Smart Calling, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 6More Smart Ideas for Prior to Your Call

Let’s look at a few other important points to follow prior to picking up the phone, and answer some common questions as well.

Don’t Let Sales Statistics Affect Your Calling

Over the past 30-plus years, I’ve seen my share of sales studies that claim to show the average number of calls it takes to set an appointment, to close a sale, how long calls should be, and more. And most of them don’t mean squat to you or me.

Common sense tells you that the guy setting appointments for highly specialized enterprise-level engineering software that is purchased once every 5 to 10 years isn’t going to have the same results as the person prospecting to sell subscriptions to the local business journal. I want to scream in frustration when I see these types of general stats because there really is no average. (I did a two-minute video rant on “The Problem with the Sales Numbers You See.” It’s in your Smart Calling Companion Course, SmartCallingCourse.com, Chapter 6.)

I’m regularly contacted by reps and managers who are seeking my estimate on a metric for some aspect of sales, usually so that they can justify something to their boss. Sometimes I feel like saying, “I don’t know. How long does it take to build a house?” What I actually say is that there is no way I could offer a number or opinion unless I knew almost everything about their business and situation. There are too many variables involved. What you do relates very little to the guy ...