3 Important Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Stop Prospecting in December

The Christmas tree is up, your office is planning its Secret Santa, and your team is talking excitedly about what they’re going to do in the long-deserved holiday break.

However, does this mean you should stop making sales calls?

We asked our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, his thoughts on the issue…

When November rolls around, we’re often asked by our clients if they should stop their lead generation campaigns. Their logic? People are either away on holiday or not in the mood for sales calls.

My response? ‘Carry on like you would any time of the year.’

Does this make me sound like a Scrooge in the run-up to Christmas? Probably. However, the facts show that you need to keep prospecting in December instead of slowing things down.

The evidence: why you should keep those calls going

As an agency specialising in outbound sales support, Air Marketing make hundreds of thousands of calls on behalf of clients every year. As a result, we get to identify patterns in behaviour.

Our data for 2021 shows that positive decision maker engagement increases significantly in the run-up to Christmas. Why? People are cheerful, excited, and willing to talk more.

As well as this, the likelihood of an appointment converting into a lead is still high. Even in the week commencing 20th December, when businesses are starting to wind down, the conversion rate is still comparable to the weeks before. 

Now, at this point, you might be thinking, ‘but Owen, that’s one isolated year. It was the first year back in the office after lockdown, and people were just happy to speak to another human. Look at another year, and it will probably be another story.’

We also carried out a similar study in 2019 where we compared clients that kept their lead generation going in December 2018 and January 2019 against those that didn’t.

We found that conversations with decision makers increased by 18%, and the time required to generate a qualified sales lead dropped by 51%.

So no matter which year you look at, it’s still important to pick up the phone all the way through the festive season.

Why you should keep picking up the phones in the run-up to Christmas

So we’ve looked at the statistics behind prospecting in December, now to see why you should keep making those calls.

1. The quality of conversation increases in December

According to YouGov, 38% of people say their mental health improves over Christmas. There are family and friends to visit, lots of food to eat and best of all… no work for a week!

As a result, we’ve found that decision makers are more talkative and happier. The quality of conversations increases, as does the length of phone calls. This increases the chance of a positive interaction and a prospect turning into a lead.

You also have a quick win up your sleeve in December; you’ve got something in common with the person you’re calling. You can talk about what they’re up to for Christmas, when they’re finishing for the holidays, and if they’re having an office party.

Use it as an opportunity to forge a connection with your prospect and structure a successful sales call.

2. People are planning their budgets for the year ahead

In December, departments are starting to think about budgets for the upcoming tax year. This makes this time of year ideal to introduce yourself and state your case as to why they should work with you.

Decision makers will be in a better mood and have more time to talk, meaning your conversion rate will increase.

Will prospective customers want to meet up in December? Probably not. However, you can ’keep them warm’ until they’re back in for the New Year and arrange an appointment then.

3. People aren’t going to write off 8% of the year

Think of the year as the equivalent of a Christmas cake, cut into twelve slices.

You think, ‘I don’t want to bother people just before Christmas.’ That’s a slice gone.

You then think, ‘People are going to be away in August for the summer holidays.’ There goes another slice.

Finally you think ‘There’s no point calling people at Easter.’ Another slice. Before you know it, you’ve given up a quarter of the year, and that’s before you start taking holidays into account.

When there are targets to hit in the workplace, every moment counts. This means people will keep on working, and it will be business as usual for many of your prospects.

Unless your key decision maker has decided to take the whole of December off, they’ll still be around to listen to you.

A Christmassy caveat…

Another question our clients frequently ask is if they should start a new sales campaign in December.

My answer? It’s never a good idea to start something new in December. If you’ve already begun your campaign, keep the momentum going in the run-up to Christmas, but leave the brand new initiatives until you’re back at work after New Year.

That way your sales team will be recharged, refreshed, and ready to go!

My final thoughts

When the Christmas lights are up, and you’re doing your Christmas shopping during your lunch break, the last thing you want to do is pick up the phone and talk to prospects.

However, December is the perfect time to make calls if you want to see positive engagement with decision makers.

Don’t forget, if you’re planning your sales campaigns for quarter four, it pays to get started now. Our team of sales specialists will fill your sales funnel and help you reach your sales goals.

Contact Air Marketing today to find out how we can work together in the months ahead.

Refreshing Your SEO as Part of Your Website Overhaul – What You Need to Know

You’re planning on refreshing your company website. You’re already aware of the benefits it’ll bring your business and how it can boost your online conversions; however, if you’re going to put all that effort into updating your website, you want to make sure it is being delivered to your target audience. That’s why an SEO refresh an essential part of this process, allowing you to establish a strong presence online.

A website refresh should address various things such as overall user experience; lack of content; design features; and so on. To achieve the best results, there are some things you need to know about SEO first.

Why is an SEO website refresh important?

There are a whole host of reasons why updating your SEO during a website refresh should be a priority, but here are the three most important reasons:

  1. To drive organic search content to your site – to put it simply, what is the point in developing a new site if nobody is going to see it? A lot of valuable time, energy and budget can go into a website build; the last thing you want is for your audience not to be viewing it. Ensuring your SEO is implemented correctly across your new site will help you rank for those relevant keywords that your audience is searching for.
  2. To attract the right audience to your site – if your keywords are outdated or irrelevant, you could be attracting the wrong audience to your website. This can decrease engagement time and boost bounce rates, that can damage your search engine ranking.
  3. To make your website work harder – your website is your online shop window. Making sure your site is working hard to rank in a multitude of SERP features will increase your visibility across search engines.

What should you consider when updating your SEO?

  • Updated keywords – A natural part of your website refresh will include updating and adding to your existing content; when doing this, think about the key search terms users may use when looking for your services and/or products. Ensure these keywords are implemented on relevant pages to help boost your SEO ranking.
  • Meta data – As you’re reviewing the keywords selected for each page, make sure you review the page’s meta data. Your keyword should feature in the title and meta description. This will allow search engines to identify the key topic and rank you for relevant search terms.
  • Broken links – Make sure you’ve identified all broken links and fixed or replaced them. Throughout this process it’s also worth checking whether any old backlinks can be updated to direct viewers to new, relevant content.
  • Lack of content – You need to include plenty of content on your site that’s relevant and valuable. Try to include at least 300 words on each page and make sure that you’re covering the right topics.
  • Bounce rate – You can measure your bounce rate by using Google Analytics. This will allow you to understand how long your visitors are staying on your site and how many are leaving without going any further.

