17 Reasons Why Salespeople Don’t Convert More Calls to New Meetings

If salespeople were completely honest about their biggest challenges in sales, then filling their pipeline with qualified opportunities would rise to the top.  The problem is that most salespeople are embarrassed to admit that the very first thing they learned to do when they entered sales is still the activity that is most difficult.  There are several reasons why it’s hard for them to admit this but this article will focus on the reasons why it is so difficult for them to schedule new meetings.

• Frequency – Two areas around frequency impact results. 
  • Most salespeople give up (after 4 attempts) long before they have made the attempts necessary to reach (8-15 attempts) a decision maker.
  • The second is lack of improvement.  Back in 1974, when cold calling was the only way to get a meeting, I hated, and I mean despised the act of cold calling and the time it took me to book the required 3 meetings.  My solution was to get so damn good at it that it wouldn’t take all day and that I wouldn’t hate it anymore.
• Scripting and Messaging – Two areas around scripting impact results.
  • 99% of the scripts and messages that I have heard – incoming cold calls as well as the “before” calls that new clients share with me are just plain awful. 
  • Salespeople sound like they are reading from a script and nobody – ever – wants to talk with someone who is reading from a script.
• Tonality – If you want me to stay on the phone and have a conversation with you then you need to sound like someone that I would actually choose to have a conversation with.  Unfortunately, most salespeople sound terrible.  Instead of sounding like a friend calling to talk, they sound like robotic salespeople delivering horribly scripted commercials.
• Listening and Questioning – Most salespeople do not have a sense for which questions to ask, when to ask them, and how to listen for the answer that will prompt their next question.  Active listening is foreign to most salespeople and those same salespeople seem to have little interest in learning to master the art of listening and asking great questions.
• Reasons – In most cases, salespeople fail to either uncover or provide a legitimate reason for a prospect to schedule a call or meeting in the first place.  Wanting to introduce yourself, explain what you do, or see if there is a fit are awful reasons.  Even worse is that you will be visiting the area.
• Sales DNA – This isn’t discussed enough because most salespeople and managers are not even aware that this is a thing!  Sales DNA is the combination of strengths that support selling, specifically sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics.  However, when Sales DNA appears as a weakness instead of a strength, it servers to sabotage instead of support selling.  There are 4 particular strands of Sales DNA that get in the way:
  • The Need to be Liked – When you need to be liked, or in extreme cases, loved, you will be more worried about what people think of you than what you need to accomplish.  This can prevent you from making the call, asking the right questions and pushing back or challenging their thinking.
  • Rejection – Passive rejection – when your prospect fails to return a call or an email – can be as strong as direct rejection used to be.  There is no selling without rejection but when recovery time exceeds a minute or two it negatively impacts selling.  When recovery time extends to an hour, a day or a week, there is no selling!
  • Avoidance – Objective Management Group (OMG) places salespeople into 1 of 4 buckets:
    • Hunters – These salespeople consistently hunt for new business
    • Potential Hunters – These salespeople will hunt for new business but only if a sales manager holds them accountable for a certain amount of activity.
    • Fisherman – These salespeople will not make cold calls but they will follow up on warm leads.
    • PETP – People for the Ethical Treatment of Prospects.  These salespeople will not make calls.  Period.  Avoidance will be the rule and good luck to the manager who tries to get them to hunt.
  • Perfectionist – You love perfectionists who compose the perfect email, get their proposals just right and complete their reports according to your requirements.  But typically, perfectionists won’t do something until they can do it perfectly and prospecting is an imperfect activity.  Perfectionists will usually procrastinate making the calls.
• Sales Management – The 6 prior bullets must be owned by salespeople but sales managers who aren’t aware of the 6 bullets, don’t attempt to help or get help for their salespeople in the 6 areas outlined above are the real problem.
• Will to Sell. Weak to Moderate levels of Will to Sell will also sabotage hunting:
• Desire – How badly you want to achieve greater sales success
• Commitment – Your willingness to do what it takes to achieve greater sales success
• Motivation – How strong your what or why is for achieving greater sales success
• Outlook – How you feel about yourself and what you do for a living
• Responsibility – Whether you take responsibility for your sales results or make excuses

There you have it.  All the reasons why salespeople suck at booking new meetings!