Retain Sales Reps From Generation Y

by Shannon F. It has always been tough to find and retain great salespeople, but Gen Y is notoriously hard to hold onto. That’s a loss for you, because this generation has a lot of passion and innovation to bring to your sales department. If you are considering hiring from the latest batch of college graduates entering the job market, you could find the most loyal employee of your career OR one of the most challenging. Either way, handling young talent means knowing how to turn potentially problematic traits into wins for both you and your new hire. Trait #1 – Gen Y is impatient. Raised with instant knowledge and entertainment at their fingertips, Gen Y likes to jump right in, see results at lightning speed, and progress quickly in their careers – perhaps before you think they’re ready. Your new Gen Y salesperson may be unwilling to sit through hours of training, because she grew up learning by doing. Nobody taught her how to create complex Sims cities or start her own vlog – she just jumped in and did it. It’s no surprise she wants her career to work the same way. Make it a win for you – Your Gen Y salesperson wants to prove himself, so let him. Instead of sticking him in days of seminars before he hits the selling floor, try a few call simulations where he has to think on his feet with very little time to process information. This will force your […]

Tips for better email campaigns

  by Shannon F.     It doesn’t matter whether you are selling commercial real estate, reams of paper, or your services as a consultant—prospecting is an integral part of growing your business. Prospecting often comes with predatory associations (in the past, you may have rolled your eyes at comparisons to tracking game and hunting down your prey). But pursuing potential customers should be much more convivial than that—think prospecting for vegetarians. Email marketing is a less-invasive way to introduce your product or service to customers who may be in the market for it. Of course, you have to do it right. Here are some tips to convert your email list into customers, or at least keep them from hitting “mark as spam” and damaging your reputation as an email marketer. 1. Don’t try to sell…yet. If you are making contact with a prospect for the first time via email, focus on engaging him or her. Offer free information, like an article or factsheet. Provide a link to your blog, and invite prospects to follow you on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. (It’s also a good idea to ask prospects to opt in to receiving similar emails from you in the future—this deters them from marking your messages as spam.) Whatever you do, don’t start pitching your product—it’s like proposing marriage on a first date. Stick to friendly small talk in the beginning, and watch how your relationship grows. 2. Choose your words carefully. There are certain words that trigger “spam” […]

InsightPRM Admin Demo

Below we’ve put together a demo to show you some of key features for our InsightPRM software. You’ll find that InsightPRM is very easy to use and our new innovative software will make calling and prospecting much much easier! If you’d like to learn more about InsightPRM and its features for administrative purposes, take a look at our video demonstration, email us at [email protected] or give us a call today at 610-449-2056! _________________________________________________________________ One of the great features of the InsightPRM software is the ability to search and sort information by category. For instance, if you’re searching for relocation leads in the city of Philadelphia, you can pull up the most recent leads by using the search feature and typing in “Philadelphia” and it will provide a list of companies only in that city. You can also search by the date that companies are moving. Any companies whose leads are in the future are typically new leads. Searching by the moving date of companies allows you to assign those leads to any one of your sales representatives very easily. Simply click the drop-down menu next to the lead and select the person you want to assign that particular lead to. You also have the option of assigning several leads to one person by checking the boxes next to each lead, scrolling to the bottom of the page to the option “Apply to Marked Records” and selecting a sales representative’s name from the drop-down menu. This same method of assigning leads […]

Can social media help you with PRM? Part 2: Learning to “Like” Facebook as a PRM tool

  You likely already use Facebook as a personal platform for showing off pictures of your enviable vacation or the fancily-plated dessert you had last night, but Facebook is more than just a way of sharing (or oversharing) with friends and family. A corporate Facebook page gives your company a chance to get personal with potential clients.   How? Share, Engage, and Invite.   Share   If you find useful information online, like a helpful sales video or a how-to article, you can spread the wealth of ideas and get people “liking” your company simply by sharing what you’ve discovered. Let’s take a look at a personal parallel: which Facebook friend’s regular status updates do you most look forward to reading, the friend who clues you in on interesting news and funny videos, or the friend who accosts your news feed with pictures of their lunch or worse, their most mundane thoughts and feelings?   When sharing, be highly selective. It could be something you have found online or a blog post you have written, but make sure it provides useful content for your readers. Also stay on topic; news, trends, and tips in your industry are your best bet.   Engage   Get people talking and exchanging information. When you Share, you encourage your readers to check out what you have to offer. But are they commenting on your status updates and checking out your company website? Engaging your readers can be as simple as asking a compelling question […]

Can social media help you with PRM? Part 1: Twitter

    You already know that B2B prospecting can be accomplished by cold-calling, networking in person, and other means of finding potential buyers for your product or service. But what about social media? Unless you live under a rock on an undiscovered island, you’ve heard that social media can help your business. The thing is, many business owners don’t know exactly how to harness social media as a valuable sales and PRM tool. In this three-part blog series, we’ll explore how three social media platforms can help you find and nurture prospects to grow your sales.   Today, we’ll look at Twitter.   Many of the people who vowed they’d never waste time tweeting are quickly changing their tune, so if you dismissed Twitter as frivolous, you may want to reevaluate this social media tool. The trick is to look a Twitter as a way to connect with and engage your prospects, not pitch your product to them. Focus on getting your audience interested in what you have to say. They’ll naturally become curious about what you have to offer, especially if you offer useful information.   So what should you tweet about?   You only have 140 characters, so make it pithy and memorable. That’s easier said than done, so let’s look at three of the most retweeted tweets in the history of tweeting.   In honor of oil-soaked birds, ‘tweets’ are now ‘gurgles.’ –Stephen Colbert   Yes we can. –Barack Obama, 21 March 2010   RT for a […]