Several recent LinkedIn posts have urged readers to pick up the phone instead of trying to find new opportunities by using social media.  I wrote a very popular article about using the phone 3 years ago called, The Next Can't Miss Game Changer for Sales.

I have data that shows that the very people who don't score well at hunting (reluctant, ineffective or both) also score poorly at Social Selling while those who score the highest for Hunting score higher for Social Selling too.  Check out this data from Objective Management Group's (OMG) evaluations of more than 1.7 million salespeople:

• The weakest 10% of all salespeople own the lowest average scores for hunting, coming in at 17 (out of 100).  Their average score for Social Selling is just 3! 
• The top 10% of all salespeople have an average score of 76 for hunting and 23 for Social Selling.  In other words, they are almost 450% better at Hunting and 766% better at Social Selling!  

Keep in mind that across all 1.7 million salespeople that Objective Management Group (OMG) has evaluated and assessed, the average score for Social Selling is only 10. Wasn't Social Selling supposed to be the big new thing?

Digging further into the data, we find that 63% of all salespeople with a weak score in the Hunter Competency also have a weak score in Social Selling. 

It appears from the data that hunters use all available means to hunt while non-hunters shy away from all available means. Clearly, there is still a percentage of salespeople doing what some experts warn against - hiding behind the screen and hoping that their mere presence will magically cause opportunities to appear in their pipelines, but they are in the minority. You can see all of OMG's data in all 21 Sales Core Competencies here. Check out some more surprising data.

One of the questions I answered In my 18-page White Paper, The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence, was, Does Social Selling Impact Sales Effectiveness?

38% of the companies who use Social Selling reported that they had more opportunities in their pipelines as a result.  Of those companies with more opportunities we identified that:

• They were much more likely to have more than 25 salespeople and between $25-$75 million in revenue
• They were 30% more likely to have a significant increase in sales than the overall population in the study
• 50% provided quarterly sales training compared with 22% for the overall respondent population.
• Social Selling was utilized equally across all sales teams.  
• 85% reached out directly to prospects using social selling channels compared with 59% overall
• Salespeople who routinely maintained a full pipeline saw only a 1% increase in pipeline size.
• Of those salespeople who typically had poor pipelines, only 20% saw improvement.

Of the companies that reported either no increase or a decrease in opportunities we learned that:

• 67% had an informal approach to social selling
• 75% were just beginning to implement social selling
• 75% have their traditional sales team practicing social selling.
• 75% focus more on LinkedIn group participation
• Only 50% of their salespeople reach out directly to prospects

38% of the companies that use Social Selling are seeing results, and nearly 100% of those who have formalized Social Selling are seeing results.  Yet the average score in the Social Selling competency for all salespeople is just 10.  So what is going on?

If you visit LinkedIn you would think that everyone on the planet is on there.  While most have profiles, it doesn't mean that "they're on there."  The question is whether they are engaged on that platform and most salespeople are simply not engaged.

If you are reading this article, online, on my Blog, then you are probably more engaged on Linkedin than most salespeople.  But the same huge percentage of salespeople who are not engaged on LinkedIn are also not online consuming content like this.

It's time for all salespeople to adapt and leverage the great tools that are available instead of sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that selling hasn't changed in the past 10 years.

Image Copyright iStock Photo

Image Copyright Christian Chan

Last week I wrote an Article for LinkedIn Pulse that explored some of the statistics related to Call Reluctance.  Many might think that Call Reluctance is a malady that occurred back when salespeople did their own dialing and had to book their own appointments.  The truth is that most salespeople are still expected to dial and in tech companies where BDR's do that dirty work, Call Reluctance is still the primary reason why there aren't enough conversations.  While some are quick to blame the low (as bad as) 15:1 dial to conversation ratio, that number is driven in part by salespeople who don't try hard enough to get their prospects to the phone.  Those with Call Reluctance might even be heard saying, "Sure, put me through to voicemail" or "He's busy?  That's OK.  I'll call back" before breathing a sigh of relief.  How else can you explain the even more incredible industry wide statistic where BDR's book, on average, only 1.5 new meetings per week?

Keep reading for the statistics on Call Reluctance, my take on that, and the Link to the Article.

The LinkedIn article can be found here but the big discussion about the statistics - and whether I made them up - can actually be found on a LinkedIn post where Tony J Hughes shared the article.  There were close to 40 comments at the time I wrote this article so after you read the LinkedIn article, pop over to Tony's share to join the discussion.

It isn't as good as the Father's Day gifts I received from my wife and son, but I love it just the same.  My team at Objective Management Group (OMG) built a great new tool and this one does not help us to more effectively evaluate sales forces and assess sales candidates.  We're already pretty darn good at that.  The new tool allows me to quickly grab and analyze data faster and more effectively than I ever could before.  For example, I used it last week for the first time and within a few minutes I was able to write this article that showed 2 of our 21 sales competencies in a completely surprising way.  While this is very cool for me, I think this could be even more awesome for you!

For example, I reviewed a new set of around 8,500 rows of data today.  I wanted to know what percentage of salespeople were able to get past gatekeepers, including voice mail systems, and reach decision makers. This was very interesting!

