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Inside Sales Best Practices

Best Practices

Welcome to the Member Best Practice Center. We encourage our members to submit, via the link below, their favorite Best Practices. All best practice submissions will be reviewed by the AA-ISP management team. Selected write-ups will be posted on the website for 30 days.

Inside Sales 2.0 Trend Talk 2010
By: Josiane Feigon, CEO of TeleSmart Communications TeleSmart Communications
On: 08/30/10

Inside Sales Trend Talk 2010: So many changes in inside sales, find out the latest trends and download our popular white paper.

Periodic Table of Inside Sales Metrics - 2010
By: Trish Bertuzzi, President The Bridge Group
On: 08/16/10

The Periodic Table is a one page summary of key Inside Sales metrics based on data collected from surveys with 125 technology companies in North America. Categories include: Lead Generation; Inside Sales; Inside Sales Management; Quota & Contribution; Top Challenges and More...

AA-ISP Leadership Summit 2010 Presentations
By: American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 08/03/10

Visit the Leadership Summit 2010 Recap Page to view and download presentations from both the General Sessions and Breakout Sessions. Note: LS 2010 Presentations are not accessible via this page. Please login and visit the LS 10 Recap page to view all the available presentations. Leadership Summit 2011 is coming in May. More details to follow soon.

Ten Best Practices for Presenting in the Virtual Environment
By: Tom Drews, Founder & President, What Works! Communication
On: 06/21/10

Learn 10 proven best practices to help make your virtual presentations more effective.

Seven Ways to Build a Sales Pipeline Without Cold Calling
By: Matt Heinz, Founder - Heinz Marketing
On: 05/30/10

Cold calling still works, but you do not need to do it to build a qualified sales pipeline. Fresh leads are great, but occasionally that well too runs dry. What then? Where can you get prospects and build your sales pipeline without leads or cold calling? Here are seven places to address and leverage for your own pipeline or business.

ISR 1 on 1 Review Template
By: Matt Heinz, Founder, Heinz Marketing
On: 05/18/10

Use this template for weekly 1on1 meetings with your inside sales reps.

Cold Calling Metric Formulas
By: Ron S LaVine, President and Live Cold Call Trainer, Accelerated Sales Training Inc.
On: 05/03/10

Reaching selling goals not only requires that they be written and date specific but also having the ability to measure the results. The following exercise will enable you to measure your selling effectiveness. You will need your phone bill and/or a log of your phone calls to complete the exercise.

How to Identify Top Inside Sales Talent
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 04/26/10

Hiring Top Talent can be a challenging task. Learn a simple, straight forward process that might help you land your future top rep.

Developing Personas: The Road to More Thoughtful Conversations
By: Marge Bieler, Founder and CEO RareAgent
On: 02/02/10

In the world of teleprospecting, the goal is to get potential buyers on the phone and keep them there long enough to get them interested in your product. But if you can’t speak their language, you’re dead in the water before you even pick up the phone. Developing and using personas is key to any successful marketing campaign.

In today’s Web 2.0 marketplace, you have to know who you are selling to, what their specific pains are and their communication preferences, and how they get information before they buy. Every buyer has a different set of business challenges and each requires a specific messaging strategy. Getting them on the phone is just the first step. The hard part is getting them to listen.

Boston Chapter Meeting Presentation from Jan 21, 2010
By: Trish Bertuzzi, Bridge Group, Mike Damphousse, Green Leads, Steve Harper, Plan to Win
On: 01/29/10

Agenda Topics:

Intro & Review of Member Survey
AA-ISP 1Q10 Update
Outbound Calling Best Practices
Inside Sales Training & Coaching Best Practices

*** NOTICE TO ASSOCIATE MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS: YOU MUST GO TO THE HOME PAGE AND DOWNLOAD THE SLIDES FROM THE SAMPLE DOWNLOAD SECTION. IT IS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE SCREEN. PLEASE CONTACT US AT INFO@AA-ISP.ORG IF YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE. THANK YOU ***

Eleven Do's and Don'ts for Cold Calling
By: Ron LaVine, MBA, President and Live Cold Call Trainer Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
On: 01/11/10

Learn practical tips to help improve your cold calling results.

