The average is like 2% success on cold calls , but 70% of people essentially will accept it when they feel it's relevant to their needs . Right , that sounds like no duh , but cut all the crap and get straight to their needs . Man , Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast . Today is Maven Monday . I'm your host , Brandon Welch , and I'm here with Caleb .
How many hours of sleep have you had this week , AG ?
I've been doing pretty good . Honestly . We've got a baby in the house , but she freaked us out . You remember when your baby slept all night long the first time , yeah , and then they don't . And you wake up and you're like , is she okay ?
Yeah , yeah yeah , we did that we literally did that this week but , I'm thinking it's the first of many , so I'm going to sleep a lot Gotcha there you go .
You know what I'm saying .
Good yeah .
In the spirit of love . We had a faithful listener . Point out that I looked pretty tired last week .
Oh , and I was , because I just got back from 17 hours of driving and .
I think I got four hours that night and then we did the podcast the next day , so I just want to apologize . You deserve better than that . Yeah , Not that there's a whole lot to work with here , but listen , you deserve my best and you didn't get it .
But it was a good episode . I think we've got a face for radio , yeah , or a face for podcast .
Face for podcast . Yeah so , hey , this is the big dream and we have 15 big dream bullets for you . Today . We were doing some consulting , we do sales training events , we do some strategic planning events for companies that we just we love to do .
That it's on mission for us and put me back into the just research mode of the modern state of sales and it's worse than I thought .
Yeah , harder . It's rough out there , harder than it was .
Yeah , and so what's happening is that this idea of there's a market that is ready to buy , that's just a fewer and farther between in any given category .
People require more handholding , more pursuit in this season that we've been in and maybe that we're going to be in , and so we just gathered these and they were like some of the biggest takeaways from our time with this company that we did this strategic engagement for , and I was like you know what Our audience needs to hear that .
So , without further ado , today is 15 sales stats that will make you a better pro .
That's right , yeah , yeah . So we're going to just jump right into it and we'll cite our sources so you can go read more if you'd like . We're not just making these up .
Yeah , yeah .
I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said you can't trust everything you read on the internet .
But you can trust everything you hear on this podcast .
Yeah , so here we go . Number one 80% of sales require five one , two , three , four , five follow-up phone calls after the meeting . 80% , four% , so Four out of five , yeah , of your sales appointments .
I've talked to some salespeople this week that literally were like , man , you know , those leads didn't work out or they didn't you know . You know there was there's just a poor performance in December and or the first part of January .
And that was the thing I asked and it was like , well , I called him , you know , and it came out to like two follow-up points of contact for like the last 10 sales of this salesperson . And I'm like , think about how you buy . That's a really good filter for all this .
Like think about what it takes you to get you across the finish line , like all the way from . I don't think I'm going to do that to . Maybe I'll do that to . I think I'm interested . Just that journey , it's at least five follow-up phone calls right . So that's from Invesp , that is a sales research organization Number two with that 44 sales .
Sorry , 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up call . It takes at least five , yet we're giving up after one .
Yeah , you can or your people are giving up after one . You can find the challenge in that that hopefully you're in the majority , not the minority but , also realize that if you're in competition in your sales , if they're shopping you with other people , um , be the one that gets to five and I , statistically , you will be more likely at that sale .
So , yep , I've got a guy , I've got a sales professional , like he's like sand litter level , like trained , and he's on me right now and I bet I've gotten 16 emails from him and phone calls and somehow he got a hold of my number and he's good and you know what . Eventually , I'm going to talk to him .
I don't have any intention in this moment to buy what he's doing , but I'm going to talk to him because I'm impressed .
Yeah , yeah , exactly .
The effort . I don't think he pursuing me this hard right . Yeah , yep , yep . What's number three , caleb ? Number three the average salesperson only makes two attempts to reach a prospect . Wow , yeah , that would be in line with the that's from .
HubSpot yeah , that's again just reinforcing the follow-up . Yeah , Only two attempts .
Number four , addressing pain points . 49% of cold calls are successful when the sales rep mentions a specific challenge or pain point relevant to the prospect , versus hey , caleb , I just wonder if we could get together for coffee , right ?
Yeah , that's what a lot of salespeople are just trying to get together with you , right , and we don't got time for that as an American public . So if you just say , hey , are you man ? Are you having a hard time recruiting video guys right now ? Oh my gosh , what's up ? Carter the Camera Guy ? Carter the Camera Guy is a guest today .
Yeah , oh my gosh , what's up Carter the camera guy ? Carter the camera guy is a guest today . Yeah , but are you having a hard time entering data for your billing cycle or whatever ? What is the pain point ?
you think you can solve .
Just mentioning that and it's like no duh . But that one hack , according to this , gets you about a 50% better chance .
Wow , that's pretty crazy Of setting the appointment . Yeah , clarity Cl , wow Of setting the appointment .
Yeah , clarity , clarity .
Yeah , that was from Bigly Sales . Bigly Sales Number five . 93% of the potential success of your cold call is attributed to the tone of your voice during the conversation . Did you know that you can hear a smile ?