Overall, 46% of all salespeople are able to get past gatekeepers and reach decision makers - but that's only when we include procurement folks as decision makers.  If we filter the data on salespeople who do not begin with procurement, that number drops to just 13%!  But there's more!  When I filtered the data by salespeople who are brand new to sales it drops to only 1%.  ONLY ONE PERCENT OF NEW SALESPEOPLE ARE ABLE TO REACH DECISION MAKERS!!  And who are the people filling all of the new sales development and business development roles - the top of the funnel roles where BDR's and SDR's call to make appointments for the account executives to meet with Decision Makers?  Brand new salespeople!!  This data is only about getting through - prior to having a first conversation with a decision maker - is it any wonder that they average only 1.5 meetings booked per week?

There are plenty of people writing articles about the differences between good salespeople and everyone else.  I attempt to debunk as many of those articles as I get to see but there are more than I could ever get to. Compared to the science based data that OMG has, those articles are based on opinions and anecdotal references and generally quite false.  Do you have a theory about salespeople?  Have you observed a difference maker?  Have you worked with some great salespeople?  With this new tool at my disposal, I can accept any and all of your theories, questions, assumptions and requests, run an analysis, and report on what we learn!  I'm very excited about the process.  You can enter your request in the comments below, or if you prefer anonymity, email it to me at dkurlan@objectivemanagement.com.  I won't use your name if you don't want me to.

Most salespeople suck on the phone.  If you read that article, you learned about 10 common mistakes that salespeople make on the phone.  But those are strategic and tactical mistakes - they are skill-based.  What happens when you have salespeople who won't even make calls?  Could they be suffering from call reluctance?  Objective Management Group (OMG) measures 21 Sales Core Competencies and one of them is the Hunter Competency. The Hunter has about a dozen attributes and 4 in particular determine if, and to what degree, a salesperson will have call reluctance:

• 58% of all salespeople need to be liked to such a degree that it can have a negative effect on their ability to prospect for new business. They worry that a prospect might become upset and not like them, so they don't ask the questions they should - when and if they call.
• 20% of all salespeople have difficulty recovering from rejection to such a degree that it can prevent them from making calls. Not making the calls is a defense mechanism to protect them from rejection.
• 13% of all salespeople possess a "will not prospect" belief to such a degree that they won't prospect unless they are forced to by their sales manager.
• 46% of salespeople are perfectionists who procrastinate until they believe they can do something perfectly. In the case of prospecting, it contributes to what seems like a time management problem (they didn't have time to prospect.)  

The image below, from the evaluation of a large sales force, has salespeople distributed almost equally (unusual) among the four groups:

• Hunters will hunt for new business without being asked.
• Potential Hunters would hunt for new business if their sales managers held them accountable.
• Fishermen will follow up on a lead, but won't engage in proactive hunting.
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Prospects will not hunt, no matter what, ever.

I'll be leading a fast-paced 45-minute online presentation on The Magic Behind OMG's Sales Candidate Assessment, June 7 at 11 AM ET.  There is no cost to attend and you'll learn a lot about sales selection that you didn't know before.  Click here to register.

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

Friday, I made a stupid mistake and accidentally published a blog article around mid afternoon.  I had intended to schedule it for Monday morning, but clicked the publish button instead of the schedule button.  Subscribers and followers don't typically read business articles on the weekends and while this would not normally pose a problem, this wasn't a typical article and the response was not a typical response.  We have a cool VoiP Phone System at the office and my phone is configured to forward calls to my cell when I'm away from the office.  Starting about the time I left the office on Friday, my cell phone rang constantly right through to Saturday evening.  Here's why.

My Friday article resonated with so many readers that dozens of them started calling!  If you didn't read about the next big game changer for sales, read that article and feel free to do what my weekend readers did.  Yesterday, I returned every call except the one from Tom G in Atlanta who failed to leave his number.  I'll return your call too if you choose to dial.  That article resonated because it made so much sense to so many people and the tool I mentioned does not require a new skill set.  It's a no-brainer!

The last time an article got that much traction was my post about the Biggest Secret of Salespeople That Rock.  I received more calls and emails in support of my choice to tackle that topic than I could have imagined.  Why?  Because it resonated with so many people and I said what a lot of people had wanted to say, but were afraid to say in a business article.

Thousands of readers downloaded my mystery email template and I received many requests to use excerpts of the article when I wrote about Bringing Your Prospecting to the Next Level.  This article resonated because so many readers have prospects who have gone cold or disappeared and they were hoping that there was something out there that could lure them out of hiding.  It just so happened that I did!

The other article that really resonated was Leads Making Salespeople as Lazy as Golden Retrievers.  Most companies are experiencing exponential growth in the number of inbound leads, but were beginning to realize that most of these "leads" don't justify the time it takes for a salesperson to follow-up.  While 5 to 10% might be good quality leads, today, most "leads" are nothing more than contacts in need of nurturing.  As salespeople feel more pressure to do more with leads that are of questionable quality, this article was the voice of reason.  It resonated.

There are two more things that are important here.

#1 - There is a lot of noise out there.  There are so many best ways, practices, tips, and secrets that are simply masks to sell the blogger's product.  In the end, you need to filter which information you accept as truth, from that which must be labeled promotional or scare tactics.  If it resonates and inspires, comes from an authoritative source, and sounds like a practical solution to a problem you own, chances are it's advice you can trust.

#2 - Your message, to your prospects, must resonate with them.  How can you tell?  They will let you know!  And if they aren't letting you know, if they aren't telling you, if you aren't hearing very strong affirmations from your prospects, that you are right on, different in a good way, and the one they want to work with, then you are doing something wrong.  If that's the case, contact me and we will help you get it straightened out.