memoryBlue Insights – 1/25/2021

Below is the memoryBlue client bulletin, delivering sales development insights every Monday to our entire slate of high-tech partners. The updates span all five memoryBlue offices, encompassing 100+ sales development campaigns and 175+ SDRs working relentlessly to generate net new revenue for these businesses.

We concluded the Public Sector Sales Development Sweepstakes last week through a random drawing and announced Palo Alto Networks as the lucky winner. They now kick off one year of sales development service led by the rapidly growing Public Sector team based in our HQ office.

It was amazing to see over 250 companies enter the contest, and the positive feedback we’re hearing about our latest practice is very encouraging. Please feel free to reach out if this is an area your business would like to explore.

Notable Numbers

• 61.13% of leads booked last week came via prospecting phone call. The phone is our most valuable tool when it comes to sales prospecting and it is dramatically effective. Email and LinkedIn will continue to play important respective roles in our outreach, but when it comes to sales development success, there is no substitute for getting a prospect on the phone in real time.

• Prospect connection rate is over 3.7% per week (on average) in January so far. Connection rates are surging! That’s the strongest three week stretch since last summer, as our SDRs continue to find very willing prospects on the other end of their dedicated phone outreach.

• memoryBlue hit the 200 SDR mark as a company last week. After adding over 80 official memoryBlue alumni to the high-tech sales marketplace in 2020, we’re aiming to go even bigger than that in 2021. These numbers serve as a constant barometer to us as we work to create opportunities for business growth and sales career success concurrently.

Highlight of the Week

Danielle, an SDR based out of our Boston office, earned some well-deserved client recognition last week. A deal she surfaced in December closed for five figures in TCV, prompting a big-time shout-out from her client POC.

Along with the special kudos, what also stood out was the following comment:

“Creating a partnership is what matters most to me. I don’t look at a ‘closed/won’ as a ‘deal.’ It is more a trusted/value added relationship.”

That’s the definition of playing the long game, and we couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.

Spotlight on Training

A key member of our marketing team, Shannon Gilhuley, Digital Marketing Manager, led our entire staff through a training focused on social selling last week. From highlighting best practices in prospect research to demonstrating the Do’s and Don’ts of prospect outreach on LinkedIn, Shannon showed our SDR team exactly how to get the very most out of this valuable sales channel.

Shannon brought to the table a unique, and very credible perspective as a former memoryBlue SDR herself. Following a successful turn in the role, she was hired out by her client years ago, but eventually moved her career in the direction of marketing. Our team gleaned tons of outstanding insight during the session, which even included a core primer on how to effectively set up and use your own LinkedIn profile to help in the sales development process.

Lead Scores

These outstanding lead scores caught our attention last week:

1/22/2021 – 3:13PM – 10/10 – Jawaun
“Great lead, Jay called at the right time. Should be a 30 instead of a 10 since this was 3 locations!”

1/20/2021 – 11:46AM – 10/10 – Caitlin
“Van was an excellent lead – a business development executive from one of our large system integrator partners. Excellent use of our time. Caitlin was amazing as always.”

1/22/2021 – 10:21AM – 10/10 – Catherine
“Catherine was able to get the right person on the call that had a need and was interested in seeing a demo.”

Tech Sales is for Hustlers Podcast Turns 40

Last we week published the 40th episode of our Tech Sales is for Hustlers podcast. If you’re not familiar with the show, memoryBlue Co-Founders Chris Corcoran and Marc Gonyea host a different company alum every week in a quest to draw out the unique sales career stories, lessons and advice each of these successful pros has to offer.

This project launched just as the global pandemic hit hard last March, and we’re incredibly proud to pass this latest milestone. Podcast industry experts suggest that the overwhelming majority of podcasts experience “podfade” by just the 7th episode – a total cease in production. In fact, 90 days in, less than 25% of all newly launched podcasts are still producing new episodes.

We’re proud to smash that barrier and things are picking up steam. The show is closing in on 7,000 downloads, we have great new episodes lined up this winter and we’re even planning bonus episodes focused on the state of launching a sales career from the perspective of collegiate sales program faculty leaders.

To see past episodes and learn more about the show click here.