2. 2
INTRODUCTION
A day in the life of a sales prospecting team
has changed dramatically in the last 10 years.
Traditional smile-and-dial cold calling cam-
paigns aren’t as effective as they used to be.
In fact, what most successful sales prospect-
ing teams do now isn’t really “cold calling”
at all, even though many still use the term
out of habit.
The new approach to sales prospecting is far
more strategic and targeted, which creates a
better experience for both the salesperson
and the buyer. Today’s top sales prospecting
teams use data science to predict the best
prospects and to prescribe when and how
to contact them. They combine these action-
able insights with powerful sales acceleration
technologies, including prescriptive dialers,
email and engagement tracking, gamification
platforms and cloud-based hiring assess-
ments, to dramatically improve visibility,
productivity and effectiveness – ultimately
increasing revenue by as much as 30% in as
little as 90 days.
COLD CALLING AND SALES PROSPECTING:
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TOP-PERFORMING SALES REP
As a sales leader, the most valuable thing you
have is your team’s time. In some companies
we’ve studied, reps spend 40% of their time
just looking for someone to call. What if you
could optimize your reps’ workday to ensure
they were prospecting and performing at the
highest possible level at any given moment?
Well, buckle in, because you’re about to see
what this kind of day looks like in action.
In this guide, you’ll discover how to mar-
ry sales prospecting best practices with
breakthrough sales acceleration technology
to achieve remarkable results – in some
cases increasing your prospecting pipeline
by up to 4x.
Just follow along as we walk you through a
day in the life of a top-performing sales pros-
pecting rep. It should be a lot of fun.
HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE:
• See how Stephen Lang, a sales develop-
ment rep, structures his day to dramat-
ically increase visibility, productivity and
effectiveness.
• Learn how sales acceleration technology
combined with prospecting best practices
can increase revenue by 30% or more.
• Get Team Tear-Aways designed to help you
coach your sales prospecting team.
Share:
4. 4
Hi, my name is Stephen Lang. Let’s look at a typical day as an SDR at
Vandelay Industries.
Last Friday, my manager kicked off a weeklong “SMB Blitz” campaign.
The daily goals?
• 89 dials
• 12 connected calls
• 3 appointments
That is some serious sales prospecting.
I am going to show you how I accelerated the sales process by making my
sales prospecting activities more visible, productive and effective.
It starts with a sales acceleration platform that tells me who to contact,
when to call and what messaging to share.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF STEPHEN LANG
Share:
5. 5
THE SCIENCE OF LEAD SCORING,
PRIORITIZATION AND SALES PROSPECTING
Is your prospecting team working the right
leads? Sales prospecting is all about quickly
generating qualified opportunities and ulti-
mately revenue.
Lead scoring has long been a part of the
sales prospecting process, but it has a bad
reputation on the sales floor.
Why?
Simply put, marketing-based lead scoring
systems have never added much value when
it comes to sales.
NeuralView®
, InsideSales.com’s lead scoring
and prioritization application, provides a
different approach designed for salespeople,
by salespeople.
With NeuralView you can know more, do
more and sell more by applying proven sales
prospecting best practices to the right leads
at the right time.
THE PROSPECTING FORMULA WITH NEURALVIEW
Manager Sales Rep
Know More View Trust Reports that detail the
inner workings of data in your sys-
tem. Discover how many calls are
required to reach high-scoring leads,
how much revenue to expect from
each score range and what specific
makeup of customer your company
serves best.
See which of the leads in your pool
are most likely to contact and
most likely to close as data science
automatically sorts your best op-
portunities.
Do More Armed with data-driven insights,
focus your reps’ efforts on the pros-
pects most likely to be contacted and
most likely to close. Spend less time
manually building lists for your reps
to dial through.
Target your efforts against the leads
most likely to contact and close. Trust
your dialer to automatically queue
the best lead, at any given moment,
for you every time you click the “Next
Record” button.
Sell More By prescribing your sales team’s day
according to advanced data science,
you ensure your reps spend more
time calling the right leads, engaging
more decision makers and closing
more deals.
NeuralView gets you on the phone
with the right people at the right
time so no business slips through
the cracks.
