40% Of Salespeople Miss Quota

"You only have to do one thing really well to make it in this world."

- Janis Joplin  

If that is true, and who can doubt Janis Joplin, then why do we ask salespeople to do so many things well?

I saw this headline in a marketing blog by John Sonnhalter and it peaked my interest. I wonder why?

40% of Salespeople Finished 2013 Under Quota

Well here are the results showing the most common reasons:

Here is my take on the solutions to the "pains":

1. 54% say the opportunities end up as "no decisions". Study after study show only 3% of any population is ready to buy "something" (a refrigerator, a massage, whatever) in the next few weeks. 80% of all sales are made between the 5^th and the 12^th contact. Only 10% of salespeople make more than 3 followups. Need we say more? This is a huge disconnect.
   
   Solution: After the salesperson makes the intial call, put the "leads" in your database and send them weekly or monthly TIPS (blogs, news briefs, videos), no selling - just really good information to serve them. When they are ready to buy they will call you, because they know, like and trust you. This is the only way I know to contact them 12 times or more and do it in a positive way, building trust. We cannot expect a salesperson to make 5-12 followups. What are they going to say? "Hi just following up" or "Just checking back"? Pleeeeease!
    
2. 33% state they are "burdened with tasks and spend less time selling". That is not shocking. The national average for outside salespeople is that they make on average 1.5 calls per day. Why? Many reasons but the most common one is "following up, reporting, coordinating, quoting, taking orders, handling customer concerns and questions, etc."
   
   Solution: Less salespeople and a sales coordinator teamed with each salesperson at half the price of a salesperson. My experience, and case study after case study, show you can double your sales at ¾ of the costs. A sales coordinator handles all of the above for the salesperson, freeing them to have sale conversations 6-8 times a day or more. Here is a flow chart I built for a client.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace