Inside Sales – Daily Dial Expectations

Sales leaders and managers are always trying to figure out what the “right” number of calls, to hold an inside sales team accountable for, should be.

Likewise, inside salespeople are working to understand how many calls they need to make to hit their quotas.

Yet that’s not the right question – perhaps better said, it’s not the entire question.

BURSTfocus® Power Hour

[9:00 AM]: ready?
[9:01 AM]: 1-operator to get new “C” level name…not at this location.
[9:03 AM]: 2-vm for “C” level guy
[9:08 AM]: 3-human NEW contact; sweet LOTS of great info from this guy 🙂 2 long-term business opportunities, but assistance now that I’m not sure we can do yet… will put aside until done.
[9:14 AM]: 4-vm
[9:18 AM]: 5-human, confirmed some info for me, but she got to say ‘not it’
[9:21 AM]: 6-human
[9:30 AM]: 7-operator hung up on me LOL
[9:30 AM]: 8-called back… transferred to Duane who also hung up on me.
[9:31 AM]: 9-calling back AGAIN & he hung up AGAIN.
[9:33 AM]: … moving on to another location of the same company / 10- guy out until this afternoon nml. 
[9:36 AM]: 11-general delivery mailbox OR the one guy whose name I have… going for that option: vm of course.
[9:40 AM]: 12-vm
[9:43 AM]: 13-vm, moving on to a different company… called all the names I have with target title(s) listed.
[9:49 AM]: 14-operator call/got a name, vm
[9:53 AM]: 15-vm
[9:55 AM]: 16-operator, found out 200 people at this address.
[9:57 AM]: 17-fast busy
[9:59 AM]: 18-inactivated & referred to correct guy – vm

Looks simple enough, multiply 18 dials x 8 hours to get the number. right? NOPE!

For these reasons:

Part 1 = List Prep

  • That call list had already been “cleaned up” – company info, contact names, titles, at least a main number.
  • BRIEF research: two companies, googled then news clicked to see anything that could be used in conversation. Plus a little about the people on the list – all takes time. If we use the 3×3 research theory (3 pieces of information in 3 minutes… thanks to Steve Richard of Vorsight for introducing me to the idea) that’s another hour.

Part 2 = Message Prep

  • To ensure each prospecting call didn’t require the creation of a message, which (in my experience) requires a bit of staring off into space and thinking; a template message was written that applied to the people on the list of qty=20.
    • As a voicemail.
    • An email template saved in drafts to have the email address & person’s name added was set up.
    • Along with a value-based opening statement for anyone who answered.

Part 3 = that one hour of calling

Part 4 = The Doing

  • Now for conversations where the next steps were set you need to do what you said you’d do. That is after all how to build trust!

Part 5 = Other Responsibilities

  • Depending on the role of the inside salesperson, they now may have other customer-facing activities they’re responsible for.
  • Plus other prospecting activities, LinkedIn participation as an example.

Now it’s time to go back to part 1.

For your organization – for yourself;

  1. Track how many calls can realistically be made in a BURSTfocus® Power Hour (different industry targets will impact this!) in your world.
  2. Figure out how much time parts 1-3 usually actually take.
  3. Allocate time for part 4 – of course, how many people the salesperson reaches like from dial #3 above will impact how much actual time is spent.
  4. Estimate daily time required for part 5.

NOW you have what you need to calculate your organization’s Daily Dial Expectations.

Dialing along with you & holding myself accountable,
Lynn

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