How To Cook The Best Quality Leads With Your Inside Sales Team

How To Cook The Best Quality Leads With Your Inside Sales Team:from Business 2 Community by Samantha Jacoby

One of my guilty pleasures is food competition shows. I love nothing better than to watch a cooking show and pretend I know what I am saying when I say they should have never gone with the soufflé. I do know what I am talking about when it comes to the relationship between the inside sales team at AG Salesworks and the outside sales reps at the companies we work for. One of the trickiest parts of our job is transitioning a contact over to another company. There are some things an outside sales rep should know before entering the kitchen.
Not Every Lead is the Same
You wouldn’t eat a steak the same way you would eat a Big Mac. The same philosophy applies to following up on a sales qualified lead vs. a marketing qualified lead. Inside sales reps call into a variety of different companies, and each company struggles with something unique, the goal is to find how your solution can address their challenges. The outside sales reps that receive sales qualified leads from teleprospectors need to take the time to evaluate the lead and decide the direction to take the call. Much like you need to decide what toppings you want on a hamburger or how you want your steak cooked, you need to customize your approach to that company for your second call based on the level of qualification of the lead.  While this may seem obvious, some folks overlook this and do not take advantage of the detailed information provided in a sales qualified lead.
We are the Appetizers, They are the Meal
Imagine you are at a 5 star restaurant and you order an appetizer before your delicious dinner. That appetizer does not aim to completely satisfy your hunger; it serves to get you excited for your dinner. Inside sales reps act as an appetizer in the world of sales. Our goal is to identify the issues and to interest the contact in the product/solution. Many sales reps struggle with this concept and I believe it can be one of the biggest challenges of an inside team. There is a fine balance of piquing the interest and completely filling up a prospect so they don’t want the meal (or the call). It is important the outside sales teams are completely in tune with where the handoff takes place, so that they can leverage the interest that the inside sales reps have created.
Communication is Key
If you have ever been in a restaurant kitchen, you know it is not a quiet place. People are constantly yelling, giving updates on orders and warning others of hot plates. It should be the same in any inside sales to outside sales relationship. Giving updates of where a company is in the sales cycle or discussing challenges faced by either party is crucial. I personally learn more about a product talking to the sales rep, since they know it inside and out. Both sides need to allow the other to reach out and tell them “Orders up!”
If you are lucky enough to work with a inside sales team that is teleprospecting , you likely appreciate the benefits of receiving quality leads from them.  It is the understanding of these high quality leads that changes a prospect into a client, much like a high quality ingredient changes an ordinary meal into a 5 star meal.