More Daunting, Yes, But Dialing the Phone Still Works
By Dan Harding, regional director of sales, ConnectAndSell

Mr. Owl? How many conversations does it take to turn a qualified prospect into a customer?

I get this question from customers from time to time. Well, without calling me Mr. Owl. There are many interesting factoids on this topic. In fact, just last week I was reading Guerilla Teleselling by Jay Conrad Levinson. At this point you are thinking to yourself, “They shouldn’t call you Mr. Owl, they should call you Mr. [FILL IN THE BLANK]”. Stick with me.

The third chapter, titled “How to Stay Motivated,” starts off with the following stats: 48% of sales people quit after the first conversation, 20% after the second, 7% after the third, 5% after the fourth, 4% after the fifth, and yet 80% of customers said yes after the eighth conversation. As a sales guy, I can appreciate the need to have several conversations to close a deal, but I also know it takes many more attempts to get a prospect on the phone in this day and age.

In my current role at ConnectAndSell, I get the opportunity to observe different sales models in action. There are many similarities, and quite often sales people dial 10 or 20 prospects only to have one conversation. If we apply this fact to Jay’s statement they would need to dial 80 – 180 times to speak with one prospect, eight times. I’m not highlighting these numbers to disprove Mr. Levinson; I happen to agree with him. The fact is, in today’s world of tweets, blogs, and texting, there is a lot of competition for a prospect’s attention.

Let’s face it; life was a lot simpler for sales people when telecommunications was more expensive and limited to only telephone, fax, and the occasional pager (for the really important people).

So what is a sales organization to do?

• Invest in your best assets: Top customers, prospects, and sales people are your crown jewels. Leverage technologies that will enable them to communicate frequently with effectiveness and efficiency.
• Optimize your deal velocity: Understand your organization’s formula for closing deals and ingrain it into your corporate culture. If it’s eight conversations how is that achieved?
• Understand your customers: Ask the question, “Why did they buy from us?“ This question should be asked and known by every sales exec who interfaces with your customers. It’s fundamental in understanding your value proposition to the market.

Whether you’re a product manager developing your next release, a CEO building a plan for double-digit growth, or an account executive tackling a quota, conversations with the right customers, partners, and prospects are essential to successfully driving your goals. Even though the way people communicate is ever-changing, it still requires people having conversations to get the deal done.

---Source: ZoomInfo Sales and Marketing Edition newsletter October 2009 (www.zoominfoblogger.com). Dan Harding is regional director of sales (east coast) for ConnectAndSell. He can be reached at dan.harding@connectandsell.com.