5 Common Myths About Outbound Activities in Sales

Junior sales reps often fall into the trap of believing various sales myths that are widely spread in professional forums such as LinkedIn. These myths are commonly spread by vendors selling various SaaS solutions for sales with the fundamental idea being that “there’s a new secret sauce that enables sellers to hit the targets with little effort simply by performing XYZ”. In fact, the key activities that’ve been there for many years still work - and work very effectively as long as the reps demonstrate discipline around them. Also, they need to keep in mind that nothing can guarantee a sale - one could only increase the probability of hitting the target by having a strong pipeline, taking daily steps to progress the deals, and never stopping grinding. Let’s review some of the myths and discuss why they are wrong.?

Myth #1: Phone calls don’t work

I’m sure we’ve all heard opinions that “phone calls do not work,” “customers do not pick up or don’t want to talk to reps,” “you can only irritate your prospects by dialing,” and more. In fact, in our digital world, phone calls can sometimes be even more effective than previously. When many vendors tend to rely heavily on emails and other channels of online communication, those making the phone calls may very well stand out among others. It is just the case that sellers should have realistic expectations when it comes to prospecting through the phone. What is a realistic expectation depends on the market the company operates in, the region, the size of the book of business, and other factors. For example, as a rep, my average success rate was two meetings booked out of every 20-25 dials. Sometimes it was one meeting and sometimes - three. But two per day was an average number that I could realistically count on over several weeks. What’s very important here is to effectively track who you have dialed, what the outcome was, and what would be the next step. For example, when the client didn’t pick up, or I got to voicemail, I would create a follow-up task in Salesforce to call again in X days so I would not need to think about it moving forward - just mind the tasks previously created. And yes, sometimes it may take many touches to connect with an account. I clearly remember that one of the first large deals I closed arrived after I made fourteen attempts to connect with the customer over the phone. And yes, on the fifteenth one, they picked up, we scheduled a call immediately, had a fruitful conversation, and the need for an upgrade was there.?

It’s easy to give up on an idea to make phone calls because it’s stressful. I’m not going to sugarcoat it - it is indeed. You’re calling someone who’s not expecting it and interrupting their day. This is why the messaging with which sellers are reaching out should be compelling for the customer. Through trial and error (and boy, there was a lot of error), we initially came up with the four most effective incentives to get the customer to schedule a meeting. So now, when the sellers are reaching out to clients, they’re not suggesting “just to connect and discuss any questions clients may have” but instead offer tangible value points that resonate with a high percentage of the customers.?

Myth #2: Email campaigns are no longer effective

When a company acquires a marketing communication automation solution such as Outreach, Groove, or others, it can be very tempting to launch a non-stop streak of offers and make a quick profit. But as the effectiveness of the further campaigns starts deteriorating, many reps tend to call these campaigns as communication channels ineffective. Let me put this straight - sending weekly discount offers could indeed be ineffective and even damaging (unless you’re Amazon) because reps are educating the customers that there’s no need to buy at full price. Just wait for another offer and claim your discount! However email campaigns are still very much effective - as long as the reps approach them strategically. The open rate of emails would be much higher if there’s value in them for the customers. A good starting point is to create nice educational flows explaining how the customers can benefit more from the current product/subscription they’re paying for. Industry best practices is always a good idea as well. Such emails would more likely incentivize clients to jump on a meeting with sales reps - especially if they offer to do a deep dive into the topics covered in the emails and learn more.?

Myth #3: The goal of a phone call is to sell

One of the common mistakes of junior reps is trying to sell complex solutions over the phone. Usually, when one’s making a cold call, the prospect is not expecting it and is probably busy. That said, it’s highly unlikely that they would have the time and willingness to listen to a sales pitch and decide immediately. The good thing is that reps should not sell the product or service over the phone - instead, they should focus on scheduling a meeting during which they would ask effective discovery questions, deliver a demo, and potentially close the deal. Selling the meeting is much easier than selling a product - but it doesn’t mean that it’s simple. Reps need to have many compelling arguments to incentivize the prospects to schedule the meeting. I would recommend that the junior reps have those arguments in front of them when making the phone calls - it would help them to be more confident and increase the meeting scheduling rate.??

Myth #4: Lack of prospecting one day can be compensated another day

During the weekly pipeline reviews, if the situation doesn’t look promising, I always look at the activities with the reps. Every now and then, I see no phone calls or outbound emails sent on a particular day. When I ask about the reason, a common response is, “I didn’t have the time, but I’ll double the number of calls on Friday.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that in sales. One can get the calendar booked with meetings only through consistent daily activities. Clients may be unavailable on Friday; some unexpected internal meeting may happen, the rep may not feel very well, etc. So, every single day, regardless of the state of the pipeline, outbound activities need to be performed. And for those customers who didn’t pick up/reply, a follow-up task needs to be created in a CRM so they can contact them in X days. I would even position it like this: among all the things reps have on their plate, outbound activities are the last thing that could ever be deprioritized!

Myth #5: There’s a “secret” phrase, method, or channel that quadruples the effectiveness of outbound activities

It’s very compelling for the junior reps to believe a statement like “Do XYZ, and your opportunity closing rate increases by 50%”. Such promises are often made either by those calling themselves sales gurus or vendors selling specific solutions for the sales teams. Unfortunately (or, in my opinion - fortunately), no such secret sauce exists. Every market, industry, and geo is unique, and no one-size-fits-all method guarantees success. I can say that every best practice we developed in our ADM team in Wrike has gone a long way of trial and error (and believe me, there were way more errors than successes) and took quarters and sometimes years to build. Also, the market is volatile, and an approach that might’ve proved effective last year may be completely ineffective today and even harmful tomorrow. So, I firmly believe that the only two things that can significantly increase the effectiveness of outbound activities are discipline and flexibility.

Discipline is all about taking all the necessary actions daily and consistently. Usually, when KPIs are present for the sales reps, there’s a reason behind them. They are introduced not because management wants to micromanage employees but because historical data shows that if X calls are made, Y emails sent, and Z meetings are booked, 30% of those meetings lead to an opportunity discovery, and another 30% of those opportunities are successfully closed, which enables reps to hit their targets.?

Flexibility is about readiness to try new approaches: apply a new communication strategy, leverage different incentives to get the clients to agree to have a meeting, and, sometimes, changing a single word in the email subject line. Testing different strategies regularly, comparing the results and choosing the best approaches based on the data accumulated leads to consistent growth and enables reps to have a stronger pipeline and increased probability to hit the target. And sticking to the old ways that were successful ten years ago creates risks of stagnation and poor attainment in the long run.?

We’ve barely scratched the surface of the list of sales myths that can be found online. My main recommendation to the reps (especially those who are only beginning their career in sales) is always to use critical thinking when encountering such radical concepts online and ask why exactly is the person recommending this??