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The InsideSales.com Solution: It’s not ALL about the technology!
When companies look for a solution to improving their sales revenue, they often look to technology. However, it takes more than technology to drive exponential growth.
Insidesales.com provides the best lead management and dialer technology available today. The technology provides increased efficiency, high visibility, and exponential output. Companies using any combination of the insidesales technology are experiencing 5 times increases in their results…sometimes more. How can you not with amazing products like PowerDialer, LocalPresence, PowerStandings and PowerSocial
As I survey the sales floor at IS.com I hear the constant buzz of 22 business development reps, and close to 40 sales reps answering questions and sharing demos of this phenomenal technology. It is a major reason for our huge growth. We’ve more than doubled in size since this time last year and expect to double again by the end of 2013.
Yes, InsideSales.com technology is unmatched in the marketplace. But, what many don’t see, or sometimes don’t understand, is that InsideSales.com is a full sales solution that includes training and consulting for organizations who want to transform the productivity and professionalism of their sales teams.
The exceptional software is developed by the need for sales organizations to adhere to best practices that drive contact rates, qualification rates, and sales revenue. These best practices are derived from extensive research spanning many years, thousands of companies and billions of sales data points.
Certification Training
Training and consulting is provided as a way for clients and other organizations to master the research and best practices. It helps companies take the 5x gains derived from the software and increase it another 8x. I’ve never met a CEO or VP of Sales that didn’t want to see a 13x improvement in the results they get…no matter how good the already are.
- The Certified InsideSales System Administrator (CISA – I) certification provides full knowledge and expertise on the technology and how the best practices are served by it.
- The Certified InsideSales Operations (CISO) certification provides the research, models, and strategies to drive exponential sales in any sales team.
Information on these programs can be attained at www.insidesales.com/certification.
Consulting
Insidesales.com takes their industry leading research and best practices and combines it with their technology to help organizations build, improve, or save their sales organizations. Through a process of analysis, design, implementation and evaluation, we have helped many organizations accelerate sales and exceed revenue goals.
See www.insidesales.com/consulting
Really, any organization that purports to help improve your sales team has to provide you an entire solution. Without the research, best practices, and the technology to incorporate them, you are missing the opportunity to improve your sales results EXPONENTIALLY!
By: Brian McFadyen
Knowledge is PowerDialer
You and I have heard, many times, the old adage “Knowledge is Power!” We can’t argue with the truth inherent in this statement. Education is key to personal and financial growth. Of course, i know there are those who, lacking a college education or degree, have earned comfortable livings and even amassed wealth. However, these people also tout ongoing learning of other forms. Knowledge truly is power!
InsideSales.com not only believes this to be an irrefutable fact, but has gone so far as to train and certify all employees from day one on the systems they provide. By so doing they have empowered their employees and provided them the knowledge to be more productive.
Did you know that research in certification shows that putting two people through the exact same training and then having only one of them take an exam and certify yields 20% higher productivity by the individual who certified over the individual who didn’t?
Why mention all of this?
Certification is the difference between proficiency and mastery!
When a client first starts, they are implemented and trained to be successful with the systems. The systems, within a short amount of time, yield improved results and positive ROI. InsideSales has taken things even further by offering the Certified InsideSales.com Administrator and Certified InsideSales.com Administrator for Salesforce certifications.
These certifications are designed to take your CRM admin or your sales ops person from proficiency in the systems to a completely knowledgeable in-house expert. You understand the ins and outs of PowerDialer (or PowerDialer for Salesforce), ELF, LocalPresence and more. In fact, you can go to www.insidesales.com/certification and see a video testimonial of people who have attained this mastery!
The minimum 20% increase in productivity that comes from certification provides an additional boost to the entire sales team that uses the system. Where else can an individual and a company see improved productivity in just a few short days?
The concept of “knowledge is power” is taken further still with a new Sales Operations Boot Camp (Certified InsideSales.com Operations certification), a new Marketing Boot Camp (Certified InsideSales.com Marketer), and a new Lead Generation Boot Camp (Certified InsideSales.com Lead Gen) that have been developed by Ken Krogue, one of the top marketing and inside sales minds in the nation.
Ultimately, the more knowledge you, our clients, have about the systems you use and the strategies around inside sales, the greater the success you achieve. Our success is dependant on you and your success.
