Articles on sales prospecting

I don’t understand why it is acceptable for a process like cold calling (now often started via email) to work one in a hundred times–or in email efforts one in a thousand times.

I used to work for a major semiconductor manufacturer. In the chip business “yield” from a silicon wafer is critical to profitability. Teams of people spend their life pushing to get a few more chips out of each silicon wafer.

I picture how a company in the high tech chip business could survive when only 1 in 100 of their chips was usable (or 1 in 1,000). Meanwhile most high tech companies accept this level of productivity in their sales departments. This content is for those who are not willing to accept those success rates.

This post describes a framework that I have found over the last two decades can really change the math on prospecting.

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In sales we need to go through the motions.

Our buyers are “frazzled” as Jill Konrath says.

Even if you use social selling techniques that get you a referral or help you connect to a potential buyer using your mutual background, it is still likely to take some follow up before you confirm a meeting time (or virtual meeting time these days).

Research from XANT looked at the optimal “cadence” for prospecting based on the masses of data available to them through companies’ usage of their software. Their study looked at 479,140 outbound cadences from nearly 9,000 companies.

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I consistently see companies unable to get meetings. I consistently see that relationships are the easiest way to get meetings. I consistently see sales people and business owners letting their relationships wither.

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If you didn’t believe that we humans are connected before COVID-19, you should now.

As you know, the virus has been transmitting itself exponentially through populations around the world. The only thing that has slowed its progress has been implementing some form of social distancing.

Social distancing is all about breaking the social network.

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Data from Bloomberg’s economists say we are in a recession.

We’re starting to get familiar with how our lives are affected by the health issues inherent in this COVID-19 crisis but the economic consequences are just kicking in.

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It’s definitely not easy being in sales right now.

Deals are stalled in pipelines. People are putting off decision-making until the “end of the crisis”. Some accounts are taking it on the nose.

It’s also a very “human time”.

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