Share:
6. 57%Of high performance
sales teams rely on
sales analytics (2)
In 12 – 18 months
smart selling with
predictive analytics
will jump 77% in
sales organizations (5)
CIOs rank analytics
as the #1 factor to
an organization’s
competitiveness (6)
Marketing and sales
centerd on predictive
analytics improve ROI
by 15% – 20% (4)
24%Revenue increase
in closed business (1)
Without With
Predictive Analytics
Self-learning Analytics Engine (7)
Organizations that
embrace analytics
are 2x more likely
to outperform
their peers (3)
150 Million
customer profiles
87 Billion
sales interactions
1 Billion
unique data points
added each month
TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
PRESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS, ARE YOU READY?
1. InsideSales.com
2. 2015 State of Sales Report from Salesforce.com
3. MIT Sloan Management Review IBM Report
4. McKinsey Analysis Via Forbes Article
5. 2015 State of Sales Report from Salesforce.com
6. IBM CIO Study 2009
7. InsideSales.com
Share:
7. 7
Once predictive and prescriptive analytics help me identify who to call and
when to contact them, I can use PowerDialer™ to ensure I am calling people
in the most efficient way, and capturing any impressions from those calls.
The first thing I do is head into my CRM to make sure things are in order for
my campaign.
I know that for every 52 calls I make, I am only likely to connect on 8 of them.
This offers 44 opportunities to leave a voicemail. So one of the first things I
do is create a pre-recorded message tailored to the campaign that can be
left automatically as I move from one call to another.
Because industry research shows that voicemail and email are most effective
when used together, I then set up an email specifically tailored for the “SMB
Blitz” campaign templates from my manager.
When I start dialing, I know that the analytics engine in the background of
the dialer is serving me the best leads first. When I see my first lead has a
score of 95, I know it is a hot lead.
I call, she answers – and we set an appointment.
The call is automatically logged in PowerDialer, which saves my lead in Sales-
force, and I’m onto my next sales prospect. If they don’t answer, I just click to
leave a pre-recorded voicemail and send a pre-written email.
SALES PROSPECTING POWERED BY A PRESCRIPTIVE DIALER
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8. 8
The rise of remote selling technologies fully
equips sales teams to run successful sales
prospecting campaigns without on-site visits.
With inside sales positions growing 300%
faster than field reps, the industry landscape
is changing (2013 Market Size Study). Gone
are the days of blind cold calling.
As reps rely on telephone, email and remote
presentations to communicate with cus-
tomers more than ever before, their efforts
should be more precise, eliminating the cold
calling model of the past and accelerating
sales with intelligent dialers.
By using a dialer powered by predictive ana-
lytics, sales teams can increase their sales by
30% or more.
Your sales prospecting process must have
these crucial components:
• Rules-based call lists that target specific
industries, titles, time zones, etc., so calling
is deliberate and focused
• Data intelligence seamlessly injected
into workflow
• Automated voicemail and email
• Click-to-call functionality from a CRM
• Ability to call from local numbers
• Automated tracking and recording
• Automatic data capture to CRM
The information gathered through this approach gives you the ability to know more, do more
and ultimately sell more.
POWERDIALER
Managers Sales Reps
Know More Learn what individual reps and
your collective sales team are
doing. Call recordings, the abil-
ity to “whisper” to reps during
calls and join calls in progress
aid in coaching your team.
PowerDialer helps you know
more about your prospects,
giving you confidence the next
record you dial is the best.
You also have a more granular
view of previous touches on
the accounts.
Do More You can build reports to learn
best practices and push them
across your team. You can also
create prioritized call lists and
email templates.
Stop switching between
screens and apps and accom-
plish more in a shorter time.
Data is automatically cap-
tured each time a lead record
is touched.
Sell More Increased visibility into your
reps prospecting practices
enables better pipeline man-
agement and forecasting.
With PowerDialer you have
more conversations with quali-
fied leads who are ready to buy.
SALES PROSPECTING POWERED BY A PRESCRIPTIVE DIALER
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9. 9
PowerDialer
Sales calls have come a long way.
There was a time when reps relied on tra-
ditional cold calling, feverishly dialing num-
bers and trying to interact with people with
whom they had no prior interaction. While
old-school cold calling still happens, it is no
longer as effective as it used to be.
Today the most effective sales prospecting
is informed by data science and carried out
with technology.
New technology has dramatically improved
the cold calling and sales prospecting pro-
cess. Not only can reps do more with pros-
pecting applications designed to automate
their workflow, but they can rely on sales
data to help them sell more.
Automatically Capture Data to CRM
Management wants reps to gather more
data, but sales reps are notoriously allergic
to things that take their time.
