Tip for Checklist to Achieve B2B Sales Calling Process to Improve Sales ROI

Tip for Checklist to Achieve B2B Sales Calling Process to Improve Sales ROI

   May 20, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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The quality of the information that you know about your prospects affects how well you can seal the deal with them. A definite sales approach along with a solid pre-call research method makes a big difference in winning and losing an opportunity.

As per Kelley Roberson from ‘The Robertson Group’, the thought behind pre-call research isn’t in devoting “hours scouring the Internet or news services”. Instead, it is measured by how cleverly you can correspond with your prospect about the key business issues that they face.

Try asking yourself: 

How much time it took for you to gather data about your prospects? How well was your previous sales call? Did you accomplish your set goal? Do you know your next plan of action with the prospect? Do you have an indication that a real sales opportunity exists?

It’s very important that you define and follow a standard procedure for better closure of deals. Using a pre-call and a post-call checklist goes a long way in helping you out when you are stuck up somewhere or don’t know how you have to move ahead to finalizing a deal. This will also help you in evaluating the value of your sales calls.

It is next to impossible for anyone to achieve a successful sale from a single prospect or a contact. Showing up with no future plan of action makes you look amateurish in front of your prospect which is exactly what you don’t want in this day and age of tough competition in the market. A lot of sales opportunities have a range of variables that should be considered and acted upon if they are to attain a booming sales conclusion.

You have a take many strides before achieving this and just like a good chess player; you need to think ahead of the game. 

Given below are a few useful pre-call and post-call checklist items that can help you to boost your sales calling efforts:

Pre-Call Checklist

Here are a few issues which you need to think before calling on a new prospect or an existing customer:

• What is the objective of my call and who is the correct point of contact with whom I need to speak to in the prospects company?
• Try to make a profile of the prospect – both in terms of the organization and contact person. This will help you to have an idea of who and what the prospect is and what authority he/she holds
• Get as much information as possible on the current processes/situation related to your offering
• Who all are the key decision maker(s) in the company? If there are many; who has the major power in the company?
• What potentially hindrances exist that can derail the sale?
• Which juncture am I at in the sales life cycle? Suspecting, Prospecting, Solution Proposal or Negotiation, etc. Knowing this will help to frame your discussions
• How will I initiate the call with the prospect?
• What information do I have and what is missing which I need to discover about the prospect?
• What sort of doubts could emerge out on the call and how will I handle them?
• What will be my fallback position?

Post-call checklist

• Here are a few scenarios to think of when analyzing your prospect sales interaction:
• Did I achieve my set goal?
• Was there anything which went unfavorable during the call?
• What additional prospect/business information I have collected?
• Was I able to find out their business processes? For example, we need to understand a number of things about our prospects - Current Demand/Lead Generation Process which includes Data Sources (In-house, Standard Data, Custom Data, etc.), Campaign Channels, Current Sales Strength, Sales Model, Target Audience, etc. This would help our team to sale better!
• Did I discover their current challenges & their business objectives of looking at a solution
• Do I have any indication that this is still a probable sales opportunity?
• Did I put appropriate qualifiers – BANT, MEDDIC Qualification, etc. based on our sales process
• Was I able to take the sale to the next stage of our typical sales cycle  
• What should be my next steps to move the sales opportunity ahead?
• What are the action items from the call? What types of timelines and who is accountable? Do I need support from other teams like Marketing or Operations? When is my next interaction with the prospect?
• What will be the next objective of my call?
• What is the best-fit scenario after he final analysis – is the opportunity worth pursuing

This tracking process will help you to find out your exact position in the sales cycle with that particular prospect; so that you know what key actions need to be taken. It also helps in continuous improvement of your sales calling process, which lets you to perk up your prospecting skills as you analyze what had worked well for a previous prospect and what did not.

If you miss any of these pointers, however, make sure that you take time to revisit them later on in the sales cycle – to improve your productivity. 