What process should you follow for an SEO refresh?

Step 1: Find out what’s currently working (and what’s not)

The first thing you need to do is find out what’s currently working on your website and what’s not. This will allow you to identify the areas that need to be improved and make changes accordingly. The easiest way to do this is by using tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics and SEMrush.

Google Search Console – This is a free tool that allows you to monitor your site’s performance. It will let you know if there are any issues with your site. This will also help you identify any broken links or pages that need updating.

Google Analytics – This will give you a better understanding of where your traffic is coming from and what section of your website is performing best.

SEMrush – This tool will allow you to understand how your current websites SEO is performing. There is a free version of the tool that allows you check which keywords you are currently ranking for, which pages these keywords currently rank for, whether you are experiencing any SEO cannibalisation and much more.

Step 2: Determine your SEO strategy moving forward

After you’ve found out what’s currently working, you need to start determining your strategy moving forward. Here are some things you should keep in mind:

  • Who is your target audience? Knowing your target audience and how they like to search will help you in defining relevant keywords.
  • What design features can you use to help boost your SEO? H tags are a great place to start when making sure you’re giving search engines every chance to rank your content. Including relevant keywords in H1, H2 and H3 tags shows search engines this is a key topic within your page. Looking at whether you can include question-based subheadings will increase your chances of ranking in ‘People Also Asked’.
  • How can SEO inform your content plan? Content such as blogs, press releases, landing pages etc, can offer a multitude of opportunities for SEO. If you’re trying to target keywords that are highly specific, but they don’t work for any of your key pages, a landing page or blog post can be a great option. Within landing pages and blog posts you can also create great backlink opportunities. Securing high quality backlinks from external sources is the holy grail when it comes to SEO – producing high quality press releases can help secure these.
  • How can your images help boost SEO? Ensuring your file name contains relevant keywords will help search engines understand what’s in the image. When people search, they often look at image-based results; if your file name includes the correct keywords you will start to rank here. Image alt tag should be used to describe what is in the image for accessibility benefits. However, the alt tag is also used by search engines to find relevant visual content; including your keywords here is a must.

Step 3: Implement your SEO strategy

Now you’ve determined your strategy, it’s time to carry out the relevant updates.

  • Implement your SEO strategy – For every page on your website, you need to make sure your SEO strategy has been implemented. Are all your headings and subheading tagged correctly? Do all your images have relevant files names and alt tags? Are all your meta descriptions up to date? Are you linking to key content within your blog posts? Do your backlinks have descriptive text?
  • Create new content – You don’t have to completely re-write your entire website, but you should make sure the content on each page is updated based on your selected keywords.
  • Create new landing pages – If you’re targeting multiple audiences or trying to rank for highly specific keywords, it may be worth developing landing pages. These can also be linked to in blog posts and across your website.

Step 4: Review the impact and continue to develop

Finally, it’s time to review the impact of the changes you have made. Utilising the same tools as before; Google Search Console, Google Analytics and SEMrush, you can review how the changes you’ve made have affected your SEO rankings. When carrying out a full SEO overhaul and refresh, it can take time to implement all the necessary changes so it’s a good idea to monitor your site throughout the process. It can also take a while for SEO to have an impact. Monitor how your site performs over the coming months and make changes to your ongoing strategy.

Your website should never be ‘finished’, just as things constantly change within your business, so should your website. This means that SEO will need to be updated regularly.

Opinion piece by Becca Duckering – Digital Marketing Manager at Air Marketing

Searching Engine Optimizing SEO Browsing Concept

Outsourced SDR vs In-House SDR: Which Is Better For Business?

When you’re looking for new leads for your company, a team of experienced Sales Development Representatives, or SDRs, is essential.

The big question… do you outsource the work to an external company or recruit in-house?

You’re probably thinking that as an agency specialising in outsourced sales, we’re going to say that you should always trust your sales processes to an external provider. And, of course, we have discussed the benefits of outsourcing your sales many times on our blog.

But the truth is that there’s no right or wrong answer! There may be circumstances where outsourcing your SDR function isn’t the right option for your business.

However, here are three circumstances where outsourcing your SDR may be the ideal solution.

Wondering if in-house or outsourced marketing is right for your business? You might be interested in this article.

  1. You’re looking for sales support without increasing headcount

One of the main reasons businesses outsource their SDRs is to grow sales without spending time and money recruiting in-house.

It might be that your business is very new, and you don’t have the budget for an in-house team just yet. It may be the case that your in-house sales team focuses on warm leads, and you need SDRs to bring in new business. You may just have one salesperson and need to hang fire before bringing new employees on board.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for an SDR in the UK (in 2022) is just over £32,173 a year. Not only do you need to take salary into consideration but also commission, the equipment needed to do their jobs, onboarding and training costs, holidays, pensions, and other benefits.

Plus, new recruits may expect a promotion within a couple of years, or they may move on, meaning you have to start all over again.

Add a couple of SDRs to your in-house team, and costs can quickly mount up! Outsourcing sales means you can get the valuable support your business needs without the expensive outlay.

  1. You want flexibility

The main bonus of hiring SDRs externally is that you can quickly ramp up or down as needed. For example, let’s say you want to push sales before the end of the financial year, or in the run-up to Christmas. You can call on additional outsourced SDRs to increase capacity temporarily, and have them stand down when the rush is over.

You can also use outsourced sales to adapt as your business grows. Outsourcing your SDRs means you can reach out to more customers, make more sales, and boost average revenue per customer, filling the gap before you hire internally.

Many businesses that outsource their sales are SMEs. According to Clutch, one in three small businesses outsources at least one of their business processes. Outsourcing sales gives these businesses the flexibility they need to try new processes (more on that in a bit) and means they can quickly scale up or down when needed.

  1. You want to test new things

An outsourced team of SDRs is excellent if you want to try new things in your sales department with minimal risk. Think of them as a team of sales scientists, ready to experiment on behalf of your company!