In some ways, reps are right. Do you want
them to spend 10 minutes writing up notes
on a 5-minute call? Could they be setting
another appointment if they were back on
the phone?
PowerDialer automatically captures all of
the meta data surrounding each call your
reps make.
This information – number of rings until
pick up, time of day a call is answered, day
of week a contact is reached, etc. – is used
to make the NeuralView application of
PowerDialer more intelligent and accurate.
What’s more, calls are recorded and stored
with the lead record, so that it is easy for a
rep to access the most accurate records rele-
vant to the lead instantly.
Automatic data capture to CRM lets reps
make more calls, which is what they really
want to do.
Automated Workflow
If reps make more calls and talk to more
people, they make more sales. Simple, right?
Automation allows reps and managers
to do more by reducing the time it takes
to make calls, leave voicemails and send
email messages.
Let’s say reps manually enter numbers from
a list before making a call and that it takes
about 10 seconds per number. That may not
seem like much, but if a rep makes 52 calls a
day, those 10 seconds turn into more than 8
minutes. In a month, that becomes 3 hours.
InsideSales.com PowerDialer is built on click-
to-call technology. Reps make phone calls,
send SMS messages, schedule future call-
backs and leave prerecorded voicemails all
with a simple click of their cursor.
Many reps avoid leaving voicemails because
the time it takes to leave a message creates
a huge time sink. Not to mention, after about
30 voicemails, enthusiasm and energy aren’t
at their peak. Automated voicemails mean
consistent, quality messages that take only
seconds to leave.
Managers can also guide reps by crafting
email templates they can share with their
team. To send an email prior to a call, reps
can simply select that option from the dialer,
and choose which template they’d like. No
more cutting-and-pasting or rewriting emails.
SALES PROSPECTING POWERED BY A PRESCRIPTIVE DIALER
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10. 10
Prioritization
While the more-calls-equals-more-sales
model holds true, it’s not just about dial-
ing more numbers, it’s about dialing the
right numbers.
PowerDialer, when enhanced with
NeuralView, prioritizes lists so reps focus
their time on the prospects who are most
likely to pick up the phone and begin their
buying journey.
Prioritization is measured in two ways:
• Likelihood to contact
• Likelihood to close
You may have prospects in your lists who
are very likely to purchase from you, but if
your reps call when those prospects hap-
pen to be out of the office, and only make
one or two contact attempts, then the
opportunity is lost.
PowerDialer is designed to solve this prob-
lem. The application analyzes information
about a prospect in the context of trillions
of external data points related to the sales
process, and then assigns each prospect a
score out of 100. The higher the number, the
more likely they are to close.
Additionally, PowerDialer powered by
NeuralView shuffles prospects to the top of a
rep’s list according to the likelihood that they
are available by phone at any given moment.
This prioritization is refreshed hourly.
LocalPresence™
When your phone rings and the call is from
a toll-free number, how likely are you to
answer it?
What if the call is from a local number?
Contact rates increase by 38% when reps are
using a local phone number. Additionally, op-
erating with local numbers creates a virtual
presence in any market.
Of course, owning great amounts of local
numbers your reps can call through is ex-
pensive. One way around this is to let some-
one else carry the bill.
InsideSales.com owns local numbers from
all across the country. Customers oper-
ate through InsideSales.com’s proprietary
numbers when they use PowerDialer with
LocalPresence.
Not only does this feature help reps contact
more people, but it grants managers greater
insight into information regarding geo-target-
ed tracking metrics. If teams begin to notice
a higher contact or conversion rate with
people in Texas, they may want to prioritize
all prospects from that area.
Immediate Response™
A lead called within 5 minutes of requesting
information is over 10x more likely to answer,
and is 4x more likely to qualify, according to
the July 2014 Lead Response Report.
Yet, the same research also indicates
that 71% of internet-generated leads are
never called.
PowerDialer’s immediate response feature
automatically places new incoming leads at
the top of sales reps’ lists, so your reps are
responding to these leads that are already
raising their hand.
SALES PROSPECTING POWERED BY A PRESCRIPTIVE DIALER
Share:
11. SEE IT IN ACTION…
Hi Joan, this is Michael Pedone with
SalesBuzz.com.
The reason for my call is that I have an idea on
how to possibly help you avoid being rejected
by gatekeepers in your sales calls.
