The CRAP Report

If you’re like me and my friends, you were pretty hyped up for last night’s season premiere of LOST.  I came to the game late on this one, having to watch three seasons on DVD (which by the way, is actually more fun because you can just keep watching episode after episode).  If you don’t know what LOST is, it’s a show about survivors of a plane crash and their adventures on the island that they crashed on.  To tell you anymore within the confines of this blog would break the space-time continuum.  I’d say it’s probably one of the most well developed shows in TV history; that’s just my limited opinion though.  As I was discussing last night’s two-hour opening with some of the BDR’s at work today, it got me thinking – how can you keep your teleprospectors from becoming “lost” on their sales prospecting calls? Read more… »

I read a blog today from the inside sales consulting firm The Bridge Group’s Patrice Murray.  Patrice highlighted a post from Dave Kurlan’s blog, where basically Dave shared a story of a time where he was giving a presentation on a Sales Hiring Webinar.  Dave was asked why, if his process worked so well, were more people not using it.  Dave’s answer was broken down into three points – ego, money, and fear.  Patrice did a great job breaking down the post, and you should read it here.

Additionally, my colleague, Craig Ferrara, hosted a webcast about best practices for hiring teleprospectors.  In it, Craig shares his thoughts on setting up a teleprospecting profile, implementing an interview process that focuses on the phone role play, and his evaluation process.  Check out the Perspectives on Teleprospecting – Best Practices for Hiring Teleprospectors webcast here.

*Photo courtesy of LisaDeeRN via Flickr

Man, the summer of 1987 when I discovered Guns N’ Roses’ first release, Appetite for Destruction, was a good one.  I think I listened to their first album (cassette tape actually) so much that I probably needed to buy a second one.  My sister hated them, and would get mad at me every time I wanted to watch their videos on MTV (when they actually played videos).  In my opinion, there wasn’t a bad song on the whole album.  Do you have any like that in your music collection?  You know, one that you can just listen to over and over without feeling like you need to fast forward past a song.  I think I have a few, but the first one I ever encountered, where I liked EVERY song was Appetite for Destruction.  I thought I’d try and do something a little different today, so I’m going to relate some teleprospecting lessons through the titles of each of the songs on the Appetite for Destruction album. Read more… »

Think about your prospects for a minute.  You’ve probably got a list or a database chock full of folks that you really want to do business with.  Sure you want to do business with them because that means money for you and your organization, but I’m sure there are those that you want to do business because of the weight that their name carries in their respective industries.  Now take a minute and think about how you reach out to those folks, from a teleprospecting perspective.  Maybe you’re not doing that right now but you want to.  Do you prospect your prospects the way YOU want to or the way THEY want to be?  This question came to me today after reading a blog entry in the Marketing Mélange by Mike Frichol. Read more… »

Okay, if you’ve got a stick of gum, a paper clip, three pennies, a ball made of rubber bands, and an acorn who are you?  A lot of folks may say that you’re the contents of the front pocket of a seven year old boy, but they would be wrong.  Actually, the real answer is a flame thrower if you’re in the hands of one Angus MacGyver – yes, THE MacGyver.  You remember him, right?  They guy with a penchant for getting out of inescapable situations by creating some contraption out of things he’d find on the ground or in his or a partner’s pockets.  MacGyver was awesome (besides the mullet) and one of the cooler aspects of that show was actually trying to figure out how he was going to do what he needed to do, and with what.  Like I said, the guy could make a tank out of a broken baby-stroller and a coat rack.  More than anything, MacGyver was inventive, and without a doubt, one of the top 100 qualities of a great teleprospecting rep is being inventive. Read more… »

Wow, so the first “official” work day of 2010 is over, and I can’t believe I’m just sitting down to blog at 10:30pm at night.  So sorry for the delay on this!  If you recall, last week I started talking to you about what I want for your teleprospectors this year.  I shared with you that I would want them to have more courage, because courageous BDR’s are more likely to pass fully qualified sales opportunities.  They’re not afraid to ask tough questions and they’re certainly not flustered when presented with difficult objections.  I also talked with you about how I want your BDR’s to have a better source of data from which to prospect from and a compensation plan that pays them out on the quality of their work.  Tonight, want to finish up this little series with numbers four and five of my “wants” for your teleprospectors in 2010. Read more… »

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite Christmas stories.  I love the idea of someone getting visited by four ghosts to show him how the errors of his ways can determine his future.  It’s a story about second chances, too.  Ebenezer Scrooge is a terribly wicked man at the beginning of the tale, and by the end, he’s barely recognizable because his outlook on life is a complete turn from what people had been used to.  How can anyone not enjoy a story like that!?  You know, the ending of one year and the beginning of another brings that same feel of a second chance with it.  When it comes to your B2B lead generation efforts and your sales prospecting campaigns, what are you going to do differently to make 2010 better than 2009? Read more… »

Do you know the definition of what a “vicious circle” is?  According to dictionary.com it’s, “a situation in which effort to solve a given problem results in aggravation of the problem or the creation of a worse problem.”  Maybe you’ve seen it comically played out in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.  Spoiler alert for those of you who’ve never seen it in the last ten years, but there was a character in it named Fat Bastard, a Scottish hit man, played by Mike Meyers.  Per his name, he really is a fat guy under the employ of the movie’s main antagonist, Dr. Evil.  Near the end of the film, Fat Bastard tries to kill Austin Powers and his co-spy in the movie, Felicity Shagwell, by pretending to be a UPS delivery guy.  Fat Bastard crashes through their front door and tries to kill them, and eventually breaks down in tears and admits that, “I eat because I’m unhappy, and I’m unhappy because I eat. It’s a vicious cycle. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s someone I need to get in touch with and forgive: meself.”  If you find yourself thinking that you don’t have any budget to put towards teleprospecting in 2010, I think you’re going to find yourself falling into the same vicious circle that got you to that point in the first place. Read more… »

One of my favorite episodes from Seinfeld was one where George’s girlfriend sits him down at Monk’s and tries to give him the old, “It’s not you, it’s me,” routine.  You know what that is, right?  When someone tries to break up with their significant other by saying that it has nothing to do with the S.O., but rather about the person doing the breaking up.  People say that because confrontation is never desirable; they never want to tell the other that it really IS them, or something that they’ve done or neglected to do, that is causing the break up.  George counters the move by saying, “I invented the, ‘it’s not you, it’s me’…nobody tells me it’s them and not me.  If it’s anybody – it’s me!”  How about in a failing teleprospecting campaign?  How do you know it’s really your fault and not your vendors?  There is someone to blame, no doubt, but how can you tell who’s owns the blame? Read more… »

We’ve all got friends in our lives that say that they’re going to do something and then they don’t do it, right?  It’s not just me, is it?  Hell, I know I’ve BEEN that person before.  I’m not proud of that, but it’s the truth.  For the most part though, hopefully we can forgive our friends if the gaffe wasn’t too great, and hopefully they’re able to do the same thing for us.  But when it comes to work, it’s a little different, isn’t it?  If you’re counting on someone to do something for you and they just never get it done, that isn’t as easily forgivable, especially if you’ve got deadlines to keep.  How do you keep people accountable to doing what they’re supposed to be doing?  And speaking about teleprospecting in particular, how do you keep BDR’s accountable? Read more… »