Let’s say your business has a new product you want to sell to customers. You have three options available:

  1. The first is taking one or two of your in-house SDRs and moving them to your new product. This is risky as this means you’re potentially losing sales revenue on your existing product lines.

  2. The second is to hire new staff. This will cost your business time and money as you need to recruit and onboard these staff. Plus, if the new product isn’t a success, there is the risk that you may need to let these staff go.

  3. The third option, and the one we recommend, is to outsource the sales. This is the best option, as you can test the product’s success with an external team. If the product sells well, you have the evidence needed to hire new staff in-house. If it doesn’t, your in-house sales team is unaffected, and you can go back to the old way of working.

An external sales team can also offer fresh insights and new thoughts on how you run your sales team. Is there anything they do differently that you can apply to your in-house processes? A good outsourced sales agency will be more than happy to share its experience and knowledge with you.

Choosing the right outsourced SDR team is critical

If you were recruiting an in-house SDR, you’d spend a lot of time selecting the perfect candidate. You’d pore over CVs, carry out detailed interviews, and go through your notes before making the final decision.

The same logic applies to who you choose to outsource to.

Outsourcing can be done well, but it can also be done wrong. We’ve seen many small agencies start up with just a mobile phone and a laptop, and in our experience, they can’t provide the services most businesses need to grow sales revenue.

Knowledge, practical experience, and transparency are essential.

We work with each of our clients to provide a tailored outsourced sales experience to suit their needs.

When in-house recruitment is the right solution

If you have a mature business with a dedicated in-house team, high-quality outbound sales processes, and a brilliant Sales Manager in place, you’re generally best hiring internally.

Of course, there are a few circumstances where outsourcing your sales may be of benefit, for example, if you want to test something new. However, nine times out of ten, we’d say stick with what you know!

Remember, if you need a little extra help with your in-house recruitment, we can use our experience to help you hire the best SDRs on the market. Our sister company,  Seed Talent, specialise in helping businesses recruit the best SDRs and AEs on the market. Visit their website to find out more.

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How To Improve An Underperforming Sales Team | Air Marketing x Cognism

This article by Cognism features Air Marketing’s Founder & CEO, Owen Richards.

It will tell you:

  • How to identify a sales team that isn’t performing well.
  • How to discover the root cause of the problem affecting an underperforming team.
  • How to solve issues related to activity, data, messaging and climate.
  • How to manage underperforming team members and communicate effectively with your staff.

Scroll down to read the Q&A.

What warning signs tell you when a sales team is underperforming?

Owen’s answer here was – it depends on the team.

“If you’re managing an SDR team, look at meetings booked. If you’re managing AEs, then look at pipeline and revenue contribution. For outbound sales, the key drivers are: is revenue coming in and is it staying stable?”

Owen identified a problem with revenue as a metric.

“The problem with revenue is it’s a lagging metric – it’s showing you what happened 2 or 3 months ago. By the time you spot a problem, it’s too late. The sales cycle for most SaaS businesses is between 3-9 months. If you look at revenue today and you see that it’s down, then that’s from 3 months or more ago.”

For Owen, productivity metrics are the ones to focus on.

“Look at things like activity metrics. The number of calls and the number of conversations – remember these aren’t always the same. Look at connect rates – are people calling the right numbers? Post-pandemic, you get better results from calling mobile numbers than switchboards or landlines.”

“Then look at conversion rate – the number of people that your reps speak to and actually book a meeting. Meeting quality is also important – how many of those meetings become opportunities and enter the pipeline?”

Owen stressed the importance of going beyond metrics and considering the mood of the team.

“Look at climate – how does it feel to be in the room? Are people happy or stressed? It’s a tough one to measure but it’s critical.”

“You can get a feel for climate from things like conversation quality, if you have conversation analytics. You can get it from 121s, from your line managers reporting back. It’s a lot less tangible but very valuable, in my experience.”

“In larger teams, employee retention data is a good way of spotting trends. If staff turnover is high, then there’s likely a climate issue.”

Owen gave us his checklist for spotting an underperforming sales team:

  • If it’s a reduction in calls – it’s a climate or activity-related problem. Or something’s getting in the way of performance – your reps are being distracted.
  • If it’s a reduced contact rate/calls aren’t connecting – it’s a data problem – your SDRs aren’t calling the right numbers.
  • If it’s a reduced conversation-meeting rate – either your messaging is off or your team needs more training (they aren’t saying the right things on their calls).
  • If it’s a reduced meeting-opps rate – there’s an issue with AE performance.

“Those are the metrics I’m looking at consistently – and usually one of them can tell me where the problem lies.”

Do you need tech to spot an underperforming sales team?

Owen was very clear on this point.

“Can you do it manually? Yes.”

“Can you do it as effectively? No.”

He explained his thinking…

“Manual is very retrospective – it’s all about looking backwards.”

“But with tech, you can spot the problem almost straight away. It also tends to be more accurate. I’ll say that’s not always the case – tech is only as good as the data going into it and humans are capable of messing up data input.”

“But in general, it’s a no-brainer. If you want to be best in class, you need a sensible tech stack. It doesn’t have to be too complicated – the essentials are a good CRM, a good phone system and good B2B data. Conversation analytics and pipeline tracking are also very useful.”

Owen walked us through how reporting worked at Air Marketing.

“I receive daily reports from my SDR Managers. These include activity metrics and conversation metrics. When you report on a daily basis, it means you can jump on problems a lot quicker. It’s been very successful for us.”

Once you’ve identified problems in your sales team, what steps should you take?

Owen’s first step is to diagnose the problem. The second step is to find out why it’s happening.

“To do this, you work backwards through the funnel to find out why. You have to get to the root cause of the issue.”

“If it’s an activity problem, then you have to ask: are we not talking to enough people? Or are we talking to enough people but we’re not getting enough of them to say yes?”

“Then you work backwards. If we’re talking to enough people, but a lot of them aren’t saying yes – then I know it’s a conversation quality issue. If we’re not talking to enough people in the first place, then chances are it’s either the data is wrong or the team’s work ethic is lagging.”

“Or it could be that the team is getting distracted. Are people having too many internal meetings, for example – leaving them with not enough time to call? Then you need to get even more granular – does the problem affect the whole team or just certain individuals?”

The third step in Owen’s process is to solve the issue.

