Cold to Committed Read online

  If you don’t believe you are in control of your own success, why even try?

  Keep Learning

  You may have heard of the phrase “student mentality.” In my opinion this is one of the keys to success in prospecting, and in life. To have a student mentality means to always be focused on learning and growing—never closing yourself off because you “already know how to do that.” Almost everyone you meet will acknowledge the importance of educating oneself, but few actually follow through.

  Top performers in any industry are the people who make constant improvement a priority. Obviously, if you are reading this book, you are probably one of the people who make learning a priority. You are already on the right track.

  I always recommend reading books and listening to audiobooks about sales. Having a deep understanding of sales techniques will help you become a better prospector. Podcasts and videos are also an option. Sometimes you may find that what you are listening to or reading is too basic for you, however, don’t stop. Continue reading or listening with the intention of discovering at least one new thing that you can add to your repertoire. Even being reminded of something that you knew but had stopped doing can be incredibly impactful. That technique, advice, or knowledge can be what propels you to the next level of success.

  As someone who has spent a lot of time around sales people, I can confirm that they are very busy. Cold calling, booking meetings, and closing new business deals are just some of the activities that fill up the day. As a result, many people think that they don’t have the time to educate themselves. It’s the classic excuse, “I’m just too busy!”

  Every sales rep should devote at least thirty minutes a day to educating themselves. If you exercise every day, then listen to an audiobook while you do it. You can listen to podcasts during your commute or read part of a sales book before you go to bed. Find the time to add some self improvement into your day—it will have a huge long-term impact.

  Industry Knowledge

  Part of educating yourself should be related to the industry that you are selling, Whenever you are on the phone with a prospect, you must be an authority—that’s how meetings get booked. The decision maker will be making a judgment on whether or not you are an authority in the business you are selling to. The more you educate yourself, the easier it is to prove to your prospect that you are providing value and that you have confidence in your service or product. We are trying to convert time into money when we prospect.

  You better believe the prospect is doing the same thing.

  Creativity

  You don’t need to be an art major to be a great prospector, but the most successful prospectors are creative. I’m not saying that you need to treat sales as an art, it’s not—sales is a science. The psychology of how people make decisions has been studied for years. The creativity comes into play when you choose how to use sales techniques and when you use them.

  Because every prospect is unique and communicates differently, the best prospectors can adapt how they communicate to align with who they are working with. For example, if you are speaking with a prospect who values visual explanation, you must adjust your approach to cater to that. If you are working with someone who is very technical and wants to dive deep into the more complicated aspect of your product, you must be knowledgeable in those technical aspects.

  There are an infinite number of ways to get the attention of your prospects. It’s up to you to be creative when it comes time to set yourself apart. Prospecting will always evolve and change, so use your creativity to push the boundaries.

  Not everyone is a solo creative powerhouse. To boost your creativity, I suggest getting a group together for a brainstorming session. The goal is to come up with new ways to reach out to your accounts. What has worked in the past? Can it be improved? What techniques have failed before? Are there any redeemable qualities that can be used in the future? Collaborative energy breeds creativity and this might be the kickstart you need to enhance your own creative thoughts.

  Creativity without action is just daydreaming.

  The best prospectors do not fall into this trap; they take action quickly. This is because they have another trait that they use when they take action and it leads to improving their processes.

  Test Everything

  Everyone is capable of coming up with great ideas, but if you blindly follow everything you think of, you will end up running around in circles. The best prospectors test everything so they can make an unbiased, data driven, decision on whether it works or not. Test all new ideas and comparing their effectiveness to what you are already doing.

  Here’s an example of how to do this.

  If you want to test a new script introduction, the first step is to decide on what you are trying to accomplish with that introduction. The goal of your introduction should be to get the prospect to have a conversation with you. You would want to track how many times your new introduction leads to a good conversation with the decision maker versus how many times it leads to you getting hung up on. A/B test this, use the old intro(A) on one call and the new one(B) on the next. Repeat this process until you have enough data points to make a decision on which one is better.

  Choose one day a week to give something new a try. Spend time thinking about what you are hoping to accomplish by your test. If your current introduction seems to do really well, then you might not want to change it. i.e. don’t try to fix something that’s not broken. You should only test new ideas if you believe your current introduction doesn’t work well or could be better.

  Friday “Fun-day” is my day to get creative with my prospecting efforts. This is a day that I test a new idea I have to improve specific areas of my efforts. Get really nerdy about what you are testing and if you stumble on something great, look forward to Monday when you get to implement it across all your accounts!

