Texting, The Lindy Effect, How to Manage a Remote Sales Team
Dive into the sixth issue of Hacking the Sale
Rob Wormley
- August 7, 2018
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Are you reaching out to and engaging with prospects and leads through texts? It might be time to experiment. Consider the following:
- Texting is the most widely-used and frequently used app on a smartphone, with 97% of Americans using it at least once a day (Pew Internet).
- By 2020, 48.7 million consumers will opt-in to receive SMS messages from businesses (Text Local).
- 98% of all text messages are opened compared to 22% of emails (Mobile Marketing Watch).
- Nine in 10 texts are read within three minutes of delivery (HubSpot).
- The average response rate for a bulk SMS campaign is 32% (The State of SMS).
- Messaging is the #1 preferred channel for customer service in the U.S. The phone is the #2 preferred channel (Twilio).
At first thought, you might question whether texting is too personal of a channel to be utilized for selling, but research is showing that consumers don’t mind as much as we all might think. In fact, some might actually prefer it. That being said, as with any tactic or channel you choose to leverage when communicating with prospects or customers, there is a right way and a wrong way to approach it.
Want to read about some best practices before you dive head first into sending texts to close more deals? Explore this guide from HubSpot to learn how to effectively send texts when communicating with prospects.
How to Speak so That People Want to Listen
“The human voice: It’s the instrument we all play. It’s the most powerful sound in the world, probably. It’s the only one that can start a war or say “I love you.” And yet many people have the experience that when they speak, people don’t listen to them. And why is that? How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?”
Julian Treasure is a sound consultant. He works with some of the biggest names and brands in business on how to design sound in their physical spaces. He’s also the author of How to be Heard: Secrets for Powerful Speaking and Listening, a book that helps business people improve their communication skills and ensure that people are actually listening when they speak.
In his TED Talk, How to Speak so That People Want to Listen, Treasure argues that if you want to succeed as a communicator in business and in life, there are a number of habits that you need to move away from in terms of how you speak to and with others. He refers to them as the seven deadly sins of speaking, and the list includes things like gossip, excuses, complaining, and judging.
Later in his talk, Treasure presents an acronym that everyone can use when preparing to speak to another person. The acronym is HAIL, and it stands for Honesty, Authenticity, Integrity, and Love.
He wraps up by offering a handful of helpful vocal warm-up exercises that he believes everyone should perform when preparing for an important talk or discussion.
It’s a fairly short talk (only 8 minutes) and definitely worth a listen if you’re interested in improving your speaking and communication skills.
SALES GLOSSARY: Gatekeeper
In sales, a gatekeeper is someone who controls or prevents access to the individual who has the power and authority to make purchasing decisions on behalf of a team or the business as a whole. An example of a gatekeeper would be an executive assistant or an office manager.
The Phone and Cold Outreach Still Dominate
In the Arena is a sales podcast hosted by sales leader, speaker, and author Anthony Iannarino.
In his June 30th episode titled, The Phone and Cold Outreach Still Dominate, Iannarino argues the following about cold calling:
“Regardless of what the pseudo-experts say, the telephone still dominates when it comes to generating appointments, the key to creating new opportunities.”
Iannarino essentially argues that the phone as a sales tactic and medium is not going anywhere anytime soon, despite what the critics say. He supports this claim by introducing listeners to the Lindy effect, which basically says that the longer a particular technology has been around, the longer it will continue to be around.
Iannarino says while social tools are incredibly useful for capturing actionable information and nurturing relationships with leads, they shouldn’t be a complete replacement or substitute of cold calling and cold outreach tactics. Instead, social selling should be integrated into your existing strategy, which should also still include more traditional tactics like cold calling and cold outreach.
What’s your take on the topic? Reply to this email and share your thoughts with me.
LISTEN TIME: 9 MIN
How to Manage a Remote Sales Team
According to the New York Times, “last year, 43 percent of employed Americans said they spent at least some time working remotely. ” As more startups and companies offer flexible scheduling and work-from-home opportunities as a perk for employees, it creates new challenges for managers who need to ensure that their remote employees are as productive, effective, and happy as those employees who work on-site in the office.
If you’re considering building a remote team or allowing some of your sales reps to work from home, keep the following tips in mind:
- OFFER IN-PERSON ONBOARDING & TRAINING – Make sure every employee gets the same attention and onboarding experience when they start by asking them to onboard in the office for their first week or two on the job. Bring them back on-site regularly for team training sessions.
- SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS – Make sure your remote employees understand what your expectations are in terms of how they should communicate with you and the team, when they should be working, and any other topics that they should know about.
- USE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION TOOLS – Use tools like Slack to keep your remote employees engaged and able to communicate with the rest of your team when needed.
- OFFER PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS – Provide remote employees with access to tools and product licenses that help them boost productivity and effectiveness while working from anywhere.
- BUILD TRUST – Be intentional and proactive about building trust with each of your remote employees.
- INVEST IN CULTURE-BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES – Look for opportunities to strengthen your team and boost employee happiness. Bring remote employees on-site for regular culture-building events and activities.
Want to read more about building a remote team? Check out these resources:
- Out of the Office: More People Are Working Remotely, Survey Finds from NYT
- REMOTE: Office Not Required from the makers of Basecamp
- Top 15 Tips To Effectively Manage Remote Employees from Forbes
News Stories Worth Reading
57 Email Etiquette Tips to Avoid Writing Sloppy Emails
Looking to level up your email outreach efforts? This resource from HubSpot argues that emails that are poorly written or riddled with errors are (perhaps unsurprisingly) less effective than well-written emails with no errors. It will provide you with a list of actionable etiquette-focused tips that you can use to start writing and sending better emails to your contacts today.
18 Habits of Incredibly Successful Salespeople
Looking for ways to become a more successful salesperson? This resource, also from HubSpot, compiles a list of habits that you can adopt in order to excel in your current role and career as a whole.
Some examples:
- Practice active listening
- View the customer’s success as your own
- Review your pipeline objectively
- Believe in what you’re selling
- Identify your strongest motivator
Share your feedback!
We hope you enjoyed the sixth issue of Hacking the Sale.
If you have any feedback on this edition or want to send article or topics ideas our way, just reply to this email. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
// Rob Wormley and the team at Rambl
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