When I was in telesales, back in the day, it was such a misunderstood position. At parties, when people asked what I did for a living, they would always respond with “I hate when people like you call and interrupt my dinner!” When I would get training gigs, I had to break the standard mindset: “A sales call isn’t really legit unless you are face-to-face with your prospect.”
Whew! So glad we’ve moved beyond that . Now that Inside Sales is acknowledged as a great profession, it’s in high demand. Even my daughter, who is graduating from a prestigious East Coast liberal arts college, is actually considering going into inside sales.
The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) is the only organization dedicated to front-line inside sales professionals. There are tons of chapters opening up throughout the country. And the best part of this organization is that it includes both managers and individual contributors.
On February 10th, the AA-ISP conference will be happening in San Francisco — and we expect it to sell out fast. There’s still time to register (use the TeleSmart discount code) so hurry up!
One smart AA-ISP members is Virginia Anderson, Senior Inside Sales Manager with Plantronics. She decided to start the year off right by giving her large team of 25 people something more than just training. She registered her entire team for this upcoming conference. I asked Virginia a few questions about this:
What type of experience have you gained from joining AA-ISP? What I appreciate about the AA-ISP is the visibility to other Inside Sales Organizations and how they address the challenges we face as Inside Sales Professionals. They are looking to change the perception of our teams by our respective organizations. AA-ISP also allows the sharing of Best Practices with others for the betterment of the field of Inside Sales.
How did you decide to send your entire team to this event? The AA-ISP event in San Francisco serves two purposes for me: a form of training and instilling forward thinking. I am looking for something “bigger” than training. While I can forward free or low-cost webinars to my team, assign books to read, and encourage my team to try new things, it can be a challenge to get engagement because it feels mandated and forced upon. I offer membership to the AA-ISP to my entire team as their resource for change and relevancy. There is a world out there that is bigger than any one team knows. There is a lot to be learned and adopted from someone else’s methodologies and practices. I believe that my team can be of more value and stronger if they are self-empowered. My hope in sponsoring my 25 Inside Sales Reps for this event is to give them exposure to all that we can be versus where we are today.
What expectations do you have for this event? My expectation after this conference, is that my team will find some nuggets of gold that are relevant to them as individuals and to us as a team. I have some that have been here for over 10 years and some that have been here less than one. With the breakouts they can choose which is fitting for them. I also expect each Team Member to come back with at least one idea of how we should be evolving as a team. What are others doing that we should be? What are we doing today that can be enhanced with technology or just by doing something differently? What did someone used to do that was successful yet they have dropped it over the years because it was forgotten? If my team can come away with any of these, I will feel that it was worth the time and investment.
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