I wanted to see if it would make sense for us to
have a quick conversation to find out a little bit
more about what we have to offer.
I can be reached at 888-123-4567.
Again, this is Michael Pedone with SalesBuzz.
com and my number is 888-123-4567.
Thanks Joan.
Tips:
The word “avoid” intrigues your prospect and
immediately allows you to mention a common
pain point they can relate to.
Other intriguing words include:
Cut, reduce, eliminate, prevent, solve, improve,
enable, allow
Write down your phone number as you say it.
This ensures you are speaking slowly enough for
your prospect to write it down.
TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
COLD CALLING TEMPLATES FROM MICHAEL PEDONE
The Cold Call Template
Hi {Prospect’s Name}, this is {Your Name}
with {Your Company}.
I’m calling because I have an idea on how to
possibly help you avoid {specifics of com-
mon pain} and wanted to see if it would
make sense for us to have a quick conver-
sation to find out more. I can be reached at
{Your Number}.
Again, my name is {Your Name} with {Your
Company} at {Your Number}.
Thanks {Prospect’s Name}.
Share:
12. SEE IT IN ACTION…
Hi Warren, this is Michael Pedone
with AccountingXYZ.
I was speaking with Jim Green over at TWorks3
regarding how we helped him reduce costs
associated with Sarbox compliance, and he
mentioned I should give you a call to get
your opinion.
I can be reached at 888-123-4567.
Again, this is Michael Pedone with Account-
ingXYZ and my number is 888-123-4567.
Thanks Warren.
Tips:
Get your opinion
Industry research will enable you to pinpoint
specific pain points that will compel your pros-
pects to call you back.
The best industry research will take into account
firmographic, demographic, geographic, psycho-
graphic and histographic considerations about
your prospects.
Always thank
Be sure you always thank your prospect for their
time. Courtesy is contagious, and your prospect
appreciates your politeness.
The Referral Template
Hi {Prospect’s Name}, this is {Your Name}
with {Your Company}.
I was speaking with {Referral Name} over
at {Referral’s Company Name} regarding
how we helped him/her reduce {common
pain/concern} and he/she mentioned that
I should give you a call to get your opin-
ion on this strategy. I can be reached at
{Your Number}.
Again, my name is {Your Name} with {Your
Company} at {Your Number}.
Thanks {Prospect’s Name}.
TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
COLD CALLING TEMPLATES FROM MICHAEL PEDONE
Share:
13. SEE IT IN ACTION…
Hi Susan, this is Michael Pedone with
CloudTrackingXYZ.
We recently helped MedNow, DocOnCall
and FixYouUp eliminate the stress of slammed
office schedules by mobilely optimizing their pa-
perwork process, and wanted to see if this might
be something you would possibly be interested
in knowing a little more about as well.
I can be reached at 888-123-4567.
Again, this is Michael Pedone with CloudTrack-
ingXYZ and my number is 888-123-4567.
Thanks Susan.
Tips:
Recently helped
This is a powerful incentive for your prospect to
call you back. C-level executives always want to
know what their competitors are doing.
Be authentic. Only reference companies that
you have truly worked with and helped.
Contact information
Repeating your name, company information
and number at the end of the call is cru-
cial. No one likes to replay a voicemail to find
contact info.
The Competition Template
Hi {Prospect’s Name}, this is {Your Name}
with {Your Company}.
We recently helped {Competitor 1}, {Compet-
itor 2} and {Competitor 3} avoid {common
pain} while at the same time {desired bene-
fit} and wanted to see if this might be some-
thing you would possibly be interested in
knowing a little more about as well. I can be
reached at {Your Number}.
Again, my name is {Your Name} with {Your
Company} at {Your Number}.
TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
COLD CALLING TEMPLATES FROM MICHAEL PEDONE
Share:
14. 14
I’m ready for my next call, but before I move on to the next lead on my list, I
get a notification from my email tracking application, Vision™.
Remember I mentioned leaving a voicemail and email for the second pros-
pect this morning?
I’ve just received an alert that he clicked through the link to our website.
Now I just press the Click-to-Call™ button directly from the Vision notification,
and in seconds, I have him on the phone.
We set an appointment, and I’m ready to continue with my campaign.
SALES PROSPECTING ENHANCED BY EMAIL TRACKING
Hyperlink: Vandelay Product Pricing…
20 Minutes Ago
William Lindeman
Link Clicked
Share:
15. 15
Sales prospecting is no longer a one-channel
approach. Reps can’t expect to use phones
exclusively and still be successful.
