Broadleaf Customer Testimonial Video from Koncert on Vimeo.

Sales acceleration solutions work for the full-cycle sales rep

James Tenner constantly challenges his sales team at Broadleaf Services in Billerica, Mass. Broadleaf is an IT sales and consulting firm that works with mid-market companies to solve their IT and data storage needs. Because of the technical nature of his business, Tenner employs “full-cycle” B2B sales representatives. His sales reps need to make their own cold calls, schedule their own appointments, and visit their clients in the field.

In our latest video testimonial, Tenner and Chuck Mosca, a Broadleaf Account Manager, describe how they use Koncert (formerly, ConnectLeader) Agent-Assisted Dialer, Flow Dialer, and Remote Coach to improve their sales productivity.

“Agent-Assisted Dialer is a prospect-building accelerator,” President James Tenner says. “It’s a tool that lets our sales force do more and lets Broadleaf grow its business much faster.”

Calling Blitzes – Keeping the team motivated

Every week the Broadleaf sales team meets in their office and conducts a call blitz. They spend two hours on the phone and make outbound sales calls to schedule appointments for the next week. They’ll create challenges between each other and work off each other’s energy. These focused calling sessions to ensure they keep their pipeline full even with their very busy schedule.

Real-time Coaching

While his sales team is making their calls, the Broadleaf head of sales is listening to and recording the calls. At the end of the session, he’ll review the calls with the whole sales team. He’ll critique the calls and offer advice and suggestions for improvements. Because they’re being critiqued as a team, the learning is more effective than role-playing or other training methods. The fact they have lunch during the session also ensures attendance.

“Remote Coach has been very effective for us in coaching our sales team, stated James Tenner, President, Broadleaf Services. “Our head of sales will often record calls he’s listening in on and use those recordings to have a coaching session with the sales team at the end of a call blitz or a call cycle.”

A new spin on collaborative sales calls with vendors

Broadleaf uses another sales acceleration strategy—the collaborative sales call. Broadleaf invites vendors into their offices on a regular basis. The vendors will often combine their typical lunch and learn (do you recognize the recurring theme, food sells!) with a group sales calling session. The sales rep will call their customer from a conference room using a speakerphone. They’ll spend an hour on the phone and conduct about 10 conversations with customers. The Broadleaf sales reps benefit by having the product expert in the room pitch a new product or answer technical questions. The reps get to learn from listening to multiple conversations in a short period of time. The vendor rep gets to understand what questions his resale partners and end-user customers have in just a short period of time. Everybody leaves the room happy… and with a full stomach.

“Our vendors have been blown away by the fact that we can reach out and touch so many prospects in a two-hour period.” Chuck Mosca, Sales Consultant