“Those objections just need to be heard and empathized with something I had to learn and overcome.” – Seth Copple in today’s Tip 382
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today I’ve got something really special for you. Seth does a good job of encapsulating the story in his tip, but Seth Copple reached out to me a full week before the end of January and thanked me for the podcast and attributed it to a massive turn-around in his results that had him at 120% of his quota for the full quarter after less than one month. Here’s Seth Copple with his story and some tips for you:
Seth Copple: I’ve only been in B2B sales as a BDR for less than one year. Two and a half quarters, when your peers say there’ll be peaks and valleys, they mean it. I mean, my first quarter was average I got 90% of quota. My second quarter was a wash. I achieved only 10% of quota like I was at the point of almost looking for other jobs. It was that bad, but I talked with my training manager and I listened to the Daily Sales Tips podcast every day for 30 minutes at least and started making changes. At safety skills, my prospects consist of safety professionals who, if you know anything about them, they’re the busiest, most no-nonsense prospects out there. Just absolutely don’t have time to talk on the phone or respond to an email longer than a sentence.
In order to better reach these busy, no-nonsense people, I had to change. The first change I made was I changed the way I handled their time on the phone. If they actually answered the phone, I just had to be real and set expectations that it takes 20 minutes to see our safety management system or training content, whichever better fit their needs.
The second thing I changed was making sure that I wasn’t going into conversations with the attitude that our product is a perfect fit for everybody. There’s no universal solution, otherwise, there wouldn’t be competitors, there wouldn’t be a diverse marketplace. So not every objection needs to be confronted immediately. That’s something I kind of learned the hard way because I’d start spinning stuff back to prospects and they would just hit a hard stop and hang up or say, “No, I’m not interested. Stop calling me.” Some of those objections just need to be heard and empathized with something I had to learn and overcome.
And the third change that I made was with prospecting and qualifying. It’s like dating. It to know when to speed things up or slow them down. Some of my prospects love the idea of what we do and think that we do have the perfect solution for them and want to jump right into that screen share demo. Those are my low hanging fruit. It’s super easy to talk to them. They’re energetic and it’s exciting to get them on the phone and into our solution and really help them in their business. However, I’m sure most of you know that’s not always the case. Most people that you cold call, cold email, they want to be academic because they have to appeal to their boss and there’s levels. There’s an organizational hierarchy that you have to overcome in order to be on their radar and get their attention and potentially pitch for their business. And part of that difficulty is them having to present the best option to their boss, to their company because they don’t want to look bad.
Organizational clarity is essential when prospecting B2B, especially if safety people. It’s about being there for them when they need you. Most not barraging them with crafty messaging to try and force them into the buying cycle. In our space, there are a ton of 3-year contracts that we have to compete with. So it’s not always easy to get somebody to say “Yes” to even just taking a look at what we do. Most of the time they’re not willing to talk until Q3 of the 3rd year of that contract being up.
So the three main takeaways from this that I’ve learned, some of them the hard way, and some of them from my training manager and your podcast view their time as the product you have to make the most of their time. Number two, be empathetic. Don’t overcome every objection if it doesn’t seem right. Number three, Prospecting. Qualifying a prospect is like dating. You’ve got to know when to speed things up, take it slow and I know when to keep it long-distance and when to go out.
Since I’ve implemented these three things into my processes and you know the way I do things. My boss and I have worked together on our specific application for safety professionals. I’ve been able to achieve 120% of my quota for the quarter in just one month and that has been my success story so far as a BDR in B2B sales.
Thanks for letting me share, Scott. If you’re new to being a BDR or just getting your feet wet in sales. I hope this helps.
Scott Ingram: Massive kudos to Seth, not just for the results and the hard work he did on himself, but also for taking me up on my challenge and sharing his story and these tips here on the podcast. If this is you. If you’ve found something that’s really working for you. Share it! Don’t keep it a secret. Make your own contribution to the Sales Success Community. You’ll find a link with instructions on how to submit your own tip as well as a transcript of Seth’s tip and links to connect with him at DailySales.Tips/382
Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip! Thanks for listening.