Often when we’re talking about about sales, we seem to be saying the salesperson is in charge of when deals move forward and ultimately when they close. But that is not reality.
When you’re selling you are a steward of a buying process. You can influence when a sale happens, but you cannot overcome the inherent dynamics of how that customer wants to buy.
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Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana, American philosopher (1863-1952)
I’m working on a new sales project, and I need some quick wins.
One instinct in this situation is to jump in and start prospecting without wasting any time. But I like to figure out which direction I need to point before I go running off.
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For most companies finding new business is hard. So many things must fall into place to find a new client.
The research suggests that about 5% of a market is looking for a solution at any given time. So just by the law of averages, if you proactively approach people you will need to speak to 20 people to find one that needs your solution.
That’s a big enough challenge, but then there’s the issue of speaking to anyone. We have too much to do and we don’t believe what cold callers are telling us, so we’ve made it harder and harder to reach us. In 2020, 12-17% of outbound calls were answered by a person, today that number has dwindled to 3-4%.
When you multiply these effects together you can see why you must make a lot of cold calls to get anywhere. If on 4% of people pick up the phone, and then only 5% of those are in the market for your stuff, you need 500 calls just to find one opportunity.
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Getting in the door is getting harder and harder, so making the most of every time you do get through the door is becoming more and more important.
Over the years, I have seen many salespeople and business owners taking big risks with important deals by talking to only one person in the prospect company. A common outcome of this kind of “single threading” is “radio silence” after a proposal is submitted—no returned calls or emails, and ultimately no deal.
[Read more…]
Getting in the door is getting harder and harder, so making the most of every time you do get through the door is becoming more and more important.
Over the years, I have seen many salespeople and business owners taking big risks with important deals by talking to only one person in the prospect company. A common outcome of this kind of “single threading” is “radio silence” after a proposal is submitted—no returned calls or emails, and ultimately no deal.
[Read more…]
I used to do it.
I would get to the office extra early and I’d start dialing before 8AM.
I wanted to become a rock star sales dude and I was mentored by my boss that the trick was to call CIOs (Chief Information Officers) early in the morning.
At that time of day, the stressed out CIO would be in the office but his assistant would still be fighting their way through the New York subway.
Ingenious! [Read more…]