You can hear a smile man . Let me tell you what .
And you can also hear a frown . It's pretty wild .
Just the tone of the voice . It's just that's why a lot of sales trainers put the mirror up in front of you and you know what it changes your psychology too . It changes the muscles firing . It's actually easier to smile . It takes less muscles , right , we all know that . So smile , just tone of voice .
Yeah .
Smile while you type too .
That's not a vocal exercise , but if you smile while you type , it changes the tone of your email too .
There's an OG Frankly Friday about that somewhere . Number six it takes approximately one and a half hours of cold calling to secure one appointment . Now think about this Everybody puts cold calling off . It's a failure point . It doesn't feel good to get told no or to get to the dead end of 60 phone lines .
But if you just had in your mind , okay , I have a 40-hour week or I have 20 hours , I'm going to make calls this week and if I consistently do that for 20 hours , I'm going to end up with about 15 calls in this case , yeah . But I think that's sobering just to say , okay , that's what it takes , so set your expectation .
But it's also encouraging because it's like , hey , if you've been doing this for an hour , your call is coming , your appointment is coming right , it's coming . Now there's a lot of industries . I would argue that's from Rotorio . They train like they have a customer service tool that goes over a lot of industries .
So I would say , if you're more of an expert-driven company , that would have to be lower . I would think . But still it's not unreasonable . Don't say nobody answers , it's just you haven't called enough people , you haven't called enough , you haven't spent enough time .
All right , Number seven opening a cold call with how have you been has a 600% higher success rate than the average call .
That's from Gong .
Yes .
Also a sales training tool 600% is pretty wild . That's instead of saying well , hey just wanted to check in with you , just want to follow up . Just want to follow up with you . Yeah , gag me right . It's like hey , caleb , how you been . And just let me talk . What principle are we utilizing there ?
Well , I'm not sure which one you're driving at this particular moment .
Well , it's about you , yeah it's the most seductive word in advertising is you right , empathy ?
How have you been ?
right ? Empathy , curiosity , just do that . Hey Carter , how you been ? It implies that we've met each other , even if we haven't . But even if it doesn't , it's not like pretending like you've met each other , right ? It's just a friendly way to talk . It's just a friendly way to talk . Yeah , how ?
About 69% of buyers accept cold calls when they feel the solution being pitched is relevant to their needs . So you take it from that really low average . The average is like 2% success on sales or on cold calls , but like 70% of people essentially will accept it when they feel it's relevant to their needs .
Right , that sounds like no duh , but like , cut all the crap and get straight to their needs , man , yeah , Right Interesting thing you can pay attention to is if you started with , how have you been ?
You know what their needs are . You can empathize with where they are mentally and who they are and all of that . So interesting thing . We're not trying to manipulate anybody or anything like that .
Just good , old fashioned empathy , empathy .
Understand who they are .
Yeah .
And understand how you can help them . Yeah so number nine 76% of top sales performers . 76% of all of the top sales performers say they perform research before calling their leads , compared to 47% of average salespeople perform research .
So the top guys are performing research , the average guys aren't .
Yeah .
And the takeaway is do research . Yeah , and the takeaway is do research Like you could be in B2B . I think that's pretty obvious . Like , look at the website , look at the LinkedIn profile , find out what this person's history has been . Look at the Twitter feed and see if they've been complaining about something . See what they've been sharing on LinkedIn .
If you can get it on the personal realm of any kind , like , just use your context clues . Realm of any kind , like , just use your context clues . In the B2C world we talked about .
Like , researching might just literally be looking at what zip code they live in , where their kids might go to school , what sports team they might have a bumper sticker for on their car , and research can be like , done on a website with an intake form .
Like are you asking enough questions to qualify , not just qualify but , like you know , meet the first interaction with some value , mm-hmm , um and gives you like a 26 , 27 , 28 points on your increased likelihood of that success .
Yeah , that's right .
Yeah , how about number 10 ?
Number 10 . It's your turn , it's my turn , you got it .
It takes an average of eight cold calls to reach a prospect first . Did you know that ?
I do now . That's from sellingsignalscom . Eight cold calls to reach a prospect .
And we already learned earlier most people give up after one .
Yep , and that you need to spend an hour and a half to get one to pick up .
Yeah , so if you can just tune your mindset to go , that one call wasn't a failure , that was like cool , crossed it off the list . I know on average I've got to do seven more and it's like you can still get a little bit of excitement for it . Right , make a little game out of it .
It's like when I get to eight , okay , maybe my last one answered on two and this one might take me until 12 , but I'm going to keep track of my average .
When I was in essentially B2B sales , I kept a log and it wasn't any more sophisticated than a legal pad and I just wrote down the notes of when I called , when they answered or if I happened to stop by , when they happened to be there , and then I would make my rounds and get back to that person at the same time , same place .
I would just keep a log of all the times that I had done that so I knew where I was . I used the math to go okay , my average . I haven't even hit my average , so I can't complain or feel bad about it .
Yeah , number 11 , wednesday and Thursday , between 10 am and 12 pm and 4 pm to 5 pm are the best times to cold call for B2B . So if you're in B2B , this is a very specific statistic . It's from HubSpot , so that is a pretty credible source there .
