TRP 163: The Sales Innovation Paradox with Dr. Howard Dover

In this episode of The Rainmaking Podcast, host Scott Love speaks with Dr. Howard Dover, author of The Sales Innovation Paradox, about why technological advancements in sales have paradoxically led to decreased performance. Dr. Dover explores how the explosion of sales technologies, designed to improve efficiency, has instead resulted in overcrowded outreach strategies, diminishing returns, and frustrated buyers. He explains that while technology has enabled sales professionals to scale outreach dramatically, it has also triggered defensive behaviors among buyers, making traditional best practices less effective. Key topics include the "Sales Innovation Paradox," where scaling sales activities leads to declining results, and the "SIP cycle" (Sales Innovation, then behavioral shift) that explains how buyers adapt to overused sales tactics. Dr. Dover shares real-world examples, including Microsoft’s successful strategy of human-assisted digital funnels that led to an 8x increase in pipeline and 10x in revenue. He also discusses how smaller companies can achieve similar results by focusing on relevancy, personalization, and understanding buyer preferences. This episode offers practical strategies for professionals looking to break through the noise and achieve sustainable business development success. Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/ ---------------------------------------- Howard Dover University of Texas at Dallas Director of the Center for Professional Sales, Clinical Professor of Marketing and Sales Coach In the past few years, Howard Dover has helped to create one of the fastest-growing University sales programs in the country. As the Director of the Center, he consults with the Center’s partners on how to best identify, develop, and coach the rising generation now entering the business world. He also works with partner organizations to discover and deploy best practices in the ever-evolving business environment. The Alumni from his program perform better, have lower attrition, and ramp up faster than their peers as they work with Fortune 500 and start-up tech companies. His areas of expertise include digital disruption at the intersection of sales and marketing as well as sales automation/augmentation, sales enablement, sales recruiting, sales performance, CRM and CLV modeling, and sales coaching. He has been an invited speaker at numerous Sales, Sales Educator, and Marketing Conferences. His work has been published in such journals as the Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Selling, Journal of Applied Business Research, American Journal of Business Education, and Marketing Education Review. ---------------------------------------- This show is sponsored by Leopard Solutions Legal Intelligence Suite of products, Firmscape, and Leopard BI. Push ahead of the pack with the power of Leopard. For a free demo, visit this link: https://www.leopardsolutions.com/index.php/request-a-demo/ Links: #utdsales https://jindal.utdallas.edu/faculty/howard-dover/ The Sales Paradox https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Innovation-Paradox-Harnessing-Performance/dp/1632996243/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sales+innovation+paradox&qid=1693404833&sr=8-1 https://twitter.com/DrHDover Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices