Lead Optimize Outsourced Marketing

News flash. Salespeople are in it for the money. According to “What Really Turns Top Salespeople On?” by Bill Brooks 78% of top performers have the same motivating force behind them – money.

Merit-Based Sales Leads

Salespeople think about - and harshly judge - the quality of the leads being given to them. Every salesperson wants the qualified “hot” leads will produce the fastest and biggest sales. The best salespeople know that a great lead is worth 50 cold calls. Whether gathered online, offline, as referrals, or from out of thin air, qualified sales leads can be expensive to capture and are as close to being worth the same value as a closed sale as you can get so you need to make sure you are using them as wisely as possible. Giving them to the best salespeople makes sure you are doing this.

How do you keep dangling the proverbial carrot in front of your salespeople, while still making smart decisions for your business? Try doling out marketing-captured sales leads using a merit-based system that gives your best, hottest leads to your top performers. A lead distribution system that rewards with the most qualified leads will motivate a salesperson because those leads are most likely to end in a sale, thus contributing to the salesperson’s earnings. Classify leads by the likelihood that they will buy and reserve the hottest for your top performers.

Why it Motivates

Highly qualified sales leads allow the salespeople to:

• Focus on their area(s) of expertise
• Enjoy the process of meeting the customers’ needs, providing superior customer service and exceeding their expectations
• Expend less effort on a sale
• Make more money

Mutually Beneficial Lead Distribution

Obviously, it’s not just about the salespeople. First, there is the lure of a focused, motivated sales team. Secondly, your top salespeople are typically your best salespeople so by giving them the hottest and most profitable leads, you are putting your customers in the hands of your best people. Third, there’s the money.

Avoid The Pitfalls

Any merit-based system can cause more problems than benefits if it is not fairly managed. Follow these guidelines to keep the program effective:

1. Be objective and fair. This is a sensitive issue and your sales team will be watching carefully to see how leads are distributed.
2. Keep plenty of good sales leads for the other salespeople. This will give them the opportunity to compete for the lead rewards.
3. Offer continuous developmental sales training. Constantly improving sales skills will keep the entire group competitive by offering salespeople new tools and techniques.
4. Set goals for sales staff that are achievable, yet high enough to be a challenge. Once a goal is reached, and the incentive earned, people tend to relax and the effort – and results- decline.

For more information about how to properly implement a performance-based incentive system, check out “Motivate Your Salesforce To Achieve Selling Success” on www.allbusiness.com

Criticism of Merit-Based Sales Lead Distribution

Of course, this out-of-the-box approach to the distribution of sales leads has its critics. And there are benefits to having all sales people have access to sales leads, providing the chance for whoever is motivated to get leads. Check out #5 of BlueRoads’ “Lead Management Success Tips: The first 6 of 12”, where they discuss the impact on the leads that are not rated as “hot”. A merit-based system is also not effective in regionally organized companies with one-salesperson-per-region designs.

Conclusion

Sales leads are full of value - even beyond the face value of the potential sales they represent. Using your great leads as motivation for met sales goals, and see how hard they compete to achieve the qualified leads. It’s a win-win-win situation. Your salespeople are happy because they have a meaningful lead, you are happy because your customers are being well cared for, and your customer is satisfied because they are being treated to superior service from your finest, most qualified sales people.

RSS won’t kill the online newsletter. It is simply a different way to get information. Yeah, the headline is a little dramatic.

Think about the many ways people like to retrieve the news. Some people want news events emailed to them as they happen, others like to pick up the paper off the stoop and fold it, touch it, and drink coffee with it. Still, others like to access the newspaper’s website online. It is a matter of personal preference. I personally do look at RSS feeds often, although I am subscribed to hundreds. I use them as a reminder of a site I liked - like bookmarks I actually sift through.

What is RSS? It is a format used to syndicate web content like blogs, news alerts, product updates, and press releases – automatic syndication of content. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication. I think sometimes it is so popular because it makes distribution easier for publishers as opposed to making life easier for readers. It has become popular through a “push” strategy instead of a “pull” strategy.

In this day and age of information overload there are hundreds of ways to receive information. While RSS and newsletters may in some ways be conflicting, there is enough room for them to coexist peacefully - at least for now - and to even work together for the optimal benefit of your company.

From a quick survey, here are some reasons why newsletters might be preferred to RSS:

1. You have to be proactive to get the information in a RSS feed, it doesn’t just sit in your inbox like an email does. In a world of burnt-out multi-taskers, asking them to proactively read your articles is probably asking too much.
2. RSS feeds require that software be installed. Because a software installation is required (however simple), a large chunk of users that don’t know how to do it are wiped out.
3. Information overload. A newsletter is a snapshot of information that a quick synopsis of all the news that “fit to report”. RSS, on the other hand, includes everything and it is too easy to let it get out of control.
4. People tend to do what they have always done. Newsletters have a loyalty factor – nearly 82% of business professionals prefer to get their information via newsletter, according to E-Marketing.
5. People have short attention spans. Emailed newsletters are the easiest to get to, with the least barriers in getting the information. That is, they arrive anyway.
6. Checking email is part of people’s everyday routine so receiving an emailed newsletter is just like receiving any other emailed message, and is more likely to be read.