Wednesday and Thursday , 10 to noon and 4 to 5 , end of the day or middle of the day essentially are the best times to cold call .
With a little empathy , I think you would come to this conclusion with some common sense that most people are really busy on Mondays . Most people are really tired and ready to get to the weekend on Fridays and that would be a horrible experience to have to wait a weekend to get back to the follow-up call Tuesday . A lot of business being done still so .
Wednesdays and Thursdays are kind of midweek . There's a little slump . A lot of business being done still so . Wednesdays and Thursdays are kind of midweek . There's a little slump . There's a little bit of maybe lack of overstimulation there , and so in those times of day it's like 8 am is always business time , four to five is .
I'm kind of like maybe my tank's empty of focus and I would be open to a distraction from a salesperson , right ?
Yeah .
So use some common sense and empathy , even if you're not in the B2B world . Number 12 is 92% of all customer interactions happen on the phone .
This is important to me because I feel like the younger the workforce gets , the less they are attached to a time where phone calls were the thing you had to communicate with , and so and I'm not trying to be like an old man- yeah , Calm down grandpa Talking about these dang kids .
But hey , it's true .
And like real business , and a lot of your decision makers are still from a generational gap where the phone and the tone of voice and that connection was the way . I would also argue that you get like a million more signals when you're talking to somebody on the phone from pace , from do they pause ? From their excitement level .
You can hear what's going on in the background . You get a lot more data than sending an email or a text where it's just like it's open to their interpretation , and so our rule over here is like when it's anything of consequence , call , pick up the dang phone , yeah , and follow up with an email for a you know .
Paper trail .
Paper trail , and then also clarity , and then also , you know , promote some professionalism .
Maybe loops everybody else into if there are more parties .
Lots of great things that can happen with email , but dude .
Pick up the phone .
Go where the energy and the activity is On the phone .
Number . That was from Salesforce . I don't know if I said that , but number 13 , continuous training gives a 50% higher net sales per employee . That's from duallyai .
If you're a business owner and you clicked on this going oh yeah , I'm going to get some , I'm going to send this to my salespeople and I'm going to fire them up Forward .
It Say watch this .
Here's the mirror . Buddy , are you doing sales training ? Because there's your gains 50% higher . Just focus . These weren't hard statistics to find . There are a gazillion videos on YouTube . All the better if you have a consistent training program and you have some agendas and some specific objectives , but they don't have to be rocket science .
Just get together for 30 minutes a week and do some training either . Talk about prospects , talk about products , talk about next steps , talk about overcoming objections , talk about pricing . Um , even just that focus will help . What's number 14 ?
number 14 the most successful cold callers convey their value within five minutes yeah , I would say that's even too long I was . I was to say that feels long , five minutes . Yeah , uplead is the source for that .
Yeah , I think it's like get to the well . The reason I'm calling today is because I think I can help you improve this profit center . The reason I'm calling today is that I have a track record of helping families get 10 to 15% more out of whatever I a track record of whatever it is .
Then you have my attention , right , yeah , so you get them out of relational hot air mode and into contemplating and imagining what your partnership could look like .
That's right .
Number 15, . Last statistic that you need to take into your new year to make you a better sales pro . Wouldn't you know it ? Sales reps who listen more than they talk have a much higher success rate , with the ideal balance being 57 listening to 43% talking .
That seems low to me , but this financesonlinecom diced it out and that's like the best balance they found listening to some calls that's so specific .
Yeah , finances online 57 and 43 . Yeah .
Yeah , I think I'm going to take that home and be like hey , listen , I know I've been talking more like 55 or listening 55% of the time . I'm going to try to kick that to 57% . Yeah , Two ears one mouth right , that's how we were designed . That kick that up to 57% . Two ears , one mouth right . That's how we were designed . That's how we were made .
Just do it , and sometimes it's not waiting your turn to talk . I was watching a really , really good interviewer . That's something I'm trying to do is study good interviewers and podcast hosts .
Last night , rick Beato , and he has like some of the most famous coolest musician guys on this podcast , but he comes with that research , but he's asking very pointed questions , but then he's taking repeating what they said back to them . So , anyway , listen more than you talk , guys . We wanted to just give you a quick boost in that department .
It's tougher than it has been . That's the takeaway . It has been the headwinds aren't gone , but usually getting better results is just a matter of deciding to do so and putting a little bit extra intensity and focus on your follow-ups and that empathy and curiosity that comes inside the call yeah .
And that empathy and curiosity that comes inside the call yeah . The danger when we have a season of abundance is that we get used to it and when things get hard , we're not ready for the work that it takes to put in .
And I don't think things are getting harder , but I think , relatively , they're just going back to a place where they've been before , which is where the customer likes to see effort . They like to see you work , yeah . They like to see you care about them , and the one who does the most will win win the sale .
Awesome . Yes , so it's a short episode . Hopefully it's a good episode for you and we'll be back here every Monday answering your real life marketing questions . Because marketers who can't teach you why ?
are just a fancy lie .
Have a great week .