Source : Inbound Marketing |  CRM Data |  Event Marketing |  Account Based Marketing |  Marketing intelligence |  Target Audience Profiling |  Sales Intelligence

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Some Steps to Make Money as a Freelance Writer - Check it

Some Steps to Make Money as a Freelance Writer - Check it

   May 15, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Freelance writing has become a major source of employment for many people, take it or leave it. The era of depending completely on government to provide jobs for everyone is gradually phasing out. Many people are now making money through freelance writing. It will be very bad if we do not acknowledge the fact that the arrival of the internet has also made freelance writing a boosted part of the economy, which employs millions of people. Now, being a good writer and earning a lot of money does not only consummate in knowing how to write or being intelligent. There are things that will help you make money as a freelance writer.

However, there are two main ways of working as a freelance writer. You can be writing online for blogs and websites. Here, you will mostly be doing product reviews, articles, blog posts, eBooks, academic contents, essays, etc. You can also be an offline writer, and here you can write everything ranging from common letters, speeches, proposals, adverts, banners, resumes and business plans to a lot of books. Some might even combine both, so as to put more money in there.

• Evolve as a writer
• Be a good reader
• Be a consistent writer
• Accept complaints and make corrections
• Get a proofreader

Evolve as a writer

The first way to make money as a freelance writer includes evolving as a writer. Just like I said, the fact that you have written some eBooks and some articles does not settle it. If you really want to make huge money writing, you have to evolve and learn the writing tips, strategies and methods that are in vogue. It is not just about the information you pass that pays you, but you earn good money if you pass the information the right way. The technicalities of writing must be learnt and applied by you all the time.

Be a good reader

You are what you write, and that means you cannot give what you don’t have. A good reader is always a very good writer. The truth that you must imbibe here is this: whenever you are not writing, get hold of works that are ad rem to the niche you normally write on and read. Constant reading will make you to be full of ideas, and thus ensure that you give the real information when writing. Now, when you are reading, you will notice that there are some works that influence you more than others. Get the works of successful writers and read not only their ideas, but their methods of writing.

Be a consistent writer

The next way to earn income doing freelance writing jobs is to write consistently. Yes, if you want your voice to be heard and the dollars to roll in, you don’t have to quit. Just keep writing. Even if the funds are not coming at the moment, time shall come when they will start rolling in. A friend of mine said that you must continue to write until your imagination fizzles out. One thing that comes to mind here is the fact that writing must be your passion, so that you will not grow weary soonest.

Accept complaints and make corrections

If you want to make cash as a freelancer, you must be disciplined and tamable. This is because when you are writing for clients online or offline, there will be loads and loads of corrections that they will point out. Lack of self discipline might make you fall out with your customers along the way. And when this happens, you will loose your customers. Remember, to gain one customer is very difficult, so you must not loose any of the ones you already have. Making money with home based jobs is not that easy; a lot of people are scrambling for the limited spaces. So you must learn to treat your precious customers with love, care and respect.

Get a proofreader

Another surefire way to work from home and make money as a freelance writer is by ensuring that you have a proofreader. Many people will regard this as a second or third eye. There are cases where you make mistakes that you cannot make consciously. There are slips, both of the eye, pen, etc. When you allow the second and third person to proofread and edit for you, you will be sure to present great works to your clients. And of course the more great works more money you make.

Another way is by letting people know what you do. Make use of the social media and many other advert tools to let people know that you are a freelance writer and you will experience a lot of people coming for your services through these. With this, you make a lot of money.

Don’t forget to add a little of your ad in form of your portfolio display on your personal blog. The more people visit your blog, the more they understand who you are and what you do for a living. This has a way of refreshing their memories no doubt.

Being smart and full of ideas is one sure way to win the competition and earn more dollars. Margaret Mcgriff wrote a post on how one fashion blogger wins freelance gigs with style. I have said much and should give you an opportunity to share your mind with us. What has contributed to your making more money online freelancing? Are you really making any cash? We want to hear from you; tell what you think is holding some freelance writers back from earning good income in their career.

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