There are, however, many advantages to using RSS feeds instead of newsletters:

• Most attractive to your reader is that they will avoid the spam that is so annoying, and cumbersome, in email inboxes.
• RSS provides in-the-moment breaking news updates to people that have expressed an interest in your business.
• E-newsletter authors love RSS feeds because their newsletters go directly to an interested group that has subscribed to their newsletter because they WANT TO READ IT.
• Using RSS to distribute a newsletter is cheaper, too. You won’t need to pay for emailing lists because subscribers come to you.

Of course, there is also the case that newsletters will be used less frequently as readers’ preferences change. If the tendency is for readers to have information sent to them in-the-moment, then that quality in RSS will make newsletters less popular – and thus a less effective method of communication for the masses – in the future. For more about if RSS will replace email content distribution, check out Kent Thompson’s thought provoking article. An in-depth look at the pros and cons of RSS vs. email information distribution can be found in this provocative article by Robin Good. Lastly, this interview with Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome on the topic is interesting.

For now, Newsletters and RSS feeds are both great ways to keep your customers, employees, and vendors abreast of the latest news in your company. Utilizing a smart combination of both methods of delivery – emailing and RSS feeds – will take advantage of technology and use it as a tool to help you communicate better. From the publisher’s (yours) standpoint, it is easy enough to use both. So, use both. 

RSS KILLS NEWSLETTERS!

nah, too dramatic for my tastes.

So your organization doesn’t have a full-time training department or perhaps you are just looking at supplementing your existing sales training with online sales training options? There are many reasons to consider online sales training in your new salesperson curriculum.

1. It’s cheaper. With no out-of-office time or travel expenses, e-learning is much less expensive than instructor-led on-site training.
2. It’s convenient. Salespeople and reps can do it during downtime.
3. It’s consistent. The training experience of your employees will be the same because they are all using the same program.
4. You can measure ROI. Many e-learning companies provide assessments and other tools to help track your training’s ROI.
5. Someone tracks your training. The e-learning training company will keep a record of the progress throughout the training for each employee.
6. There are learning assessments. Your employees will know where they stand throughout the training, and so will you.

Now that you have seen some solid reasons why you should consider online sales training as a part of your training package, here are seven online sales training tools that encompass a mix of free and fee-based online sales training, and include varying training formats such as seminars, self-directed training, video training, and more.

1. American Management Association’s Blended Learning Solution

The American Management Association (AMA) offers both online and on-site training. Their blended training combines both formats for a comprehensive approach. This method has been repeatedly proven to be highly effective in making the training “stick”. After the training sessions are over, employees have access to related resources and information that can be used to reinforce their learning. http://www.amanet.org/elearn/

2. Richardson QuickSkills™

Their QuickSkills™ program has over 70 integrated course titles that run the gamut of sales training; covering topics such as Consultative Negotiations, Sales Presentations, and Telephone Selling. The sessions are 20 minutes long and are very interactive. They include assessments, role playing, and sales manager guides for reinforcing the learning in team meetings. http://www.richardson.com/How-We-Do-It/Training-Delivery/eLearning/

3. DigitalThink Simulation-Centered^TM Online Sales Training

This company offers packaged online sales training. They have a “learn-by-doing” philosophy for their training, and they use challenging sales simulations to teach their lessons. This allows your employees to practice in a safe environment instead of on real customers. You can watch a short overview on their website to see if this type of training is right for your needs. http://c-beta.digitalthink.com/dtfs/e-learning/sales.html

4. The Resource Connection Online Sales Training Subscription

When you subscribe to this sales training and development site, you’ll receive one year access to 9 online courses, with titles that include “Territory and Account Management”, “Win-Win Negotiations”, and “Prospecting to Create Interest”. View course demos, complete course descriptions and more on their website. http://www.resourceconnection.com/elearning-stp.html

5. LearnSellingOnline.com (LSO)

LSO’s vision is to be the #1 web delivered training provider for sales, customer service and sales management training. They offer free comprehensive diagnostic tools which are competency-based and focus on observable behaviors. Use there tools to help you assess your team’s training needs, and find out how LSO can help you. They customize their training packages to meet your individual needs. Available 24/7/365, when you purchase their individual annual membership plan. http://www.learnsellingonline.com/

6. iMarket® Free Training Modules

iMarket®, in collaboration with expert sales trainer John Peaker, has created a free online resource of modular-style online sales training materials. There are over 150 pages of content, broken down into 12 modules that cover tactical sales issues such as: what to say and how to say it when opening and closing a sale, both on the phone and in person. There are also sections on fact finding, secondary markets, sales scripts, and more. http://www.imarket.ca/files/sales-training-free.htm

7. SalesPro Online

This company offers online sales training seminars. They have a workshop component to the seminar where employees participate in creating a sales strategy based on what was learned in the session. There is also a section for managers to view each employee’s results. http://www.4moresales.com

Online sales training is making sales training more convenient, cost-effective and accessible for sales professionals everywhere. To decide if it’s right for you, consider reading this article by Josh Bersin regarding measuring the success of your online training.

Study hard, work hard, sell effectively. Sell smart.

Related Lead Optimize Articles

Tips for Increasing Telephone Sales

Train Sales People to Use Your Website

12 Sales Contest Ideas