Make More Calls or Better Calls? Sales 101

Not that long ago I was reading an article on “sales data” that was written by a man who I highly respect … David Brock.

As David pointed out … sales has more data points to analyze than ever before. The problem is … are they looking at the right data and are they deriving the correct conclusions from reading it? Does their analysis lead to the most effective solutions? Not often enough, it seems, on both counts.

The common answer to sales challenges has always been to “do more”. Need more prospects? Make more calls. Need higher sales? Increase your pipeline. Now, I have always been a “do better” vs “do more” person but, there are times when you might need or want to “do both”.

For example, I want to first do a better job of identifying prospective buyers and then increase my efforts to find more of them. However, note that the order of these operations is critical. Figuring out who you want and then finding them is one helluva lot more effective than finding thousands and then attempting to filter those down to the few. Make sense?

We can also look at this in the context of the types of opportunities that we can uncover and these will directly correspond to targeting (or lack thereof) …

Cold – A cold call or a cold lead generally employs a shotgun vs. targeted approach. As a result, this will always be the least successful method of reaching a valid opportunity. You are flying blind, but even a blind squirrel will occasionally find a nut.

Warm – A warm call generally means that one or more different qualifying variables have already been identified. For example, I may know the name of the key decision maker. If a trigger event for my product or service is new construction, and I find such a project, this would also be a warm call.

Introductions – These may be given or discovered. While a specific need may not be identified, you may have good reason to believe that such an opportunity does exist. A good example of a discovery would be finding common connections on LinkedIn, tied to a specific targeted company, and then requesting an introduction.

Referrals – The holy grail of opportunities. A good referral is generally worth its weight in gold and will often bypass that pesky “competition” scenario.

Now combine two or three of the above and you really have something going … I know that there is a need for my services, I have a name, and a common connection is more than happy to give me an introduction and a referral. Win win, but you will need to take the time (do the work) to connect the dots.

I have always been driven by referrals and I have also been driven by ratios …

Calls to appointments
Appointments to opportunities
Opportunities to sales

Closing ratios. Increase these ratios at every step of the selling process and your numbers will naturally rise. Increased ratios will always be the result of better targeting, but there is another aspect that is critical.

As my selling skills increase, so goes my ratios. The ability to properly identify and to qualify quality opportunities will allow me to better target those who are more likely to invest in my services or who can refer me to those who will.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!