“Think about what you can put in place that will solve the problem. Is it better data or more training around messaging? It isn’t always telling people to work harder – there’s no point getting SDRs to make more calls if they don’t have the right messaging or the right numbers.”

“So here I’d schedule some refresher training sessions around messaging, cold calling and conversations.”

“Or I could be looking at removing things that are standing in their way – helping them to reduce their admin, for example.”

What’s best practice for solving activity issues?

In Owen’s experience, activity reduction is usually driven by just one thing – climate.

“A number of factors affect climate in your sales team, namely: are your SDRs feeling ok at work? Has their manager left? Maybe some people have come into the team and disrupted it. Maybe there’s been a lot of sickness in the team recently. It could be down to lots of things like that.”

“As a B2B sales leader – you need to understand what’s causing it.”

Owen told us about his solutions for improving climate.

“If your SDRs aren’t feeling as motivated as they should be, schedule some 121s with them and understand what’s causing it.”

In situations like this, Owen is a strong advocate of data-led management.

“You have to provide some proof backing up what you say. Let’s say their activity has dropped by 20% compared to last month – present them with a graph showing this and ask them what’s causing it.”

“Usually, you’ll get a straight answer. If they’ve been distracted, then it’s usually something like they’ve been asked by marketing to contribute to a project or they spent 2 days at an expo. Sometimes they might not even realise there’s a problem.

“Then you ask them a simple question: what can they do to improve this month? Get the SDR to suggest their own solutions. People are more likely to adopt change if it’s their own idea, rather than you telling them what to do.”

The next step is to maintain consistency and accountability.

“Once the SDR has provided the solution, agree to hold them to it. Schedule weekly catch-ups for the next 4 weeks and find out how they’re getting on.”

Owen’s preference for data-led management doesn’t stop at the first 121.

“Transparency is very important. Give the SDR access to their activity data; let them see it and track it themselves. If their activity improves over the next month, then that’s a job well done.”

What about improving climate for a team, not an individual?

“You follow the same principle. Take 2 or 3 people in the team and present them with the data. Ask them, why has 80% of the team seen a 20% reduction in calls?”

“Then involve them in the discussion. Let them recommend solutions. People are always more accountable if they’re working with their own solutions.”

Owen had some great advice for SaaS sales leaders:

“As a leader, you’re not there to tell your team what to do. You’re there to facilitate them and help them to be the best they can be.”

What’s best practice for solving data issues?

Owen had lots to say about how sales teams should best use data.

“If we’re dialling lots of people but meetings aren’t being booked, then I know that’s a data issue.”

“The thing is, data can be good for a period of time. But it doesn’t always last. If things start to go wrong, look at your tech stack.”

“Have you pulled data from a different data provider than usual? Also, consider your targeting – have you gone into a new market or segment where the data isn’t as good?”

“Another problem you often encounter is that sometimes your messaging doesn’t match the data. And if that happens, if the messaging and data don’t match, then your reps will be calling prospects and saying the wrong things.”

“My advice is to structure and segment your data and ensure the messaging is right for each segment.”

Owen keeps a couple of questions in mind when thinking about this:

  • Are we calling phone numbers that don’t connect? That’s a sign your data isn’t good to start with.
  • Are we calling phone numbers but not booking meetings? That’s a sign you’ve got viable phone numbers but they’re in the wrong orgs.

What’s best practice for solving messaging issues?

Owen said:

“Almost always this is down to reps.”

Why?

“They change what they do without realising it. They listen to podcasts, they listen to each other and they learn new things. They try things out and copy what they hear. Then you get a drift in messaging – they say something new without realising it.”

“Drift happens incrementally, it’s not a radical change. A cold call an SDR made 3 months ago will sound completely different to one they make today. The changes happen subtly over long periods of time.”

Owen shared his process for dealing with message drift.

“This is where call recording software comes in. As I said earlier, you need tech to do this. It gives you the ability to listen back to calls. It’s vital for an outbound sales team.”

What would Owen do if he noticed a rep was having this problem?

“I’d sit down with them and play them their successful calls from 3 months ago and the calls they’re making now. Then I’d ask them: what’s different? What’s changed in your conversation? Are any of those changes conscious and if so, why?”

“Again you need to present them with the evidence that things have changed. The key is listening to call recordings and comparing them.”

The things that Owen looks out for in recorded calls are:

  • Has the SDR changed the messaging?
  • Is the SDR not handling objections in the same way?
  • Are the conversations too short? Is the SDR rushing it?
  • Is it their tone of voice? Are they coming across as too pushy or too laid-back?

“The way of solving all of these issues is through more training.”

What’s best practice for solving climate issues?

We’ve all heard about company culture – but what’s company climate?

Owen said:

“Culture is the things you do – socials, perks, training, incentives. A good culture is one that constantly invests in its people and makes the workplace the best it can be.”

“Climate is how it feels to work here. How does it feel to work in that team or walk into that room? Are people engaged and happy? Are they feeling positive? Do they like coming in every day?”

Owen highlighted why it’s important to be aware of the difference.

“You can have a good company culture but a bad company climate. For me, climate creates the biggest impact on how people work.”

“Climate isn’t always consistent; it can change from day to day. But generally, you want your team to be feeling positive most of the time.”

What sort of things affect climate in a sales team?

“All sorts! Someone in senior leadership leaves, for instance. Or if a couple of redundancies are made and then everyone else gets worried.”

In Owen’s opinion, why is it important to measure climate?

“It drives all the other things I’ve talked about. If people are feeling unhappy, they won’t work hard. They won’t put the effort in or be as motivated, so then your activity levels will fall.”

“Climate can cause drift in conversations because if your SDRs are thinking about what’s happening in the business, then they won’t be as focused on their calls.”

“This is a really important part of running a sales team. Reps need constant motivation – it’s a challenging and repetitive job. They’re affected by external factors all day, every day. Often they’re in the early stages of their career; they’re not as experienced or commercially mature as managers.”

What are Owen’s tips for maintaining a healthy climate?

“It all comes down to management. Good sales team managers don’t just manage, they do. They get on the phones, they speak to customers and prospects. They lead from the front. They run team meetings and let their team speak.”