Coaches Corner - 2009 Compilation
By: Larry Reeves, COO, American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 12/24/09

View the entire collection of Coaches Corner articles featured in the 2009 Inside Scoop Newsletters. These articles provide valuable insight and advice that can help improve yours and your team's performance.

Protect the 215: the only way to sell more...
By: Nancy Nardin, Founder & President of Smart Selling Tools
On: 12/21/09

Someone once told me its easy to guarantee sales. How I asked? Make something people want to buy. Clever but not entirely correct. Offering a product that people want to buy is certainly a necessity but there is only one way to guarantee more sales and that is by spending more time with customers. How do you do that? You have to Protect the 215. Learn more...

Pre-Call Planning Guide
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 11/19/09

This guide highlights four key steps to pre-call planning. Includes Planning Worksheet.

Inside Sales Best Practices Volume 1
By: Trish Bertuzzi, President of The Bridge Group
On: 10/26/09

Discusses 5 critical success factors and provides tips, techniques & advice that is easily digestible and actionable. Includes • Knowing your Market • Cold Calling: Science Not Art • Getting Past the Gatekeeper • VoiceMail as your Friend • Motivating Inside Sales Reps

Selling Tips
By: Ron LaVine, President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
On: 10/08/09

This article provides some common sense fundamentals that should be best practices for all.

Prospecting: A Prescription for Success
By: Laurie Lynard, Vice President - TeleMasters
On: 10/08/09

All too often salespeople make it about themselves and their products and services before learning about their prospects to determine the need. Does your sales team "prescribe before they diagnose" ?

Using Voicemails and Emails Together
By: Beth Avery, Director of Marketing - Vorsight
On: 09/26/09

By effectively combining your current tools you can build recognition, value, and increase connect rates with prospects. This Best Practice provides insight as how to use 2 tools that everyone has - Voice Mail and E-mail.

Breaking the Telemarketer Mold
By: David Stillman, President and CEO Vorsight
On: 09/11/09

Executives prefer to interact with other executives. Learn the skills to differentiate yourself.

AA-ISP 2009 Leadership Summit Presentations
By: American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 08/25/09

Visit the 2009 Leadership Summit 2009 Recap to view and download presentations from both the General Sessions and Breakout Sessions.


Note: LS 09 Presentations are not accessible via this page. Please visit the LS 09 Recap page to view all the available presentations.

Leadership Summit 2010 is coming in May. More details to follow soon.

Keys to Success with a Hybrid Rep Sales Team
By: Laurie Lynard, Vice President - Telemasters
On: 08/14/09

This Best Practice discusses 6 key factors to developing a successful Hybrid Sales team.

What it Takes to Be Great.
By: Geoffrey Colvin, Senior Editor, Fortune
On: 07/25/09

This very interesting 2006 article from Geoffrey Colvin is a quick read and looks at various attributes associated with greatness including the impact of practice. This version has been reviewed by Gregg Baron, President of Success-Sciences and highlights areas Gregg presented at the 2009 Leadership Summit.

Periodic Table of Inside Sales Metrics
By: Trish Bertuzzi, President The Bridge Group
On: 07/02/09

The Periodic Table is a one page summary of key Inside Sales metrics based on data collected from surveys with 125 technology companies in North America. Categories include: Lead Generation; Inside Sales; Inside Sales Management; Quota & Contribution; Top Challenges and More...

10 Calling Tips
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 06/25/09

Ten fundamentals for making successful sales calls.

Airtight Performance Reviews for Sales People!
By: Kevin Gaither Director of Inside Sales, Business.com
On: 06/17/09

An airtight way of delivering performance reviews and documenting sales rep performance through the year. Follow this process and insure that your employees have no surprises when you deliver their annual reviews at the end of the year.

How to make performance reviews simple and easy
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 04/30/09

Staying Sales Focused
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 04/04/09

These three points will help managers stay focused on sales, sales, sales!

Four Step Sales Planning Process
By: The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
On: 03/28/09

Follow this simple four step process to develop a variety of sales plans.