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.