So you need to make sure your SDR team leaders/managers are:

  • Demonstrating positive reinforcement.
  • Celebrating individuals and their contributions.
  • Holding honest 121s.
  • Holding good team meetings where everyone has the chance to speak.

When dealing with an underperforming sales team, how important is communication?

Owen answered this question by saying:

“Leadership is all about communication. It’s also one of the things that people find hardest about leadership.”

“As humans, we’re often uncomfortable about having difficult conversations. In a leadership role, you can’t be nice all of the time. You need to have honest, straightforward conversations with people.”

Owen told us about the first thing he teaches new team leaders at Air Marketing.

“Data-led management is one of the most powerful tools in sales leadership. If you’re showing someone that their performance has dropped, and it’s all there in the data, they can’t argue with that. It’s not your gut feeling or guesswork; you’re not singling them out or having a go at them. It’s fact.”

“Presenting them with a problem is just one part of it. You then have to involve them in the solution – what would they do to solve it? Give them the opportunity to come up with a fix.”

And the most important part of communicating with your team? Owen concluded with:

“It isn’t speaking – it’s listening! That’s the key to it.”

“Ask the rep a question, then sit back and let them answer. A really good question to ask is: what would you do if you were managing someone in this position?”

“That gets them thinking like a manager – they get thinking about the solution, rather than the problem.”

“In sales, you can have hundreds of problems every day – but it’s how you deal with them that counts.”

Office or Home Working – Which Is Better For SDRs?

The pandemic has changed not only how we work, but where we work.

Before 2020, just over 1.5 million people worked from home. Now, this number has skyrocketed to 23.9 million.

Now lockdown is over, many businesses have requested their SDRs return to the office. However, others have continued to let their sales teams work from home.

While Airbnb has enacted a ‘work from anywhere’ policy for staff, Elon Musk recently made the headlines for forcing Tesla employees back into the office.

Which is the right solution? Let’s look at how office and home working can benefit your business and most importantly, help your SDRs develop to their full potential.

The advantages of working in the office

SDRs learn more

One of the benefits of office working is that SDRs learn through their interactions with others. For example, a new SDR might learn new sales techniques by listening to their more experienced colleagues making phone calls.

Learning through observation is harder in a remote environment as sales reps are more self-contained.

SDRs are more accountable

Creating a culture of accountability and responsibility in your sales department is essential, especially if you work with younger, more impressionable SDRs.

84% of employees say the way leaders behave is the most critical factor when it comes to accountability. In an office environment, managers and team leaders can be more present with sales reps and set a good example.

SDRs (typically) react better to being around people

Extraverted people typically gravitate towards a career in sales.

Extraverts are people who get their energy and motivation from being around others, which makes an office environment an ideal place for them to be.

If your sales reps thrive on getting out there and seeing people, the social interactions the office provides will keep happiness and levels of wellbeing high.

SDRs can make connections

When working in an office, SDRs don’t just connect with the people in their department; they connect with everyone in the building.

Whether they’re waiting to go into a meeting or making a cup of tea in the break room, there’s no telling who they might bump into!

Getting to know people at work helps SDRs feel part of the company culture and provides them with valuable networking contacts that will help them in their future careers.

The advantages of working from home

SDRs have more flexibility

One of the reasons why people fell in love with working from home during lockdown was it offered a better work-life balance. Workers had more time to spend with their families and partners and even started new hobbies – we all know someone who started making sourdough bread in 2020!

Giving SDRs the option to work from home means they can be happier and more productive in their sales role.

SDRs can work without interruption

As we mentioned above, some salespeople thrive in an office environment. However, others do their best work where it’s quieter, and there are fewer distractions.

If you manage a team of SDRs who are more likely to hit their targets when there’s nothing to disturb them, a work from home solution might be ideal.

Our thoughts at Air Marketing

We believe working from home full-time isn’t the answer, especially for those just starting out in their sales career.

We also believe working in the office full-time isn’t the answer either.

The solution? Hybrid or flexible working. One in four people in the UK now split their time between home and the office, meaning they get the best of both worlds.

For the final say on the matter, we spoke to our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards:

“When I was younger and working as an SDR, some of my best memories were time spent in the office. I learned from my managers and made friends that I’m still in touch with today. It’s vital that young people starting out in sales have that connection to the office as that’s how they’ll grow into the sales leaders of the future.

“At Air Marketing, we ask our team to be in the office at least two days a week. After that, they can work from home if they want to.

“I’m usually in the office four or five days a week. However, it’s great to have the flexibility to work from home if I need to write a report or want to spend time with my family.”

Don’t forget, if you need a little sales support, whether in the office or working from home, we can help.

Our expertly-trained SDRs will provide you with high-quality leads that are ready to buy your products or services.

Contact us today to find out more.

What’s Next For Tech?

Value will continue to rise. Companies will churn. Merges and acquisitions will augment the market and people will be more important than ever before.

SaaS and tech funding gained momentum during the pandemic, with mega-deals recalibrating and redefining the value of tech industries forever. The pandemic takes credit as an accelerator but not the reason. Companies had digitisation and digital strategies in place but it was Covid (more specifically lockdowns) that made it impossible for a board to procrastinate any longer. In addition companies were suddenly exposed to, and forced to react to, a lack of utilisation of their suite of existing tech and software and ‘technical debt’ rocketed up the priority list straight into the top 5.

Disconnecting human interaction at work made digital adoption and tech hygiene a basic requirement. In the case of sales and martech, one of the only ways of proving individual and team effectiveness performance was by ensuring activities, interactions and meetings were logged, noted, actioned. Out of this sales enablement and RevOps has blown up. ‘Faster, higher, stronger, together’ isn’t just applicable as a motto for the Olympics and athletes.

So where’s it heading?

According to CB Insights Q1 2022 State of Fintech Report, there has been an 18% reduction in tech investment in Q1 this year, that will make for some interesting boardroom discussions. Competition for investors’ money will come with more scrutiny, more prudence. Less Dragons Den and more Goldman Sachs. Because of this companies will churn and mergers and acquisitions will be on the rise. The mega-mergers will make the headlines but the SMB and mid-market conglomeration will be prolific and shape the landscape just as much.