In fact, email is the most effective means of
contacting prospects both in the office and
outside of work. A whopping 87% of execu-
tives self-report as likely to respond to email,
according to the 2014 Research Report:
Optimizing Business Communications.
With such an evident opportunity, it may sur-
prise you to learn that many reps remain inef-
fective when it comes to email prospecting.
Email tracking technology can change that.
Traditional email prospecting only provides
useful information when a prospect re-
sponds. Until then, reps and managers are
left in the dark.
Sales email tracking shows reps and man-
agers whether or not prospects are reading
emails and engaging with content.
Every email sent is an opportunity to place a
marker with a prospect that can then track
engagement from that point forward.
Reps Know in Real Time:
VISION
Managers Sales Reps
Know More You know what content is performing
well, and can ensure you have the
right types of collateral coming from
your marketing department.
You can see in real-time when pros-
pects open emails, which content
they engage with and which websites
and pages they visit.
Do More Create templates and progress
reports that are shareable with your
sales team and superiors.
Automatic pop-ups improve efficiency
by allowing you to call prospects with
the click of a button.
Sell More Knowing which content and collateral
move engagement, you can more suc-
cessfully strategize email campaigns.
You can immediately respond to
buying signals and include the best
content with each email.
1. When an email is opened
2. Which links are clicked
3. When a prospect visits their website and
how long prospects viewed specific pages
4. Which attachments are downloaded
5. Who an email was forwarded to
6. Which content is most effective
Consider the benefits of tracking this information in real-time. Just like with Immediate Re-
sponse, you could swiftly respond to buying signals and with integrated telephony, your quick
response will result in greater conversions.
Managers can see what kinds of emails and offers lead to better engagement. With that infor-
mation, you can design future templates for improved results.
SALES PROSPECTING ENHANCED BY EMAIL TRACKING
Share:
16. TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
COLD EMAIL TEMPLATE
Vision
InsideSales.com’s email tracking application,
Vision, was built specifically to give managers
and reps the visibility they need to prospect
more effectively in order to quickly close
more deals. Vision tracks website and email
engagement, provides real-time alerts to
sales reps, and automatically syncs all email
communications to CRM.
When integrated with the InsideSales.com
sales acceleration platform, Vision enables
sales teams to leverage data intelligence
to prescribe who to email, when and with
what content.
Managers also can use Vision to improve
sales team performance with visibility and
reporting on all email communications
between reps and prospects. Some have cal-
culated an uplift in sales, which usually falls
between 3% and 7%.
Cold Email Template
Cold emails that provide prospects with an
enticing offer net higher open rates than
those that feel generic and impersonal. A
simple call-to-action resonates with readers.
Once you receive a Vision alert that your
email was received and opened, you can
confidently call your prospect, knowing your
offer is top-of-mind.
The following is an email template you can
use with email tracking software:
COLD EMAIL TEMPLATE EXAMPLE
Subject Line: 10 minutes to get a 27% increase in revenue
Hi {Prospect’s First Name},
I have an idea that can be explained in 10 minutes that can get
{Prospect’s Company Name} its next customers.
I recently used this idea to help a client {SaaS Company/Competitor} see an immediate
27% lift in business.
{Prospect’s First Name}, let’s schedule a quick 10-minute call so I can share this strategy with you.
I can be reached at {Your Number}.
When is best for you?
Thanks,
{Your Name}
Share:
17. 17
His Throwdow appears right in my CRM
where PowerStandings™ usually shows my
standings and my key metrics.
Throwdown accepted.
Game on.
INCREASE SALES PROSPECTING OUTPUT
WITH GAMIFICATION
As I’m working my way through my campaign,
I suddenly get a “Throwdown” notification
from another rep on my team.
He thinks he can set more appoint-
ments than me.
PowerStandings
by InsideSales.com
Metric Rank You Next
Dials 7 32 31
Contacts 2 7 6
Total Talk 8 00:36:02 00:26:39
Appts Sets 1 2 1
7385 Points
Stephen Lang
PowerStandings
by InsideSales.com
Metric Rank You Next
Dials 7 32 31
Contacts 2 7 6
Total Talk 8 00:36:02 00:26:39
Appts Sets 1 2 1
7385 Points
Stephen Lang
THROWDOWN
ISSUED
Henri Lesueur challenged
you to a throwdown!
