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Welcome, everybody, to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest-running sales training podcast in podcast history.
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My name is Brian Neal.
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And I m Bill Kasky.
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We are here every week.
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Glad that you are with us.
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It is springtime in America.
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And springtime can only mean one thing, that we ve got a monthly theme, don t we, Bill?
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We do.
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We ve got a monthly theme.
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Do we always do this in the month of April?
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Is it always like a theme?
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I would love that.
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I don t know that we have.
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I think we should.
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I think we should, too.
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We should do some sort of theme.
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So what s our theme?
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So you re going to be hearing a lot.
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We re doing the first week of May.
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And by the way, this is what we call an all skate in America, where everybody gets on the dance floor and roller skates or whatever you call that.
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That would include all you sales managers, all you salespeople.
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We are going to do a live recording.
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So you re actually going to get to come and it s going to be, it s not a webinar, but like, you know, it s not like live, like physically, but you get to come and watch us record live.
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And our partners at Outreach, a lot of you have heard of Outreach, some of you use Outreach, are going to be partnering with us on this live episode.
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That, what s the date, Bill?
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Is it May the- May 4th.
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May the 4th.
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Oh, is it really May the 4th?
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Do we have to, you know what that is, right?
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That s the Star Wars day.
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Where people say, May the fourth be with you.
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I m sorry, it s there, but that s okay.
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So if nothing else, Bill and I will dress up like our favorite Star Wars people.
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I don t strike you as a Star Wars guy, Bill.
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And you don t.
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At all.
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Goes without being said.
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May 4th at 12 Eastern.
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And if you go, if you want to sign up now, enroll in this live training, you can go to advancedsellingpodcast.com slash outreach, or it ll be in the show notes too.
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So just look at the show notes and you can register.
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And if you re a sales professional, bring your VP of sales, because we ve seen this, Scott Barker is going to be doing it and he s really smart.
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He s a really good guy and he s got some tools that he s going to share with you.
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Yes, and our friends at Outreach, we re gonna talk about the theme here.
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They brought us this theme, like, oh, we love this theme, we wanna do some episodes, and it s called the sales execution gap.
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And we re gonna be talking about the sales execution gap and give you very, very precise commentary on things to do.
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So if you re looking for any sort of fodder, any sort of tips or tricks or strategies around closing your sales execution gap, you need to be with us on May the 4th.
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Oh, may the fourth be with you.
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I m not a Star Wars guy, I m just not.
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So why did you come, why did you, why do you keep saying it then?
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I can t, I can t help, it s awful, isn t it?
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I mean, it s, it s, I can t even say.
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So yeah, I ll tell you a story off air sometime.
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Oh, okay.
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But in the, in the spirit of language, Bill, you will appreciate this.
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I was speaking, I have a client where all of the people except one are South African.
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And they re literally all over the globe.
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They re all South African.
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And we were talking about meeting cadence, how often you meet with your sales team.
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And my good friend, Rob, who s very, very great sales leader and business leader and brilliant guy, just a great guy.
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He said, Warren and I meet fortnightly.
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And I said, wait a second.
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He said, is he British?
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He s South African, South African.
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Oh, he s the one.
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He s in South Africa.
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And then he said, I go, did you just say fortnightly?
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And he goes, yeah.
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And I said, that means every two weeks, right?
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He goes, yeah.
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He goes, it s the British, the British influence we have in South Africa.
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I said, I m going to say this on the podcast because my podcast partner loves that word fortnightly.
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And we don t use it in the US, do we?
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We don t.
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We need to use it more.
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We do.
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We single-handedly bring this back.
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I mean, seriously.
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So how often do you all record the podcast fortnightly?
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Because we do, right?
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I ve got a couple of, I ve got a coach that works with me.
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He is, he s British.
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I ve got clients who are British.
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Uh, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love.
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the, I mean, you know, way everybody talks about the accent.
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I just love the language because it s different enough from ours that in every sentence there ll be something said, you re like, Ooh, I kind of like that.
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That s what it is.
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It s feel good English.
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Isn t it though?
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I m like, Oh, I just can t believe you just said that.
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And it s so, and it sounds so nice and eloquent.
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One of the things that Ed Smith, who I go to, says, he says, he always uses the term work it out.
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Well, he said, we just have to work it out.
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Exactly.
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And then we saw a Beatles cover band the other day, and that is one of their songs.
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We can work it out.
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It is, isn t it?
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I didn t realize that.
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It s British.
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We can work it out.
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That s sorted out, sorted out, sorted out.
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Yeah.
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We re going to sort it out and sort out the details.
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I love that organization.
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Yeah.
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One of my, my, uh, guy that I referee with, he s from Canada.
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And, uh, he says, uh, when he is going to go talk to a coach or a player, like at a TV time out, or he goes, I m going to go have a chat.
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I m gonna go have a chat with Bill.
