Latest Data on Call Reluctance - Yikes
Dave Kurlan
Sales Transformations | Sales Performance Expert | Best-Selling Author | Award-Winning Blogger | Columnist at Top Sales Magazine | Top-Rated Sales Trainer | Top-Rated Speaker | CEO
The prelude to this article is here. Optionally, you can read that very short introduction before continuing below.
Every company has salespeople that are expected to find new opportunities, schedule new meetings and build the pipeline. Many tech companies have BDR's scheduling the meetings and turning the opportunities over to account executives. Most companies have traditional salespeople who make their own calls, book their own meetings and then follow up accordingly.
One thing that doesn't change regardless of role is Call Reluctance - the condition where salespeople have difficulty getting started, need to pause and/or aren't able to complete the calls they were expected to make. Call Reluctance is a pretty serious and widespread issue so it is worth looking into the science.
Objective Management Group, Inc. (OMG) has data on well over 1,000,000 salespeople who have been evaluated or assessed. The data on Call Reluctance, provided below, shows the effect that 4 Sales DNA findings have on prospecting. Sales DNA is different from the selling skills required to be effective when making those calls. Rather, they either support or sabotage salespeople who are supposed to be making and converting those calls.
- 62% of all Salespeople have Need for Approval (They need to be liked or loved)
- 38% of all Salespeople have Difficulty Recovering from Rejection (They take too long to recover from being rejected)
- 21% of all Salespeople are Unwilling to Prospect (They don't want to prospect)
- 34% of all Salespeople are Perfectionists (They won't start making calls until they believe they can do it perfectly)
You might be wondering how many salespeople have more than one of these weaknesses.
- 71% have at least 1 of those 4
- 29% have at least 2 of those 4
- 13% have at least 3 of those 4
- 1% have all 4
The 14% with 3 or more of those weaknesses are suitable only for farming and account management roles. They will not prospect. Period. Don't ever try to fix them because they can't be fixed.
The challenge is not what to do about call reluctance. The challenge occurs when you are recruiting and there is a new business development component to the role. How do you really know whether the great salesperson you are considering will do the necessary prospecting?
There are options:
- You can guess. "Since she is such a good salesperson I'm guessing she will hunt."
- You can hope. "I hope that he finds us a lot of new business."
- You can ask. "Can you provide numbers that can support, in past roles, how much prospecting for new business you actually did and how effective were you?"
- You can check references. "Did you ask Mary to prospect for new business and if so, was she effective?"
- You can assess. "As part of our interviewing process, you will be asked to take an online sales assessment that helps us better understand how well aligned your sales skills are with the role we are hiring for."
There are lots of assessments but most of them measure personality and behavioral styles, not sales capabilities, and most of them are simply not predictive. OMG's Sales Candidate Assessment, has legendary accuracy, is highly predictive, measures 21 Sales-Specific Core Competencies, and is highly customizable for the role.
Most salespeople who fail, do so because they were not able to quickly build a solid, qualified pipeline. This is not to say that salespeople don't fail for other reasons but when salespeople fail early, it's usually because of a lack of quality new meetings. We have empirical evidence of this. When companies hire candidates that OMG did not recommend for the role, 75% of those candidates fail within 6 months.
Writer | Coach
4 年Found OMG a few weeks ago. Fascinating research and very accurate assessment (took it myself). Thanks fpr the very informative and helpful articles on your blog Dave.
I see so many sales people that practice the art of "drive by disqualify" as a way to justify their call reluctance. They see something in the parking lot, on the sign or hear voices in their heads that immediately convince them there is no reason to stop and prospect. Call reluctance comes in many forms.
Vice President of Sales at Triumvirate Environmental | Leading our partners beyond compliance | Laboratory Sustainability | Mentorship | Backcountry Skiing | Cycling is the fountain of youth | ??
6 年Dave - I agree with your points. More often then not people make up excuses (i.e. my prospects don’t answer the phone) so why should I make the calls. Today, more than ever, sales pro’s need to keep dialing because nobody else is. Persistence pays big time for the top reps.
Business Growth Specialist ★ Sales Effectiveness Expert ★ High-Performance Sales Coach ★ Sales Growth Specialist ★ Sales Mindset Specialist
7 年Great article Dave. Many sales people say that they enjoy picking up the phone to make calls and that they enjoy prospecting. The reality is very different and in my experience, many sales people will do everything but pick up the phone. It's as if business will suddenly magic it's way into their pipeline of opportunity. Not being able to pick up the phone is just another excuse. David Crabtree, Steve Coulson, Nicole Edson, this should be of interest to you.
Sales Development Manager @ Radancy | Revolutionizing How Employers Attract & Hire The Talent They Need Through Connected Intelligence
7 年Great article Dave - also of note the shocking statistic in your lead in that the average BDR is now setting an average of 1.5 appointments/week. Activity, and the weaknesses cited above are no doubt a big part of this - I've managed BDR's for the past 10 years, and the single biggest question in my mind when I'm interviewing candidates is understanding if they will pick up the phone and maintain it as habit. There are, of course, elements of cold calling that nearly everyone disdains, most of which are about rejection. Let's face it, even when it's done exceeding well, the salesperson is either ignored or rejected most of the time. The sellers and BDR's that cold call on a sustained level, embrace it and even enjoy it at times, tend to have these things going for them: - They understand that what they are "selling" during the cold call is really a conversation, and not their product or solution (because talking about a solution in the absence of a mutually understood problem is what generally annoys their prospects in the first place). - Because they are selling a conversation, and not a solution (yet), their "currency" is insight - those ideas and perspectives that the seller gains through their interactions with scores of businesses like theirs but are not easily obtained by the prospect through on a google search. - They assume that every conversation they originate, especially with decision makers, will require their prospect at some point to get UNBUDGETED capital expense or operational expense funding (if they find out differently, they adapt accordingly). When I'm cold calling keeping these things in mind really helps because I'm committed to the idea that the conversation is in the best interest of the prospect, I'm asking for something reasonable for them to grant me, and I'm gaining a larger audience (by not excluding everyone except prospects that are already late in a buying consideration).