SaaS and tech investment drive returns and whilst the value bubble isn’t going to burst, the talent bubble might. Leaders and executives who can deliver at speed have never been more in demand – nor have they ever been more aware of their value. Forget brand equity, ARR or EBITDA, what’s your talent equity?

Exceptional people, who have the right attributes not just to perform and develop their function (e.g. sales, IT) but across other areas of the business are in scarce supply. The cross-pollination of ideas across business functions is the alchemy where the real magic happens. It’s hard, almost impossible, to create these conditions remotely which is why we saw Google earlier this year mandate employees to be back in office three days a week on average. How this plays out and how it defines and affects companies success is a subject for another day, another blog.

Neil Clarke

Commercial Director – Air Marketing

5 Tips to Generate High Quality B2B Leads Every Day

Discover how to generate high quality B2B leads with 5 effective strategies to help you keep your sales pipeline full of qualified prospects.

One of the top challenges businesses face is consistently generating high quality B2B leads that can then go on to be successfully converted into customers…

Whilst there are lots of lead generation tools and methods out there, naturally you’re only interested in the ones that provide qualified leads. In a classic tale of quality over quantity, there’s no use generating an extensive list of potential leads only to find very few of them are actually interested in seriously pursuing your products or services.

With this in mind, we’re sharing our 5 top tips for generating high quality B2B leads on a daily basis to help you keep your sales pipeline just as you like it – fully loaded with qualified prospects:

1. Install a Live Chat Function on Your Website

It seems as if almost every website these days has a live chat function, right? But for good reason, it’s so convenient for people who may not have time to browse your website or have a query they’d like answered as soon as possible.

It actively reduces your website’s bounce rate and delivers warm prospects straight into your inbox – from the moment they click on the chat they are ready to be nurtured by your sales team.

Implementing a live chat function from a technical point of view is easy with powerful CRMs such as HubSpot. Once your sales team are familiar with how it works, your potential customer is treated to a personalised experience where all their questions are answered, and their pain points addressed in an instant. If you don’t have live chat on your website already, we definitely recommend it!

2. Optimise Your Outbound Calling Strategy

A lot of B2B sales happen over the phone so taking advantage of every interaction with an optimised outbound calling strategy is a must. This strategy should include:

  • Clearly defined goals: what are your average handle times for calls and close rates? How can you improve them?
  • How will you qualify the lead with each interaction in order to move them down the sales funnel?
  • Follow-up processes – how will you increase your company’s connection to the contact after the call has finished? What channels will you be utilising to do this? Think emails, remarketing and more!

3. Social Selling

LinkedIn is the #1 platform for B2B lead generation and offers multiple touchpoints to connect with and nurture prospects. This is where social selling comes in – as you know LinkedIn is a platform full of professionals actively sharing updates about their jobs, wins and triumphs and crucially their pain points – so be one of them! But crucially also listen to what your prospects are saying in order to create meaningful content around their hopes and challenges that resonates with them.

Social selling is all about building credibility as a thought leader and offering the solutions your audience seeks without being overtly ‘salesy’ – i.e., no hard selling of your products or messaging people out of the blue with a sales pitch.

It’s actually shortened the sales cycle for a lot of companies but be aware that this is not a short-term win solution – it’s all about building authentic professional relationships with your target audience by interacting with their content and posting your own with which they can identify.

4. Aligning Your Sales and Marketing Teams

When sales and marketing exist in separate silos, it’s a recipe for chaos and means you’re far more unlikely to reach your overall business goals. Aligning the two teams from both a company culture and for every campaign will see both team’s performances soar. Some proven ways to align your sales and marketing teams include:

  • Clearly defining what a sales qualified lead is and what a marketing qualified lead is
  • Agree when marketing hands leads over to the sales team to avoid conflicts and confusion
  • Use lead scoring to qualify leads first and then prioritise the best ones second
  • Facilitate an open culture of collaboration, sharing ideas and feedback on campaigns. Encourage everyone to offer their views and listen to one another’s respective expertise.

5. Research Your Ideal Buyer’s Industry

When it comes to lead generation, time is money. You don’t have the time to waste nurturing companies that won’t engage with you. Whilst you have already undoubtedly looked into the company, having a wider view of what’s going on in their industry can make all the difference.

Sometimes warming a lead can be as simple as striking up a conversation about a piece of news relevant to their industry. It assures the prospect that you are tuned in to the needs of their industry, boosting your company’s profile in their eyes. You can then leverage this to explain why your business’ offering is relevant to them. The best salespeople subscribe to news or social alerts within their target market’s industries for this reason.

You could also get inside their professional world by browsing LinkedIn and Twitter accounts they follow, listening to a podcast targeted at them or even browsing videos on YouTube relevant to their sector.

Utilising all of these tips will see you generating high-quality B2B leads on a daily basis in no time but if you’re looking for a B2B Marketing partner to provide tailored lead generation solutions, then simply get in touch for an informal chat to discuss your business’ needs!

Quality or Quantity – Which Is More Important In SDR Activity?

When you’re making sales, what’s better? One well-researched and thought-out sales call or twenty hastily made ones?

We’ll bet that you went for the well-researched sales call.

Many SDRs agree that quality counts when it comes to generating leads. However, there is a fine balancing act between the number of calls you make and how targeted they are.

Let’s look at whether quality or quantity counts the most when it comes to sales.

How sales has changed over the past twenty years

At the turn of the new century, outbound sales enquiries were a lot more straightforward.

Phone calls were the sales channel of choice for most SDRs, and while the internet was a thing, many people didn’t have email addresses.

Some salespeople even sent pitches by fax!

Fast forward to 2022, and there is a lot more noise in sales than ever before.

The average person gets between 120 and 130 emails a day, social media is used as a sales channel, and we’re bombarded with ads all day long.

This makes it a lot harder to stand out when it comes to generating leads.

What does this mean for SDRs? It means…

  1. They have to pitch to as many people as they can in the hope that some will respond with interest
  2. They have to choose the people most likely to respond and send them a relevant pitch

But is a) or b) the right approach?

Quality can help save time

For most businesses, it pays to have a qualitative approach toward leads.

After all, it’s easier to call ten people and set up two meetings than to call 100 people and set up twenty meetings. The conversion rate may be the same, but your SDRs have spent their time more wisely.