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I m gonna go have a chat with 62.
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You know, I m gonna go have a chat.
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It s so nice, isn t it?
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I m gonna go have a chat.
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I love it.
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All right.
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Okay, topic today.
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Sales execution gap.
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And our friends at Outreach that brought this to us, like, this is really good.
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And so they ve identified, there are three root causes.
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We re actually gonna do an episode, I think, on each of these.
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because these are just great things to talk about.
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They identify the sales execution gap.
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Three root causes is inefficient prospecting, weak deal management, and inaccurate sales forecasting.
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Inefficient prospecting, weak deal management, and inaccurate sales forecasting.
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We are going to do an episode on each one of these here in the next three weeks, because these are great topics.
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And today, we re going to talk about inefficient prospecting.
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which is a phenomenal topic.
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And especially when you think about, you know, the root cause of what happens.
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So, and I ve been, you know, there s been this huge debate on cold calling, not cold calling.
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So I think we should, what do you think, Bill?
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Let s start there with,
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Well, I like the topic because we ve talked about prospecting a lot on the podcast.
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We ve done many episodes on business development, biz dev, prospecting.
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But I think the word inefficient throws another twist into it that will filter down a lot of the stuff that we are doing that s not efficient.
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So I like the idea of thinking about it from an efficiency standpoint, not just from an action standpoint.
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Yes.
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I think people too often, so there s efficient and effective as two ways to measure something.
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I think one thing we ve been caught up with too much is the effective side of things.
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So we say, OK, this particular type of prospecting, when I do an email cadence, lots and lots of people these days do email cadence.
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I just got another one.
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you know, because I m sure Bill, you get sold to I get sold to all the time.
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And you see this cadence going.
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And you re just wondering, you know, is this effective?
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Because it s, it s very math.
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It s Yeah, right.
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It s super efficient, because you basically hit one button, you know, and then is it effective?
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And so then you go, OK, well, when I combine the two, where does the efficiency thing come into play?
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And I wonder sometimes if having a mass list with mass prospecting is really as efficient as we think it is.
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Because if we filter it back all the way, and I say, if I could be really good at picking my ideal client, really, really good at that, and targeted 10,
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and got to five within 30 days versus targeting 1,000.
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And how long does it take for me to get to 1,000 down to the five?
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It feels like it takes longer to me to do that.
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And then I question, where s the effectiveness coming to?
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Are those close rates any higher?
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So yeah, I thought you were going in a different direction there.
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Maybe I just didn t pick up on it.
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But you gave the example of I ve got 1,000 email addresses.
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So that s my, we ll call it my list.
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Or I ve got 10 potential clients in my neighborhood or territory.
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and let s say I ve got email addresses for them, you might say, well, I would rather have 1,000, but with 1,000, you can t be very personal.
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You can t really connect individually with them.
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You can with 10.
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You can with 10.
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And so the 10 might not be efficient because it s not mass, but it might be super effective because you re focusing on those 10 people s pains and problems and needs and dreams and all that.
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Yep.
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And I think that s where inefficient prospecting comes in, is we re doing a lot of doing, but we re not getting much from it.
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And I don t know if that s effectiveness or efficient.
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I m a little confused about that.
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Well, no, it is.
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It s confusing, isn t it?
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I need sales therapy.
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Well, like, so let s use your example.
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It s a great example.
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So I ve got Bill, you ve got 1000 people on a list that s cold, or maybe someone pay well, it s marketing qualified MQL.
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So we ve gotten someone s email address.
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Okay, you ve got 1000 emails.
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And you re trying
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to close two deals within 30 days from that deal.
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I have just LinkedIn and my ideal client, and I m trying to close two deals within 30 days.
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Efficiency would tell me who can get to the two deals the fastest, with the least amount of input, the least amount of muscle.
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I think taking that my approach with 10 names, and going to LinkedIn and finding a warm introduction to those people,
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And then working through a process, I think over time will be more efficient than the mass blast.
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Because when you do the mass blast, you ll still get people that will raise their hand and say, I want to talk to you, Bill.
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And you talk to me, and it sounds good.
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And then you do another meeting, and you chase, chase, chase.
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But it s inefficient, right?
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Where if I get really honed in on very direct, warm connections.
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So let s say I ve got, you know, of my 10 prospects, I ve got a really good warm introduction to all 10 of them.
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And so those 10 people, all of them will say, hey, you need to meet with Brian because he s really smart and knows what he s doing or whatever.
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And I have those meetings.
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I think those are more apt to give me a true answer.
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Yeah.
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I would call that effectiveness.
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Yes.
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Because you will close a certain number of those that will be super effective use of your time.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I think the introduction of effective and efficient is confusing a little bit.
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So I would say we just go with the idea of being an efficient prospector.
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Like here s an example before we close up today.
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Here s an example.
