Inside Sales: Acting, Investigative Reporting, and Craftiness

Inside sales is part acting, part investigative reporting.  In order to get the best quality leads and the decision maker on the phone, one has to aspire to be Woodward and Bernstein.  Not only do you have to ask a lot of questions —“Who’s the regional president?  What’s his cell number?”—but you need to be crafty at times.  You have to extract information in a not-so-normal fashion.  For example:

            “Hi, Mary, is Bill in?”

            “This isn’t Mary.”

            “Well, is he in?”

            “Who?”

            “Bill Roberts, of course.”

            “You have the wrong number.”

            “Can you transfer me to four one two three?”

            “This is four one two three.”

            “Oh, my gosh, Mary, can you look up his number for me?  We’re late for that big meeting in Jacksonville.”

            Having trouble getting the direct line for the VP of Sales?  Reception doesn’t want to give it out?  No problem.  Ask the receptionist to put you through to the president or CEO.  When you get the EA (Shirley) on the line, ask for the VP of Sales.  Most likely she’ll give you the direct line.  Why?  Because it doesn’t affect her.  Sometimes you need to shoot high to reach a lower level decision maker.  Another effective way to get a direct line is to call another office.  If Bill is at the corporate office in New York then call Cincinnati or Jacksonville.  They won’t be as “tight” or “security sensitive” there; their guard will be let down a bit more than the folks at corporate.

            Getting the final decision maker on the phone is difficult and it gets very discouraging when you don’t consider other avenues.  What’s encouraging, however, is that there are many ways to be creative and get Bill on the phone.  You just have to be willing—optimistic, always optimistic!—to explore and try new ideas and strategies.

            Your tone of voice plays an essential part in getting past the gatekeeper and getting Bill on the horn.  You must be all business, authoritative without being rude, and sound like you’re just as important as the person you’re calling.  And you are.  That’s right.  You might be a sales rep but when you pick up the phone you must believe that you’re Bill’s equal.  And if you don’t buy that then make believe that you and Bill are on the same level playing field.  That’s acting.  Think of it this way:  Life is a movie and you’re the star of your own movie.  Everyone else is a supporting actor.  Ready for your close up?

            All this doesn’t matter if you can’t have fun at the job and make sales interesting each and every day.  Your personality has led you to where you are.  Someone, somewhere has probably said to you, “You should be in sales.”  Explore your personality, dig deep, let the prospect get to know you.  Sales is a gigantic playground and you are free to create whatever environment you wish and go in whatever direction you desire.

            Think Woodward, Bernstein, and Brando and you'll be loose and ready to close business.