Business communications methods continue to evolve

Many software companies have research functions. From the beginning, InsideSales.com has operated like a research company that sells software. The scientific method is central to how we operate here. For this I have Ken Krogue to thank. Ken largely invented the concept of inside sales and did so upon an ethos of testing anything and everything that can be tested and basing strategy upon the results.

This research function became significant enough that we decided to formalize it under Ken as InsideSales Labs, and have seen this organization produce some outstanding work. We could keep this research -- which contains truly outstanding insights -- to ourselves, but we feel strongly about publicizing it as widely as possible.

Our latest bit of research examines the evolution of business communications methods over the past few years. Gabe Larsen is director of InsideSales Labs. I asked him to tell us about the newest research.

DE: What were you trying to accomplish with this study?

GL: The title of the study might be a little deceiving. Certainly, we want to understand how communication at work is changing but we were most interested to get an understanding of where business people are spending their time with different communication methods and how that effects sales people. It’s hard to ask executives what they think of sales people because sales people often are on the bottom of the ladder when it comes to trust and perception. Asking a busy decision maker if he likes to be contacted by a sales rep on the phone is going to lead to a strong emotional response that will most likely be negative. For this reason, we phrased the questions differently. We simply asked when a person is at work and their phone rings or they get an email how likely they are you to pick up or respond. By asking the question this way we were able to get not what people ‘like’ and don’t like but what is most ‘effective’. 

DE: What were the most interesting conclusions of the study?

GL: It’s hard to choose which were the most interesting but for sales people in general there were four things that jumped out to me:

First, there is no "secret weapon" in sales. If a sales person hears that social selling is the only way to sell, they should be wary. If a sales person is tempted to become an email marketer, don’t give in. If the data revealed anything it said that when it comes to executives, a well-balanced approach across, email, phone, and social is going to be your best bet to communicate with busy decision makers.

Second, reports of the demise of the landline telephone have been greatly exaggerated.

We’d be the first to agree with the idea that cold-calling is dead. It’s never a good idea to pick up the phone without knowing anything about the person you’re reaching out to. But, sales reps shouldn’t get caught in the hype that just because cold calling is dead, it doesn’t mean that the phone is dead. Interestingly, mobile is making the phone even more powerful than ever as 82% of executives said they were likely to respond to their mobile phone at work. Sales reps are picking up to this fact as 59% of reps said they are willing to use the mobile phone in the prospecting process.

Third, texting needs to be part of the sales process.

You may hear that texting is not appropriate as part of the sales process especially in prospecting and it’s simply not true. Texting is coming on fast and better reps are finding a way to use it in different parts of the sales process as 74% of executives said they were likely to respond to a text at work. Our belief is that it is still a bad idea to text blindly to a prospect but sending a text after a personalized card or gift has been delivered or as part of a reminder to join an appointment are powerful strategies that should be utilized. 

Finally, email is still king

Email can get lost in a busy inbox but it’s still the communication method that trumps the rest. When it comes to where executives are spending their time, email is the communication method executives are most likely to respond to.

DE: What's next for InsideSales Labs?

GL: We always have something cooking up in our Labs. Our next steps would move away from surveys and get to observed data from our predictive cloud. We’re going to dive deeper into the phone and emails and see if we can’t figure out what makes a prospect answer the phone or respond to an email.

DE: Understanding how to successfully connect with business associates is key, and the challenge is more than technological. It's cultural and the culture is evolving. InsideSales Labs will continue monitoring this evolution and report back with more next year. In the interim, I suggest reviewing past research by InsideSales Labs and checking in frequently to see the latest as it's published.