The Bearded Lady, My Shaving Pattern and Your Sales Pipeline

August 8, 2019
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

I can grow a pretty decent five o’clock shadow – above my upper lip and only after about a week. Unlike the bearded lady at the circus, when it comes to facial hair, there’s really not much there!

Can you think of something else which, at first glance, appears to be OK but upon closer inspection, there’s really not much there?

Did you guess sales pipelines?

As I wrote about a month ago, 46% of salespeople fail to maintain a full pipeline but most salespeople don’t even know how many opportunities must be in the pipeline for it to be full.

46% is very similar to the percentage of reps that make their quota each year. Coincidence?

This is really a hunting issue and as I wrote in last month’s article, only 33% of all salespeople have hunting as a strength.

So what are hunting-averse salespeople to do?

Cold emails don’t work very well. Want proof? I get at least a half-dozen cold emails each day just from companies trying to sell a service to book meetings by using email, LinkedIn and Twitter. I delete those emails.

Cold calls still work the way they always did but not until you reach a decision maker. Most salespeople give up after four attempts but today it takes between six and fifteen attempts to actually get through.

Outsourced and semi-automated cold calls work if you outsource them to a company that’s good at it – like ConnectAndSell – who also offers automated dialing. They dial multiple names on your list at the same time until someone answers and then the salesperson takes over the call.

An inside team of Sales Development reps can book meetings if you’re willing to make the investment and settle for the underwhelming results. They might be able to average 1.5 meetings booked per week. If they do it on their own, salespeople should be two to three times better. Of course, if you already have a flow of inbound leads, SDR’s can follow up on those leads as they come in. Immediate follow up has a significantly better chance of converting. For most salespeople, even with the aid of an SDR-scheduled meeting, the pipeline isn’t full. They need to supplement – but probably aren’t doing that.

Woody Allen said that 80% of success is showing up. While good messaging beats lack of messaging, showing up wins the day over those who hide.

That applies to cold calls. There aren’t many salespeople who are good at making cold calls but those who are committed to making them, are disciplined about it, and call until they reach their targets, succeed because they did what most salespeople won’t do. Here are some good reasons to get back into the habit of picking up the phone, punching in a number and pressing send: