Building Blocks for Inside Sales Success

Important questions to ask yourself when your pipelines are lacking and deals are not closing

1. If I am not closing deal... It means I am not setting enough appointments with decision makers who are interested in buying from me. NEXT STEP: Diagnose why you are not setting enough quality appointments: * Are you setting appointments with non-decision makers? * Are you not setting expectations that you would like do go business and close a deal? * Are you failing to set a specific follow-up time so that you become a bother? 2. I am not getting to a point where I can even establish follow-up appointments... NEXT STEP: Acknowledge that my sales pitch and sales cadence are not working: * Am I asking enough questions during my sales calls to uncover the client's needs? * Am I truly listening to my client so that I can demonstrate my interest in helping them? * Am I picking up buying signals and responding to them? * Am I setting clear expectations for next steps, pricing, etc? * Am I following up at the right times, with the right contact methods? 3. I am not getting or keeping decision makers on the phone... NEXT STEP: Identify where you are losing the DMs interest: * How is your impact statement? Can you make it stronger? * How is your ability to overcome false objections at the beginning of the call so you aren't getting blown off? Do you have prepared responses to statements like - I'm too busy for this call so that you aren't caught off guard and can still make the most of even a brief connection? * How are your gatekeeper skills? * Are you putting enough effort in or do you send one email/leave one voicemail and give up? 4. I am not reaching the right people.... NEXT STEP: Plan ways to maintain a fuller pipeline and to ensure you aren't skipping steps that weaken that pipeline: * Have you defined specific parameters of your core audience? * Are you leveraging industry publications, trade journals, industry associations, etc? * Are you staying abreast of news (see my post on google.com/alerts) so that you know who the "right people" are? * Do you have enough leads qualified leads? * Are you burning your leads by not using them in a systematized way with the understanding that it will like likely take a few tries to reach your prospect? This is clearly not an all-inclusive list, but here are a few of the questions that I ask myself when I am not reaching my end goal. I also pair this method of self-diagnosing with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that I adjust each month based on my performance the month before.