It can truly be said in a sales world that knowledge isn’t just power, Knowledge is PowerDialer!
By: Brian McFadyen
Communication Tools To Drive Exponential Sales
Insides sales is all about communications – by phone, by email, by social media, by fax. Communicate with more prospects, close more sales. Communicate better with those prospects and the number of closes increases even more. Rocket science? No.
Every week, I talk with far too many inside sales organizations that are not optimized in their communications with prospects. Some use spreadsheets. Some use CRM’s. Some use both. I think we both can agree that if you are still using spreadsheets to organize your clients, prospects, and leads, you are less effective as a sales organization. It’s like trying to lubricate an engine with canola oil. It might work for a very short while, but eventually it’s going to end…and not well.
What are the best systems and practices to follow if I am to communicate easily and often with my current customers, prospects, and leads? Here are a few ideas derived from personal experience, research, and client experience.
Using a CRM provides a degree of automation to your sales force and allows you to nurture your leads through email campaigns, scheduled calls etc. I have used everything from Goldmine (I hear you laughing) to Salesforce and everything in between. Salesforce is the 800 pound gorilla in the CRM space; and rightfully so. While they are not the cheapest, they certainly are the sexier and more capable of the CRMs. I have used Salesforce successfully for many years. InsideSales.com has a CRM called STA (Sales Team Automation). It is not as sexy as Salesforce, but it is extremely capable and surpasses most other CRMs when it comes to supporting sales teams.
While a good CRM is a must for any sales organization, it is incomplete as a tool for driving communications with prospects and clients until you integrate telephony features. Many companies try to fill the gap by using predictive dialer technologies. If you are in B2B sales, and are doing so…stop. It’s inefficient. Have you ever received a call where you picked up the phone and heard dead air? This is a predictive dialer. It first dials the prospect, dials the available sales rep and then connects the two. Nothing screams “HERE COMES A SALES PITCH” like dead air before the rep says “hello”. If you are anything like me, the rep doesn’t have a chance to get on the line because I’ve already hung up the phone. You can’t sell if you can’t say the first word.
The technologies that drive true success by increasing contact rates and shortening the sales cycle are automated workforce tools. One such tool is called ELF (Electronic Labor Force), a powerful task automation tool when combined with PowerDialer, an auto-dialer platform with many other task automation functions, plus contact activity tracking, reporting and intelligent list creation features. ELF is a product of InsideSales.com. Both are used in conjunction with either the STA CRM or the Salesforce CRM.
Those who use these types of technologies are seeing quantitative gains in time and money. A great example of how to use a task automation tool to improve efficiency in the sales process is from one of my clients in the Financial Services industry. They use ELF to provide a series of automated “nurture” emails that are scheduled to go out at different intervals. This keeps them in the mind of the prospect and is a main factor in doubling their sales since becoming a client.
I have seen client situations where PowerDialer, alone, has increased dialing efficiency by more than 200 percent over manual dialing. Inside sales reps who were making 30 to 50 calls-per-day are now making 75 to 100 calls in three hours. What’s the net effect? They reach more prospects and close more business quickly.
PowerDialer is a powerful telephony tool that integrates with the Salesforce and STA CRMs. When a sales rep is on the system, they can receive inbound or make outbound calls. The outbound call is initiated right from the CRM record. It first connects with the sales rep’s line. Once the rep is on the line it then dials the prospect. In other words: no dead air when the prospect picks up. If there is no answer, the rep can click a button and leave a pre-recorded voicemail, in their own voice. While the message is being left, the system is already dialing the next prospect on their list. Additionally, based on the custom search criteria used to create the call list, the rep is focusing on the best prospects at the most effective times to call. PowerDialer automatically logs all contact effort in the CRM. Now that’s efficient!
One of our clients in security and home automation sales moved their inside sales reps off of a predictive dialer and over to PowerDialer. The reps liked their predictive dialer and didn’t want to transition. However, their trepidation was unfounded as PowerDialer helped them triple their individual sales.
If your sales operation is still functioning at the manual level, maybe it’s time to step away from those inefficient processes and investigate whether today’s sales automation tools can improve your sales operation. What have you got to lose … but more commissions?
By: Brian McFadyen
Brian McFadyen 