However…

Spending time on a pitch doesn’t always make it high-quality by default

A short while ago, our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, received a personalised Spotify playlist from a salesperson, with individual song titles requesting a meeting.

The technique was impressive and certainly got our attention at Air Marketing HQ. However, the product being sold was just not relevant to our needs – so it was a no from us.

We estimated that it must have taken about 30 minutes to build the playlist – a lot of time when you’re trying to make sales.

16 individual playlists for prospective customers, and that’s the working day gone!

Many SDRs think that spending time on a pitch automatically means it will result in a quality lead, but this isn’t true.

Any prospecting you do needs to be:

  1. Well-researched, ensuring that your prospect is a good fit for your product or service
  2. Relevant to the needs of your prospect
  3. Personalised towards your prospect. Over 70% of people now expect personalisation from businesses they work with

While the Spotify playlist was indeed personalised, it wasn’t something of interest to us.

Researching a prospective business doesn’t necessarily have to be time-consuming. Use the data you already have in your CRM system. Use social media to find the right person to talk to. Put criteria in place to quickly eliminate any unlikely buyers.

And most importantly… pick up the phone!

A phone call is more personal than an email or social media message, lets you steer the conversation and means you can move on quickly if you get a ‘no.’

Over half of senior-level buyers prefer to do business over the phone.

When quantity counts

As the old saying goes, ‘sales is a numbers game.’

While quality is important, there are circumstances when quantity can be the best approach.

If you’re selling a time-sensitive product or service or have a lot of competition, you may need to move quickly. In this situation, quantity is the right strategy.

Quantity can also help you move to a qualitative approach in the future. For example, let’s say you’ve recently launched a new business but aren’t 100% sure who your target audience is yet. You can use the data you’ve collected to see who is most likely to convert moving forward.

In conclusion: Quality or quantity – which is right for you?

There’s an assumption in sales that focusing on quality is a good approach and focusing on quantity is a bad approach.

However, this isn’t true. You can target lots of people and see success, as well as target a handful of people and get no leads at all.

If you opt to go for quantity, you need to make sure it’s the right approach for your needs.

If you decide to focus on quality, you need to make the research you do count.

Take the pressure out of generating leads with Air Marketing

If you’re struggling to get leads for your sales team, we can help.

Our skilled team of SDRs provide lead generation services and can fill your pipeline with warm opportunities that are ready to buy.

Contact our team today and see how we can save you time and resources.

Using Your Existing Data to Grow Sales

When you’re in sales, it’s essential to work smarter, not harder.

Making changes to the channels you use and the audiences you reach out to can positively impact your team’s performance.

In fact, a data-driven approach to sales can make your business between 5% and 6% more profitable.

In last month’s article, we advised what stats you should measure to track your SDRs’ progress. This month, we will look at how you can use your data to improve the lead generation process and target the businesses most interested in your product or service.

The problem with ‘scattergun sales’

Many sales teams have a scattergun approach when it comes to outreach sales. This is when they reach out to as many prospective customers as possible, in the hope that some of them will want to know more.

The issue with this is that it’s hit and miss. While you’ll get some leads, it’s likely most intended prospects won’t be interested. This can not only lead to your sales department underperforming, but a loss of morale for your team.

A surprisingly large number of companies rely on scattergun sales to grow business. 71% of SMEs and 67% of large organisations admit to not having a systematic approach to engaging with prospective customers.

This means that by using your existing data to refine your sales processes, you can give yourself an advantage over your competitors.

Know your target audience

When you’re identifying who to sell your products or services to, it can be tempting to keep things as broad as possible to maximise reach. We’ve all been in meetings where the Managing Director wants to target everyone!

However, this approach hinders more than it helps. As the saying goes, ‘by appealing to everyone, you appeal to no one’.

By using your data to focus on the right target audience, your SDRs can prioritise the prospects that are more likely to buy.

Using data to boost your sales rates

The data you already have can inform your approach to sales and make your team more efficient.

One of the great things about working in sales is that everything is quantifiable, and this provides you with a wealth of data to take advantage of.

When it comes to improving your sales volume, look at the profiles of people and companies that have bought from you in the past:

  • What industry is the business in?
  • What products and services does the business sell?
  • What is the size of the business?
  • What is the turnover of the business?
  • What country is the business in?
  • What is the job title and seniority of the person who bought from you?
  • Which channels (for example, email, phone call, social media) did you use to make the sale?
  • What was the value of the sale?
  • How long was the sales cycle?

You should have most of this data already in your CRM system. If you need to fill in any gaps, LinkedIn is a useful source of information.

If your business is new or you don’t have the data to go off, then industry statistics can be a good starting point. However, as no two companies are alike, it’s best to use your own data for optimal results.

Take all your stats into consideration

When using this approach, it’s essential to use all the data at your disposal rather than focusing on one set of statistics.

Let’s say industry A has a 30% conversion rate while industry B has a 20% conversion rate. This information shows that industry A is more likely to yield results for your SDRs. However, what happens when you bring other data into the mix?

When you bring average sales cycle length into consideration, industry B has an average cycle of six months. However, industry A’s sales cycle is three years!

This means that the best approach is to go for industry B. Although the conversion rate is slightly lower, your team will reach more customers and make larger sales volumes.

Review and share the data for best results

As the team leader or manager, it’s your responsibility to review the data, interpret it and put a strategy into action.

Don’t forget to reassess your findings regularly. If your target audience changes, then you need to update your strategy to accommodate this.

As well as sharing information with your SDRs, share it with your marketing team too. According to LinkedIn, there is only a 23% overlap between the two department’s definition of a target audience. If your prospects aren’t ready to buy just yet, your marketing department can nurture them until they are.

Find out more about aligning your sales and marketing team.

In conclusion – use your past data to accelerate future sales

According to McKinsey, businesses that use analytics more effectively grow quicker than those that don’t.

By taking the time to review your data and using it to identify the prospects that are most likely to turn into leads, you’ll grow your return on investment.

If you’re still not convinced of the advantages data can bring, consider General Electric. In the 1990s, the company relied on a scattergun approach to make sales, wasting valuable sales rep time. During the 2000s, the business took a data-driven approach to sales, discovering that the top 30% of customers were three times more likely to buy.

