People are at the heart of everything in life. So why should business be any different?
Show us a business that can flourish without human beings and we'll show you a business that will fail.
In sales, people are even more important because oftentimes, people sell themselves before they sell whatever product or service their company is offering. The same holds true for
inbound sales reps. The role of the inbound
SDR is varied. They're asked to wear several hats all while being one of the first faces and voices a potential customer will see or hear.
One role the inbound sales rep has is responding to someone who's already interested in your company's offerings as soon as the interest has been made.
The inbound sales rep needs to respond quickly or else the lead will do business with someone else. If the lead filled out your company's form and discovered your company via Google, it's very possible that the lead also filled out the forms of competing companies.
The sale can potentially live or die at this moment
Understanding the potential customer's needs and pain points is a key element in the duties of inbound sales reps. To understand the potential customer's pain points, inbound sales reps need to do both of the following:
- Ask the lead before or during the meeting about what they need help with
- Become fluent in the product the inbound sales rep is selling
The latter point is crucial for inbound sales reps. Yet knowing the lead's pain points provides the key to
achieving product fluency.
After all, how can an inbound sales rep know how their solution is a solution if they don't know the lead's problems?
So how exactly does one become good at being a successful inbound sales rep? There are a number of qualities and strategies that come into play.
Know Your Prospect As recently mentioned, being able to learn and understand as much as you can about your
potential customer, even before any interaction takes place cannot be stressed enough.
Successful inbound sales reps utilize research tools such as social media to provide current and accurate information about prospects, their industry, number and relevant analytics, and more.
This will all become useful when contact is established, and the soon-to-be customer will know you mean business.
Know Your Stuff This should go without saying but you'd be surprised how often it fails to be true. As a successful inbound SDR, you'd better know the products or services you're selling inside and out.
Your lead needs to feel comfortable that they're speaking with an expert so that they will be more likely to give you their business.
You also must demonstrate that you understand the problem they're dealing with and can provide an adequate solution.
If prospects feel that you understand their concerns and can provide something of value, then they are more likely to continue the relationship.
Conversation Is King Effective conversation can drive just about any sales process. Either by phone, email, social media, or video stream, having the skills and knowhow to speak effectively to a prospect can mean the difference between winning or losing a sale.
Being a successful inbound sales rep means you need to have detailed and meaningful conversations with prospects, learn how to drive these conversations by asking the right questions, and anticipate the responses.
By engaging with your prospects, you will be in a better position to respond to their concerns in a way that shows the prospect that you're the right person to help them
achieve their goals.