Accept Reject
Share:
18. 18
Sales prospecting is not a part-time activity
to be done when “things are slow” or when
marketing-supplied leads only go so far. It
is important your reps understand that in
order to grow, they must refine their sales
prospecting skills.
How do you motivate them to do this?
You can’t pay commission on every activity
that leads to a sale.
You need a motivation platform to provide
visibility and incentives for sales prospecting
activities executed with a level of engage-
ment that will keep your activity levels high
and sales funnel flowing.
Real-time motivation also means managers
get real-time data, enabling them to make
decisions and manage to results immediately.
InsideSales.com’s sales team motivation
platform is called PowerStandings and, when
applied on your sales floor, it can increase
the output of your team by as much as 50%.
With leaderboards, throwdowns, achieve-
ments, neural notifications and measureable
KPIs, your sales prospecting team will consistently perform with a competitive drive like you’ve
never seen before.
PowerStandings identifies the more predictive activities involved in sales prospecting that are
not already rewarded with commissions and adds additional visibility and game mechanics to
those activities.
POWERSTANDINGS
Managers Sale Reps
Know More PowerStandings tracks, highlights and
provides incentives for sales inputs,
giving you more visibility about each
individual rep’s performance.
See visual cues of your KPIs in real
time and know how you compare to
everyone else on your team.
Do More Regularly issue challenges to make
sure your teams are meeting sales
prospecting task goals.
Issue Throwdowns and bring your com-
petitive edge to the sales floor. Succeed
while having fun and blowing past your
benchmarks.
Sell More Through automation and motivation,
keep your teams performing at their
highest level.
Gamification lifts the volume of
your prospecting activities, thereby
increasing your results
League of Legends®
, Call of Duty®
, Xbox®
and a host of other systems and games captivated
an entire generation of millennials. Born from that phenomenon, gamification is a statistical
and analytical science that reinforces effective behavior through gaming mechanics and drives
incredible levels of productivity.
INCREASE SALES PROSPECTING OUTPUT
WITH GAMIFICATION
Share:
19. 19
PowerStandings
For a team where the sales cycle is weeks or
months long, how can you keep your team
doing the right daily tasks? One way is to set
up key prospecting metrics and measure
against them regularly. You can also do this
weekly, monthly or in connection with specif-
ic campaigns.
Once these metrics are in place, having a
gamification platform capable of tracking
them in a fun and competitive way will only
increase motivation and productivity. This is
the purpose of PowerStandings.
To monitor and track these metrics in an
engaging and visual manner, InsideSales.
com created the following features in Pow-
erStandings:
Throwdowns
Competition is one of the most powerful mo-
tivators. Throwdowns directly impact the DO
MORE part of the sales prospecting equation,
increasing rep productivity and effort.
Reps are awarded points for different sales
prospecting activities. Some managers set
up rewards systems, letting reps compete for
extra points or wager points in Throwdowns.
Points can then be exchanged for swag, long
lunches or other real-world benefits.
By providing reps with the ability to compete
and see who can reach the highest number
of sales prospecting KPIs, you motivate them
to make more dials. More dials leads to more
conversations and more sales.
Real-Time Feedback
Everyone needs feedback to understand
how he or she is performing.
Leaderboards satisfy that need in real
time. Reps can know if they are meeting
their prospecting numbers, and how their
level of performance compares with other
members of their team. If they’re behind, it
pushes them to do more in order to catch
up. If they’re in the lead, they’ll do whatever it
takes to stay there.
Achievements
Salespeople are good because they love the
thrill of succeeding. However, there is a lot of
hard work stacked up just this side of suc-
cess. Getting motivated to do that hard work
is a struggle every day.
But what if you could reward your team
along the way, keeping them on track be-
tween wins? This is where achievements
come into play.
They could be anything from badges to spiffs.
While these things alone won’t be enough for
motivation, just like compensation and salary
aren’t universal motivators, they fuel the fire
that drives sales performance.
Leaderboards
Leaderboards target some of the same key
motivators as Throwdowns. They use the
same competitive elements by allowing reps
to visualize where they stand in comparison
to their peers.
This sort of visualization organically creates
peer mentors among the reps in your office.
Consistent results showcase their floor win-
ners and top performers. Other reps tend to
reach out to these leaders to learn from their
technique. In this way, Leaderboards help
build leaders as your reps play.
