The CRAP Report

Today I’m going to finish up my three part series on “Lessons from The Double Deuce.”  On Tuesday I talked about never underestimating your opponent, and I think having targeted outbound lead generation campaigns is one way to do that by getting to that coveted sale faster.  On Wednesday, I talked about “[taking] it outside,” with the lesson being that outsourcing sales prospecting efforts allows you to be even more focused in passing quality sales opportunities to your sales team.  Patrick Swayze’s Dalton tells us that the last rule in effective “bouncing” or crowd control is “be nice.”  How the hell is that supposed to mean anything to marketing and sales!?  Pretty simple, though today my message is directed at those on the phones, the teleprospectors.

“And three, be nice.”

I understand that in order to be an effective sales person, you need to be aggressive.  My advice to the teleprospecting community is that you can still do that and be nice.  Directly outside of my office are five business development reps.  They service a myriad of clients, and one of the common threads among them is how polite they are to the prospects that they speak with on a daily basis.  These folks get hung up on and barked and yelled at on a daily basis, and they take it in stride.  They understand that if they’re going to get to the person that they want to talk to, they’re going to have to get by that person’s gatekeeper.  The best way to do that?  As Dalton says, “Be nice.”  I’ve listened to some BDR’s who think that admin’s and operators are beneath them, and it is not surprising to me that they don’t get as far as their nicer colleagues. 

Listen, I know you may think this sounds trite, but speaking from experience, being nice gets a BDR closer to a lead than not being nice.  To help one of my guys, I put a mirror in his cube with the word “smile” written on it, just to encourage him to be nicer on the phone.  People on the other end of a phone call can tell what your attitude is, especially when it’s negative, but if you’re smiling and you’re nice, that goes a long way with people, especially if you’re looking for them to give you information.  As a BDR, that is what you’re doing all day:  collecting information.  The nicer you are to people, I’m convinced that you’ll get more of it.