  Have Presence

  Great prospectors develop something that is very important to their success—presence on the phone. Early in their career, many salespeople struggle to sound comfortable over the phone. In the beginning, most people sound robotic and a little nervous, but most are able to overcome this as they get more confident.

  Talking on the phone can be scary at first. This is due to the fact that most of our communication is through messaging and email. As a culture we have become less adept at verbal communication. This affects you and your prospects as well; they may not be super comfortable with phone conversations either. It is your job to be comfortable and to make the person on the other end of the line feel comfortable as well.

  Developing your own unique presence over the phone can captivate whoever you are speaking with. If you got cold called by Mark Cuban and didn’t know it was him, do you think you would listen? I would argue that you would, because he would have such a unique presence that you would be engaged.

  Developing your own unique presence takes time and a lot of repetition. As you get more comfortable on the phone,you will start to see your personality come out.

  The fastest way to develop your presence is to simply talk with everyone you can. Strike up a conversation in line at a local coffee shop or talk about the weather with someone who is walking in the same direction you are. Introduce yourself to whoever you can and ask about them. You may feel like you are intruding, but that is just your fears holding you back. If you were waiting to get coffee and the next person in line greeted you, would you be upset or annoyed? I would venture to guess probably not. Humans are social creatures and love connecting with others, but in most cases, fear holds us back.

  Some of your prospects may get defensive when you are on the phone with them. They may feel annoyed at first because they think it’s just another cold call. However, having a strong presence on the phone can change their mood drastically.

  The most successful prospectors are able to connect with anyone because of their unique presence and that ma
kes them enjoyable to converse with.

  Don’t be afraid to use your personality as much as you can when you are reaching out to your accounts. Don’t get wrapped up on trying to “sound professional” and embrace your authentic communication style. Take the time to get comfortable using your personality with everyone you come in contact with. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to sound like someone you are not when you are on the phone. Your goal is to sound knowledgeable about the industry and your product or service while maintaining your unique presence. You will come across more authentic and this will allow you to connect with the person you are speaking with on a more personal level.

  Motivation

  We are all motivated by different factors and you need to find out what motivates you. Is it about making a ton of money? Do you want to get promoted quickly? Make sure you have a clear understanding of what you would like to accomplish. In the world of sales, being able to build a pipeline, engage with prospects, and schedule sales meetings will get you far. Make sure you know where you want to be and how important it is for you to get there. This will serve as a reminder of why you do what you do every day and motivate you to stay disciplined.

  Conclusion

  The above traits are similarities I have observed in the top sales development reps and account executives. I would encourage you to adopt as many of these traits as you can. Becoming great at prospecting will be useful throughout your entire sales career.

  At this point you should have some notes on what areas we have covered that you feel confident in and the areas you need the most improvement on.

  Take a look at your notes.

  How do you feel?

  Did you write down a lot of areas that need improvement?

  Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed?

  This is totally normal. No one has all these traits naturally. They are developed over time.

  I want to tell you a story from my time as an SDR.

  

  I once worked with a sales development rep named John (not his real name, of course). I had been at this company for four months when he started and I was really getting into my groove with prospecting. I had seen much success the last quarter and was constantly helping my peers. My manager put John in my cubicle in the seat next to mine so I could help him ramp up. He was fresh out of college and, like most of us, had never made a cold call in his entire life.

  It turned out that John was scared to talk to people over the phone. Everyone is scared at first, but John had this deep rooted belief that calling someone out of the blue was rude and he felt uncomfortable. He felt like he was interrupting someone’s life and would often start his calls off with “sorry to bother you,” despite my suggestions not to. I worked with John a lot, trying to help him get over this crippling fear. This eventually turned into a deep hatred for the company and the role he was in.

  I spent a lot of time thinking about John because on the surface he seemed like someone who would do great. He was smart, really smart in fact. He was funny, personable, and a great conversationalist in person. However, he lacked the ability to use those traits to connect with people over the phone. As a result, John was fired from the company after about three months of far below average results. It was a tough pill for him to swallow, but he understood that the work wasn’t the right fit for him.

  

  The majority of people reading this are in a job where you must book meetings for salespeople who are trying to eventually close a sale. Let me finish this chapter off with some advice that applies to all areas of life:

  

  Some day you may find yourself in a position where it doesn’t look like you can make it.

  You may not be able to hit your quota. Maybe your job is on the line and it seems like you won’t be able to succeed.