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I ve got a client who I started working with about three months ago and he s been in this business for 15 years.
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He s really smart.
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He does account development, account management.
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He knows people, I mean, he s awesome.
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And he wanted to make cold calls.
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I want to start making cold calls for new prospects.
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And I said,
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You re the smartest guy in the room here.
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No offense, everybody.
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Some of them laughed.
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Were there other people in the room?
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Yeah, there was other people in the room.
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You re the smartest guy in the room, right?
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He goes, well, I put myself right up there.
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I said, you re humble.
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So why are you doing what an amateur would do?
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And an amateur who didn t know squat about the business would come in and start making cold calls.
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You know so much about this business.
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You need to be on a stage and inviting people to the party.
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Gary Vaynerchuk talks about hosting the party.
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You ve got to have the party.
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You be the star of the party.
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Let other people put people at your party.
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Let them do the invite list.
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But you re there to deliver great content.
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You can call it a webinar, live event.
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I don t care what you call it.
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but you be the host of the party.
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Now you re using this equity that you ve built up of brainpower and know-how, you re using it the right way versus making a cold call where you sound like the 22-year-old who s never been in the business before.
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Yes.
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So it seems like that s an idea.
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It s more efficient than cold calling would be inviting people to an event.
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It seems like that.
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And because now I got 20 people in the room instead of one.
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Totally.
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And it s warm.
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Yes, that s really good.
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That s a great mechanism.
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So we use the Occam s razor example where the theory there is the best answer to every problem is always the simplest.
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Um, uh, I can make ten thousand one-to-one cold calls Or I can host one event and invite ten thousand people And then let a hundred show up and they re opting in that s more efficient in the end I agree and I this is where I and I know it s confusing.
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I don t want to go back to it.
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But that s where
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I think people get wrapped up around that, that they get confused between the two.
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This is, to me, efficient is more about the least amount of input for the most amount of output.
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Where s the leverage point that I have?
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So as a listener, you re listening today, or a sales leader, I think, you know, Bill, you did some really good work on LinkedIn about, and we did an episode about it, about what are your assets that you have?
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I would ask myself if I m listening to this, what are my assets that I would call leverage point?
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So do I have a relationship with someone who has an audience built up?
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If I m a salesperson, let s be efficient prospectors.
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Let s say I sell wheels for semi trucks.
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Well, if I sell wheels for semi-trucks, one efficient way to find all those people is to partner with someone who also sells brakes to people that use semi-trucks.
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And I have an efficient mechanism because I m getting access to a,
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one person s set of customers or contacts.
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So maybe that s an exercise that our listeners can do right now is look at all your prospecting modes and start to list them.
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So maybe one s cold calling, maybe one s reaching out to past clients, maybe one s speaking, maybe one s networking, and just look at that and start to rank them in terms of efficiency.
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And be honest with yourself.
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Say, you know what, this cold calling thing, I m making 100 cold calls to get one person on the phone, and they re not even happy.
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I mean, you have to say, is that really the best use of my time?
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And I know that Scott, in our webinar or our live recording, I m going to keep saying webinar inadvertently, on May 4th is going to be talking a lot more about this idea of efficient prospecting.
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So we re just kind of scratching the surface here.
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There ll be a lot more at that.
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event, I think you re going to really like, so.
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Yeah, there s no doubt, yeah.
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And I love what you just said as a takeaway for today, Bill, is to say, let me just measure time spent to output.
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That s the efficiency ratio, right?
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So I made, I spent, and it s gotta be the time to start with, I think.
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So I spend two hours making cold calls, and in those two hours, I get one deal for $10,000.
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versus I host one event and I spend one hour, you know, getting people to the event or having the event or whatever that is, and I get three deals, B is more efficient than A. Correct.
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Because I get a greater output for the same or less input.
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That s the efficiency metric.
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So if you are like this topic and I think if you re in sales or VP of sales, CEO, you ve got to be interested at least in how do I make my prospecting more efficient.
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We would love to have you at an event we re doing on May 4th.
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It s called the sales execution gap.
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It s the gap between the reality and potential and I think we all ought to be paying attention to that.
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Scott Barker from
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The folks at Outreach is going to be there.
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He s our director of strategic engagement.
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Good guy, really smart.
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He ll be there.
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So make sure you go to advancedsellingpodcast.com slash outreach, or just look in the show notes and you can register for that webinar.
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And like Brian said earlier, bring everybody in the company.
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There s no limit.
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There s no cost to this.
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There s no limit.
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We want all people speaking this language.
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Yeah.
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And it s a live recording.
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So we re actually, it s actually like Bill said, it s not a webinar.
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It s a recording of a podcast live.
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So you can see if we actually do this in one take or not.
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You ll be surprised.
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Guaranteed.
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One take.
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One take wonders.
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All right.
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All right.
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Talk to you next time.
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See you next time.
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Bye.
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Bye.