The CRAP Report

Last week I blogged about things that you need to think about before you decide to build your own in-house teleprospecting team,  where I tried to get folks thinking about some of the questions that they may not have considered, and hopefully offer some insight into the difficulty of creating their own teleprospecting team.  Today I was thinking – what if someone had all of those things covered?  What if someone decided to build their own team and had been an experienced, successful teleprospector?  What if they knew exactly what their ideal BDR looked like and what if they really knew how to measure their team’s success?  It certainly isn’t beyond the scope of possibilities that if you’ve decided to build your own team that you already know how to answer these questions.  As a follow up, then, I’d like to offer some additional questions that you should think about.

So, let’s say that you’ve got yourself your own teleprospecting team – now what?  The way I see it, there are a few questions that you need to ask yourself once you get to this point: 

1. You’ve done teleprospecting before and you were successful at it.  Do you know the people you should surround yourself with so that you can focus on managing your team?
2. You’ve hired the right BDR’s, but do you know how to train them?
3. You know what metrics to measure to determine your team’s success, but do you know how to improve them when they’re not successful?

Congrats!  You’ve done teleprospecting before and you were successful at it.  You’re already way ahead of the game, but, do you know the people you should surround yourself with so that you can focus on managing your team?  There’s a lot going on from an operations perspective regarding the management of a successful teleprospecting team.  Who’s going to build out your team’s CRM so that it’s optimal for the BDR’s?  Who’s going to do your list scrubbing for you (and by God, get someone to do that!)?  Who’s going to manage all of the call metrics for you?  Who’s going to write and rewrite messaging and email templates?  Those are just a few questions that need answering.  Can you do all of this yourself?  Absolutely.  I’m not so sure you should be, though.  By determining who you should have working with you besides your BDR’s, you’ll be able to spend more time focused on managing your BDR’s rather than having to be sidetracked by all of those other issues that come up.

You’ve hired the right BDR’s, but do you know how to train them?  Just because you were a successful teleprospector doesn’t mean that you know how to train someone else to be just as successful.  They say those who can’t, teach.  I think that’s bunk.  Teaching isn’t easy.  Make sure that if you’ve got your own team of teleprospectors that you know how to train them.  And I’m not just talking about getting them up and running so that they know how to make a cold/warm call.  That’s all well and good for a little while.  I’m talking about keeping them sharp.  I’m talking about knowing how to keep them maintained as a well oiled sales opportunity qualifying machine.  I’m talking about having a team of folks who are constantly improving their skills, and better yet, are being taught to do so by you.  It’s fantastic if you were a really great BDR, but if you’re not a teacher or a trainer, take some time to plan out your team’s improvement process from an expertise perspective.

Lastly, you may know what metrics to measure to determine your team’s success, but do you know how to improve them when they’re not successful?  You’ve got a great connect rate but your lead rate is low, why is that?  Is that because you’re solution or a service is a “nice to have” or is because your BDR is afraid to pull the trigger on asking for a meeting?  Your lead rate is off the charts, but your connect rate is miserable – how come?  Does that even matter?  What about your leads that are hitting pipeline versus the ones that aren’t; do you know why?  Why is it that your BDR’s get off a call and feel like they’ve got a great opportunity but your sales rep says the lead sucked?  Who’s wrong in this case?  These are just a few questions you need to ask yourself regardless of whether or not your team is successful.  If they’re not though, and your boss has the metrics that you’ve determined for him/her that are what you should be measured by, you need to know how to improve.  You need to be able to determine when you need to add a little manpower to this campaign, or throttle down the activity to that campaign.  You need to be able to receive feedback on all of your team’s opportunities from each person that is a recipient of a lead, and you need to know how to get that feedback from the toughest reps who are not fans of your team.  It’s one thing to know how to measure your success, it’s a whole different animal knowing how to improve upon them.

Hopefully I’ve given you some things to think about.  If you have any questions about building your team, or improving them, feel free to give me a shout.  I know a lot of folks that would be happy to talk with you, and it would be my pleasure to help you get in touch with them.