  In this moment you have two options. You can put all your effort into doing whatever you can to achieve success—you can give it 100%. Or...you can only put in 50%, not your full effort and when you fail you can say to yourself “at least I didn’t try.”

  The second option is an easier pill to swallow—it protects your ego. It allows you to make excuses for why you didn’t put in that effort and those excuses mean that it isn’t your fault. In my opinion, when you are faced with this kind of situation, you must ask yourself this: “What kind of person am I?” Do you give 100% regardless of the challenge or only 50% and protect your ego?

  

  Choose to give 100%, even if there is a part of you that doesn’t believe you can succeed.

  Committing to this is you choosing not to fear failure. If you experience failure, learn from it and move forward. You will accomplish more by committing to being your best self regardless of the situation than you will by letting your ego take control.

  Account qualification and grading

  One thing that’s important for SDRs to understand is account qualification. You may work at a company that has pre-qualified accounts for you, which is helpful. Don’t let that stop you from reading this chapter. You need to understand WHY an account is considered qualified.

  You also need to understand account grading and why it will make you a lot more efficient. Anything you can do to optimize the time you spend prospecting is worth it.

  Prospecting is a numbers game—the more efficient you are, the higher the numbers you can achieve.

  Account qualification is important is because you want to make sure the people you are prospecting are a good fit for your product or service. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time trying to book a meeting with a company, only to find that your product or service is not a good fit for their business. Remember, being a great prospector is a lot about time management, and making sure you’re spending that time on qualified accounts is vital to success.

  The List and Its Impact on Your Success

  Let’s assume you don’t already have a list of account qualifications from your company. So, we will need to talk about the possible types of prospecting lists your company may provide and how you will go about qualify accounts. After that, we will talk about grading your accounts, so you can make sure you are maximizing your time. The ultimate goal is to give you a high level understanding of accounts and how you should be thinking about them.

  Anyone can blindly call a list. Trust me, you don’t want to be just “anyone.”

  List Vocabulary

  Flashback to my 5th grade teacher—she loved vocabulary; I did not. It was quite a point of contention in our relationship, I digress. There are some key terms you will need to know.

  Account

  In sales, account is defined as company, the business establishment that is the source of sales revenue . This includes all information attributed to the company. For example. how many employees they have, their revenue, their website presence, and basics like location, address, and phone number.

  Contact

  Linked to each account you have contacts, which is exactly what it sounds like. Contacts are people who work at the company. An account might have multiple contacts linked to it, multiple people you can attempt to contact in your pursuit of booking a meeting.

  You will have a list of accounts with contacts, either given to you or created by you.

  Note: Most CRM systems have the distinction between accounts and contacts built in, so this might be familiar to you.

  Dead Accounts

  Ahh, the infamous dead accounts—simple and not very exciting. These are accounts that other reps, or you, have worked into the ground. These contacts have gotten an excessive number of calls, and yet, no contact with a decision maker or any of the stakeholders has occurred. These may even be accounts where a previous rep got rejected by a primary decision maker. If you receive accounts like these, it is typically for you to practice the sales workflow and script without much risk of
burning a great lead. Usually, you don’t expect much from these accounts. Still, if the decision maker said “no” to one of your colleagues a few months ago, that doesn’t mean that they are going to say “no” to you!

  Web-Scraped Accounts and Contacts

  Accounts that are found by searching online are called web-scraped accounts. If you find a contact for an account on linkedin, for example, congratulations! You have a web-scraped contact! These accounts are in their infancy in terms of qualification. All you did was find the company and maybe a contact. You still don’t know if they are qualified or even if your information is accurate. It’s possible the contact changed companies and didn’t update their online profile. Maybe the company downsized dramatically and doesn’t have a need for the product or service that you provide. Either way this is your list to qualify, to feed your qualified account list.

  Qualified Accounts

  These are accounts that you have personally verified. Of course, you might not have a fully qualified account (in the eyes of sale’s reps), but you have an actual contact and you know enough to consider the account worth chasing. A list of qualified accounts is where the majority of your meetings will come from (not including inbound or list buys). Your goal as a prospector is to build a large list of qualified accounts so that you always have a list to work.

  List Buys

  A list buy is when the marketing team pays a company for a list of accounts and contacts. There are a lot of different types of list buys and not all created equal. Ideally, companies on the list are prequalified and may already be interested in the service or product you’re selling. This is nice for you because it saves you time trying to create your own list, but, list buys are by no means perfect.