospecting vendor listening to you?”  Today, though, I want to turn the tables a little bit.  Are your Business Development Rep’s listening to your prospects?  I mean, I certainly hope they are; hell, YOU certainly hope they are!  How do you really know, though?  If your BDR’s are not actively listening to your prospects while they have them on the phone, the ramifications of that could cost you big.  Conversely, if your BDR’s are really listening  to the prospects that they speak to, congrats.  You’re probably seeing greater production from those BDR’s.  How do you know, though?

There’s a difference between hearing and listening, right?  Of course there is!  Hearing is passive, where listening is very active.  Think of how many times you’ve been in a conversation with someone in a crowded area.  You probably can “hear” them, audibly, but if you’re a people watcher or get distracted easily, chances are you’re not listening.  When you listen, you’re actively paying attention to what the person speaking to you is saying.  You can hear a song and think its great, but maybe when you actually take the time to listen to the lyrics of the song, it takes on a greater meaning to you.

I think there are three ways you can find out whether or not your BDR’s are listening to what your prospects are saying rather than just hearing them: 

1. Role play with them.
2. Shadow calls with them.
3. Read their call notes.

First, if you’re going to make sure that your BDR’s are listening to your prospects, you should role play with them.  You should be doing this whether you’ve got your own inside lead gen team or you’ve outsourced that responsibility.  Role playing allows you the opportunity to throw out as many objections to a BDR as you can in an environment where it should be okay to trip up.  It’s important that you foster an atmosphere of learning during role playing sessions with your BDR’s.  You’re not going to help them if you don’t have the patience to let them fall and get back up on their own.  Role playing with a BDR is a great way to tell if they’re listening to your prospects or not because you have the ability to control the situation.  By dropping clues here and there throughout the role play, you can see if your BDR’s pick up on them or not.  Did they hear that you need automation here, or did the listen to WHY you need automation?  Role playing is vital to getting your bearings on how actively a BDR listens to your prospects.

Second, shadow calls with them.  This is another no-brainer in that you should always make time to listen in on the calls your BDR’s (or your vendor’s BDR’s) are making.  Call shadowing is great because it affords you the opportunity to hear what prospects are saying to your reps in real time.  Training can take place on the fly because you’re able to pass notes over to your rep, and then afterwards when you debrief about each call.  I would say that there is no better way to tell if your BDR’s are listening to your prospects or not than listening in on their calls.  I would say plan to do so for two hours, because having quality conversations, much like passing a sales qualified lead, can be a numbers game.  Regardless of the length of time you spend with them, sitting in on calls with BDR’s is a must.  The most important thing for you to do when call shadowing is to listen.  You need to listen to both your BDR and your prospect, so before you do, make sure you get yourself in a frame of mind where you can focus on both.

Lastly, to make sure your BDR’s are listening to your prospects, read their call notes.  I’ve worked with a bunch of reps who barely used notebooks and that just didn’t fly right with me.  If you’re going to actively listen to someone, you’re writing down what they say.  By reading the notes that BDR’s take during a call, you should be able to pick out areas of improvement in terms of hearing versus listening.  Call notes should be full of content about pains and needs, or further directions from prospects pointing them to other contacts.  Also, make sure that your BDR’s are entering their notes into your CRM clearly so that others who may need to read them can follow along coherently.

Like I said, there’s a difference between hearing and listening.  Make sure your sales prospecting reps are listening to your target audience.  The difference in production quality could be huge!