The CRAP Report

I’m sure around the holidays that you, like me, will have a good number of parties to attend.  Now, some may be family affairs while others may be for work, but for the most part those holiday parties typically have the same thing in common – food.  Wherever you go, I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of food to eat.  Folks will have spent time preparing and cooking great appetizers and main dishes, and desserts, too.  One of the things that may run through your mind while you’re at an event, and probably while you’re eating, is “how can I make this at home?” For a lot of you, though, the better question will be, “how can I make this better at home?”  That’s what cooks, do, right?  They find something they like and then they make it better.  The same thing can be said for your teleprospecting efforts, you know?  You’re sales prospecting machine may be great, but there’s always a way to make it better right?  Of course there is!

Often times business development gets caught somewhere between Sales and Marketing, and though I do believe that teleprospecting bridges the gap between the two.  That being said, and speaking from experience, it typically is a Marketing responsibility.  For the majority of projects that I’ve worked on, both as a BDR and as a Director, my main point of contact has been someone from my client’s Marketing department.  Surprisingly enough, right, that there was little involvement from the Sales side?  I’m here to say, though, that if you want to make your BDR’s better, regardless of whose responsibility B2B lead generation is in your organization, get your sales reps involved.  I see three ways that your sales team can make your BDR’s (or your vendor’s on your behalf) better: 

1. Give them “dream” accounts to call into.
2. Let them listen in on sales calls.
3. Give them feedback on all leads.

You give your teleprospectors marketing lists to call on, sure.  Those names are from tradeshows and webinars, white paper and eBook downloads, and even purchased lists.  That data is great, no doubt, but if you want your sales reps help in making your teleprospectors better, have them give your BDR’s “dream” accounts to call into.  Sales guys all have this list – the name of marquee companies that they want to close, and especially the ones they haven’t even broken into yet.  Giving this list to your BDR’s helps them to be better because it gives them incentive to impress.  If there is one thing that I’ve learned most about the BDR’s that I work with, it’s that money is not always the number one motivator for them.  Maybe it’s their generation, or maybe they’re just better with their money than I am, but for the most part, they would MUCH rather receive recognition for a job well done than extra money (crazy, I know!).  I know that when I was a BDR, if a sales rep told me that he or she “couldn’t” get into Company A, that I busted my ass to make sure that I did.  Getting a list of “dream” accounts to call into made teleprospecting fun for me, and it helped me to raise my game because I understood the importance of getting my sales rep in front of that important account.

Next, your sales team can make your BDR’s better by letting them listen in on sales calls.  I’ve talked a lot about shadowing in on calls with your BDR’s, but they need to shadow your sales reps.  Giving them that opportunity lets your BDR’s hear how objections are handled by the folks in your organization who are the best equipped to handle them.  Listening on sales calls also allows your BDR’s to focus on an important skill without any pressure – listening.  There is a lot of pressure to listen while on a prospecting call.  At the same time you’re supposed to focusing in on listening to a potential sales opportunity, you’re also trying to process what questions they’re posing and what objection they’re throwing at you, and how you’re going to answer them both.  Shadowing in on calls with your sales team affords your BDR’s the chance to just listen.  That’s all they’ve got to do.  It can be a nice break for your teleprospectors while at the same time gives them the chance to learn a lot about the sales process.

Lastly, the very BEST way to get your sales team to make your BDR’s better is to have sales give them feedback on all leads.  This is the closed loop strategy; you’re closing the loop on the opportunities that sales receives.  There is no single better way to shape your BDR’s qualification skills then by having your sales team go over each lead that gets passed to them and detail what the end result was for each.  Was the information that they received initially validated?  What worked well?  What information wasn’t accurate and what information wasn’t provided that really should?  What is the next step in the life cycle of this lead?  All of this feedback only stands to make your BDR’s better.  I know that my BDR’s look forward to each interaction they have with the sales reps that they’re passing leads to because they want to know if what they’re doing is effective.  They want to be better at qualifying leads and when they hear the feedback from the folks who actually follow up on their leads, it spurs them on to achieve success.  My colleague, Lindsay Roberts, talked about having a closed loop strategy earlier this week in a webcast entitled Perspectives in Teleprospecting – A Closed Loop Strategy, and you should check that out here.

There are other ways, I’m sure, that your sales team can make your teleprospecting team better, so tell me what you think we should add to this list?