INCREASE SALES PROSPECTING OUTPUT
WITH GAMIFICATION
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Neural Notifications
If you played sports growing up, your coach-
es probably fell in one of two categories. The
first was the coach who encouraged you to
perform using only positive reinforcement.
Then there was the other coach who thought
the louder he or she yelled, the better
you’d perform.
Different people respond better to different
types of cues.
Notifications keep agents updated about
their place in the rankings and help them
push their performance to the limit. Neural
notifications take things to the next level by
tailoring messages to individual agents and
their unique personalities.
What’s more, using advanced analytic algo-
rithms, PowerStandings times neural notifi-
cations to be delivered to reps at key times,
as indicated by their historical performance
and real-time actions. If a rep’s productivity
starts to dip, the system notices and sends a
neural notification to help that agent return
to maximum productivity.
INCREASE SALES PROSPECTING OUTPUT
WITH GAMIFICATION
The best implementations of PowerStand-
ings are done in the context of a full sales
acceleration approach. Because sales mo-
tivation is designed to drive activity volume,
sales calling and sales email and engagement
tracking are logical companions.
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21. TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
12 HIGH-VELOCITY METRICS
Using a gamification platform like Power-
Standings will motivate your reps to top per-
formance. However, in order to really drive
sales prospecting results, it’s important you
are measuring and tracking the right metrics.
Here is a list of high-velocity metrics that
actually drive results:
1. How fast does your sales team respond
to leads? (Immediacy)
2. How persistent are your sales reps in
responding to leads? (Persistency)
3. How soon does your sales team book
appointments? (Same day, next day, 2
days, 3 days, etc.)
4. What % of your leads are actually con-
tacted? (Contacted Ratio)
5. What % of your appointments come from
hot transfers or same call progression?
6. How fast do you reset appointments that
don’t hold?
7. What is the length of your overall
sales cycle?
a. By Lead / List Source
b. By Size of Company
c. By Offer Type
d. By Sales Rep
8. What is the best time of day to be calling?
(Morning or late afternoon is best, ac-
cording to our research. Is it true for your
business?)
9. What is the best day of week to be call-
ing? (We found that Wednesday or Thurs-
day is best. Does your data agree?)
10. What % of direct-dial phone numbers
do my reps have access to? (Instead of
main numbers.)
11. How long has this prospect been without
a contact or impression? (We like to stay
in contact at least every 3 business days.
Test to find your optimal timing for maxi-
mum results.)
12. How long has this prospect been with-
out progression in lead or sales cycle? (If
they haven’t progressed in 10 business
days, you may consider them a long-term
marketing lead instead of a qualified
sales lead.)
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22. 22
BUILD A BETTER SALES PROSPECTING TEAM
THROUGH PREDICTIVE HIRING
At the end of the day, I take a look at the team leaderboards.
I’ve set the most appointments, earning the title of leader for the day.
My competition is fierce, though.
We are all top performers, driven to compete and win, personality character-
istics that we were evaluated on before being hired.
Using Sales Indicator™, our sales manager handpicked applicants that he
knew would meet quota every month, with up to 75% accuracy.
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BUILD A BETTER SALES PROSPECTING TEAM
THROUGH PREDICTIVE HIRING
Imagine you own the world’s best race car.
As amazing as it is, without a quality driver
and crew, it may never leave the starting line.
Sales prospecting works the same way. While
having the right tools makes sales prospect-
ing effective, organizations must hire the
right people to maximize the potential of
their systems.
Traditional sales hiring is difficult and impre-
cise. Often, recruiters and interviewers rely
only on gut instincts, references and re-
sumes. This process produces good, but not
great, results, evidenced by the fact that only
59% of reps, on average, achieve quota.
Worse still, poor hiring decisions prove
even more costly when you factor in high
turnover. Unsurprisingly, 41% of companies
say a bad hire in the last year cost them at
least $25,000.
The infusion of data science into the hiring
process helps remove much of the guess-
work so companies can get the right people
in the right seats. Imagine the impact on
your revenue if 70% of your reps hit quota?
What about 80%? Or 90%?
SALES INDICATOR
Managers
Know More You’ll know which candidates have a higher chance of becoming
top performers and pinpoint reps who will most successfully
align with culture and products.
Do More You’ll be able to hire faster, with less downtime and turnover.
Sell More You’ll build an unstoppable sales machine by increasing the
percentage of sales reps who hit quota and decreasing ramp-up
times and turnover.