The hard work paid off, with General Electric making an incredible $300 million in new business and boosting their conversion rate by 19% in the space of a year.

Set your business towards success with Air Marketing

Growing your sales can be challenging. At Air Marketing, we’re on a mission to ensure your businesses can promote its products and services to the right people.

We offer lead generation services, helping fill your pipeline and deliver warm opportunities to your sales team. Our SDRs can also reach out to prospective customers on your behalf, saving you time and letting you focus on growing your business.

Contact our team today and see how we can take the hard work out of selling for your business.

Getting Incentive Schemes Right For SDRs

A solid incentive scheme can be a great way to encourage your team to hit those all-important targets when you work in outbound sales.

Make enough calls and bring in enough business, and you will receive a substantial reward for your efforts.

It sounds simple enough on paper, but the truth is that it can sometimes be hard to get an incentive scheme right.

Make it too hard to achieve target, and you run the risk of frustrating your team. Make it too easy, and you will lose a lot of that hard-earned turnover.

Even if you get your targets right, you need to think long and hard about the incentives you will offer.

We’ve put together this guide to help you work out an ideal incentive programme for your sales development representatives (SDRs) and what you can offer them by means of reward.

What targets and KPIs should I have in place?

Before we move into detail, we should explain the difference between targets and KPIs in relation to incentives. It’s easy to get them mixed up or use them interchangeably.

Targets are your outcomes, and KPIs (key performance indicators) are the activities that lead to an outcome being completed.

As an example, let’s take sales calls. In this case, the sales calls are the KPI, and the target is the number of sales calls you want your SDRs to achieve in a set time frame.

When you consider your targets, it’s essential to think about the following:

  • What will your KPIs be? This is dependent on your business model. Examples of KPIs you can use in sales include revenue, sales won and meetings booked
  • What will your target be? Your target needs to be attainable, but not so easy that everyone can hit it on the first phone call of the day. Make sure all your targets are:
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Achievable
    • Relevant
    • Timely
  • Will any other team members be involved in your SDRs hitting their target? For example, say your target is number of sales won, and your SDRs pass their opportunities through to another salesperson to close. Their commission is dependent on the success of other people. This will need to be factored into the final figures

What are SDRs really motivated by?

As we’ve touched on in earlier blogs, members of your sales team are motivated by different things. It can be easy to assume that everyone is motivated by money; after all, we all have bills to pay and mouths to feed. However, this is not necessarily the case.

Only 13% of people looking for a new job say it is because they want more money. This means there have to be other factors in play.

People in a sales environment can be motivated by:

  • Making a difference to the world
  • Career progression and development
  • Being recognised for the work they do
  • Freedom to spend time with friends and loved ones

Different motivations can lead to SDRs preferring various incentives for their work. For example, if someone is motivated by freedom, additional days off or shorter working hours can encourage them to hit their targets.

So, should I offer money as an incentive?

It honestly depends on your business and the staff that work for you. For some SDRs  – cash is still king, and they will appreciate a financial bonus for their hard work.

However, this strategy doesn’t work for all staff and can be expensive to maintain in the long term.

In the 1990s, Hewlett Packard launched performance-related pay for staff. The issue was that the targets set were too low, meaning about 90% of staff were eligible for commission. When Hewlett Packard realised its mistake and upped the targets, employees threatened to quit as they thought they were entitled to the extra incentives by default.

One thing to consider if you are offering money-based commission is how much your SDRs will be able to earn and how it compares to their base pay.

High commission and low base may incentivise your team to sell hard, but may lead to frustrated staff and high turnover. Low commission and higher base may deter ambitious salespeople, but lead to happier SDRs and improved job security.

Great sales incentives that will really motivate your SDRs

What type of incentives can you offer your SDRs that will encourage them to pick up the phone and start calling?

Interestingly, 85% of people would opt for a non-cash incentive if it was something they really liked the look of.

Here are a few of our favourites for you to consider.

Workplace incentives

These types of incentives make the working day easier and more fun for your sales team. The advantage of workplace-based benefits is that they are low-cost, making them an excellent option for businesses with a small budget.

For example, you could offer longer lunch breaks, parking spaces nearer the office or extra holidays for those who hit their targets.

You could even let your SDRs take control of the office Spotify playlist as a fun reward!

Experienced-based incentives

Experiences and outings are great incentives for staff, as they are seen as high value and are something tangible for your sales team to try and achieve.

Experienced-based incentives can range from a pair of cinema tickets or a trip to a spa through to a VIP experience at a music concert or sporting event.

The great thing about experienced-based incentives is that you can extend them to the whole team too. Has the entire sales team hit its target for the quarter? Treat everyone to a works night out!

Plus, your SDRs may document their experience on social media and tag you in, leading to extra publicity for your business.

Courses and training incentives

Some of your sales team may be motivated by the promise of personal and professional development and becoming the best version of themselves they can be.

Offering advancement opportunities can be a smart choice if this is the case. Your SDRs gain new skills to help them in their career, and you get to take advantage of what they learn in the workplace. It’s a win-win situation!

You could pay for them to complete an online course, let them have one-on-one time with a professional coach or give them paid time off to attend an upcoming conference.

Physical incentives

One of the best ways to thank someone is with a thoughtful gift, and your sales team is no exception. Providing a tangible prize works well as you can customise it to the specific team member as well as your own budget.

Tech, food, drink and gift cards are all brilliant options. One idea we love is to have lots of prize envelopes on a board in the office. The SDR picks one at random and gets a nice surprise!

In conclusion – how will you manage your in-house incentive scheme?

According to the Incentive Research Foundation, a high-quality incentive programme can increase staff performance by 44%. That’s potentially a lot of new sales leads and opportunities for your business.

Done right, an incentive programme can drive your SDRs performance and lead to positive outcomes. The challenge is working out how to implement it correctly.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to incentive schemes. The one that is right for your business will depend on your industry, your size, the outcomes you want to achieve and most importantly, the motivations of your sales team.

Take the time to choose the perfect incentive scheme, and both you and your SDRs can reap the benefits.

If you’d like further tips on managing your SDRs, our content series will provide you with all the information you need.

Visit our knowledge hub for blogs, webinars, and podcasts to help you create a positive sales team culture that will drive results.