Defining Successful Outcomes

This is a part of a series that was cre­at­ed to help you get the prac­tice of out­bound prospect­ing built into your com­pany.  This series will walk through the process, nec­es­sary roles, in addi­tion to guides for each role to help your com­pany get started quickly.  In the next few posts, I’ll be releasing the contents of a quick start guide for Business Development Representatives to use to attain success during this process.

Your role as an outbound prospector is not to close deals – it is to hunt down legitimate opportunities for the sales team to close. Because there will not be a monetary value linked directly to your efforts, it is important that your manager creates realistic goals for your daily/quarterly activities.

The metrics that OpenView typically advises its expansion stage portfolio companies to hold their business development representatives to are:

Calls: 60/day

Conversations: 10/day
Opportunities generated: 2/day

What counts as a call? A call is a conversation, a voicemail, a hang up, or an interaction with an operator/administrator. Basically every time you pick up the phone and dial, it should be recorded in the CRM as a call.

What is a conversation?

A conversation is a verbal interaction with someone within a target company who is a) the decision maker (the goal), or b) someone who gives you a great deal of information about the decision maker (contact information, personality, schedule, etc.), buying process, and/or the type of software/services that the company is currently using.

What is an opportunity?

Generating opportunities is your most important role. The definition of an opportunity can vary by business, however OpenView recommends the following:

• The decision maker has communicated a pain point that your software/solution can help solve
• The decision maker has listened to your value proposition
• There is a need to buy within the next 90 days
• The decision maker is open to the next step — a call/demo with an account executive

Your manager will create a reporting dashboard in your CRM that will show you the revenue that is generated from the opportunities you have passed along to the sales team. Reviewing this dashboard week to week and how you are contributing to your team’s success (particularly after your first quarter once you are fully trained and operating at 100%) will keep you motivated to keep providing your team with great opportunities.

Next week, I’ll share some useful tips on how to best execute your campaign.