Sales Indicator
InsideSales.com scientists have spent years determining which character dispositions are most
indicative of top sales performers. This research underpins a cloud-based hiring assessment
that allows companies to hire with confidence, predicting which reps will hit quota with up to
75% accuracy.
Sales Indicator is simple to use. As part of the hiring process, candidates are asked to fill out a
short online assessment. From that assessment, inferences are made based on four promi-
nent character dispositions: empathy, resilience, ambition and openness.
When integrated with InsideSales.com’s sales acceleration platform, Sales Indicator is tuned to
a company’s individual sales metrics and specific sales roles. Advanced algorithms constantly
analyze a company’s data to continuously recalibrate and make the strongest predictions pos-
sible about a candidate’s potential to hit quota.
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24. 24
As you become familiar with the profiles that
drive success in one role versus another,
you can consider reconfiguring your team to
optimize performance. For instance, if one
of your account managers is not hitting their
upsell quota, and their sales indicator profile
indicates low empathy but high resilience,
you may consider putting them in a front-line
sales prospecting role.
The best implementations of predictive sales
hiring are done in the context of a full sales
acceleration approach. Hiring is only one
aspect of managing a sales team. Managing
and optimizing sales activities is another. The
InsideSales.com sales acceleration platform
is built to handle every step of prospecting,
from helping you spot the right talent to get-
ting your team to do more and sell more.
BUILD A BETTER SALES PROSPECTING TEAM
THROUGH PREDICTIVE HIRING
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159%
SALES INDICATOR
APPLICANT NAME:
Closer
PROJECTED ATTAINMENT:
Michelle Lee
Empathy is the ability to comprehend precisely the emotional and psychological state of other
people. There are two components to empathetic perception: one is cognitive, i.e.
comprehending the motives, beliefs, agenda of someone else, including the ability to place
oneself in that person’s belief-set; the second is affective; i.e., comprehending and feeling the
emotive state of someone else.
Attribute
Empathy
Resiliance
Ambition
Openness
Score
83
78
89
97
Description
EMPATHY:
0 100
61
RESELENCE:
100
81
AMBITION:
100
95
OPENNESS:
100
83
How is the quota projection calculated? We leverage
Neuralytics® neural networks to make a projection
based on your candidate’s unique attributes
compared to 1. your company’s performance, and 2.
the performance of countless sales professionals is
similar roles around the world.
25. TEAM TEAR-AWAY:
HOW TO HIRE A SALES PROSPECTING STAR
Predictive analytics, and the use of talent-based hiring, can transform a com-
pany from below average to competitive at the highest levels.
Science has an indispensable and central role to play in the hiring process.
Any employer who wishes to remain competitive must identify the right com-
bination of skills, experience and talent. In the search for top sellers, place
the greatest emphasis on talent.
Exercise
There are four essential elements of sales talent, described below. We’ve giv-
en you a few questions we’ve found to be extremely powerful in identifying
key aspects of talent.
Empathy
Are you often moved by the misfortunes of others?
Resilience
Do your friends think you have a strong personality?
Ambition
Do you often make greater effort than others to complete a task?
Openness
Do you enjoy learning new ideas?
Empathy
Resilience
Ambition
Openness
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26. 26
SEE THE ENTIRE DAY IN ACTION
It’s been a great day of cold calling and
sales prospecting.
I’m excited to do it all over again.
To see my day from beginning to end, I invite
you to watch the short video to the right.
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27. 27
SUMMARY AND CREDITS
Science helps you sell more. Or, as we like to say at InsideSales.com, science holds the key
to unlocking human potential. Adding sales acceleration technology to your prospecting
process will accelerate the sales cycle and drive revenue growth in ways no other lead scor-
ing application or workflow automation solution can.
Your team will gain more visibility, productivity and effectiveness, empowering you to
KNOW more, DO more and SELL more.
Now that you have seen the benefits of predictive selling and our sales acceleration tech-
nologies, it’s time to start implementing what you’ve learned.
Cold calling and sales prospecting often seem like daunting and intimidating tasks, but with
the right technology and the right team, you can consistently crush your numbers.
CONTENT
Michael Pedone
SalesBuzz.com
Gabe Larsen
InsideSales.com
Ken Krogue
InsideSales.com
WRITERS
Chelsi Linderman
John Ternieden
EDITOR
Leo Dirr
DESIGNER
Scott Humphries
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