When building rapport goes wrong

Published: Wed, 01/05/22

January 5, 2022

Good morning and welcome to 2022. According to the Chinese horoscope, it's the year of the Tiger, so get ready to unleash your inner big cat on all those prospects who asked for a call back “after the holidays.” In this week’s edition of The Quota, we’re gonna give you all the sales stats you could possibly want, show you why lying to prospects is always a bad idea, and help a software salesman whose in-laws have no respect for the profession. Let’s do this.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

23.9

The percentage of sales emails that are opened

Source: Gartner

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week

In a story that sounds like it’s straight out of a Hollywood movie, a Massachusetts salesman who was dying of cancer confessed to being a long-sought-after bank robber from Ohio. The man, who changed his name from Ted Conrad to Thomas Randele after the 1969 heist, had a long career as a car salesman, and was well-liked by his friends and family. He made the deathbed confession to his wife, who relayed the information to authorities after his passing. You can read the fascinating story here.
A well-known smart-home and solar vendor is set to go on trial for its salesmen using what one of its competitors calls “deceptive tactics.” Vivint Smart Home is being sued by CPI-Security, which accuses Vivint's door-to-door salespeople of misleading its existing customers by knocking on their doors and telling them that CPI was being acquired by Vivint, before signing them up for services. CPI is seeking $50 million in damages. You can read more about the case here.
While we at The Quota aren’t necessarily manga and anime fans, millions of Americans are, not to mention the tens of millions of fans worldwide. According to the pop-culture site BoingBoing, there was a massively popular anime anthology in Japan in the 1980s called The Laughing Salesman, where in each episode, a troubled protagonist would come across a salesman who would offer an item to ease their specific shortcomings, but with a catch. You can learn more about The Laughing Salesman here.

FEATURE

22 Sales Statistics to Ease You Into 2022

Many of you have emailed us to say that you love the “Number of the Week” feature. Well, we like writing it up, since we get to learn all kinds of interesting (and weird) stuff about sales and the business world in general.

Since it’s such a popular feature, we figured we’d expand on it, so we went searching high and low for what we think are the most interesting (newly available) statistics about sales.

We tried to avoid the boring stuff (the majority of the mind-numbing stats that companies publish in their white papers), and only focused on the facts that make you go: “Whoa, I didn’t know that.” If there are any other cool ones you come across, send us an email and let us know -- we might use them for future newsletters.

Here are 22 interesting sales stats for 2022:

1. Research shows that 35% to 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. (source: InsideSales.com)

2. Only 5% of salespeople said that leads they receive from marketing were very high quality. (source: HubSpot)

3. When leaving a voicemail for a prospect, the optimal length is between 8 and 14 seconds. (source: Spotio)

4. Only 25% of marketing-generated leads are typically of a high enough quality to immediately advance to sales. (source: Gleanster Research)

5. 77% of sales reps reported working more hours now than before the pandemic. (source: Dooly)

6. The average yearly quota for an inside sales professional is $985,000. (source: Harvard Business Review)

7. The average yearly quota for outside sales reps is approximately $2.7M. (source: Harvard Business Review)

8. Best-in-class companies close 30% of sales qualified leads, while average companies close 20%. (source: PointClear)

9. 66.7% of sales reps have only reached out to 250 people or less in a year. (source: Sales Insights Lab)

10. 91% of customers say they’d give referrals. Only 11% of salespeople ask for referrals. (source: Wharton School of Business)

11. Sales reps who make at least 12 contact attempts perform 20% better than reps who stop at 8 attempts. (source: Bridge Group)

12. The average number of tools in a company’s sales tech stack is unlucky number 13. (source: Dooly)

13. In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in most buying decisions. (source: Gartner)

14. Sales reps can spend up to 40% of their time just looking for somebody to call. (source: Inside Sales)

15. 50% of buyers like speaking over the phone, compared to 70% of reps. This percentage increases the higher up the ladder (VP or C-suite) you go. (source: Spotio)

16. 44% of sales reps give up after 1 follow-up. (source: Spotio)

17. It takes 10 months or more for a new sales rep to be fully productive. (source: Spotio)

18. The typical account executive spends 2.7 years on the job and takes 4.7 months to ramp up. (source: Bridge Group)

19. Drift tested the response time of 433 companies. Only 7% responded in the first five minutes after a form submission. Over 50% didn’t respond within five business days. (source: Drift)

20. Average (B2B) Lead to Close length is 102 days (source: Salesforce)

21. According to a recent survey, 84% of all sales training is lost after 90 days. This is majorly due to the lack of information retention among sales personnel. (source: Spotio)

22. Optimistic sales pros outperform pessimists by 57%. That’s even true when pessimists have better selling skill sets. (source: Forbes)

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Facebook -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

What percentage of B2B salespeople in the U.S. are women?

A. 43.3%
B. 38.1%
C. 32.6%
D. 29.4%

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

“When I first got into sales, I had no idea what I was doing. I was in my early 20’s, and I was a retail cell phone rep at a big electronics chain. I was eager to do well, so I made sure to listen to advice from my new managers and coworkers. One of the things my supervisor at the time said was to always try to relate to the customer, no matter what they were talking about. He was a super smooth guy who could charm anyone, and I’d watched him in action and was always impressed with how well he controlled the conversation.

During my second or third month on the job, this friendly guy came in looking for a family phone package for his wife and kids. From what I remember, he was an engineer, or did something that had to do with computers. So we were talking and I was showing him our phones, and somehow we got on the topic of Star Wars, and I reflexively said that I loved Star Wars even though I’d never watched a single one of them in my life.

All of a sudden, his eyes light up, and he starts talking about the movies in detail, and I’m nodding along and smiling, figuring this was going well. Then, he starts asking me about what I like. And at first I was able to play it off, but then he starts digging a bit, and I say “Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve seen them,” just trying to get him off my case. But he refuses to change the topic, and starts getting serious with his questions, and I’m super awkward by this point, stuttering over my words. Finally, he lets me off the hook and goes back to asking questions about the phones, but by that point, he wasn’t friendly at all anymore.

He thanked me and said he’d come back if he had any more questions and left without buying anything. To be honest, I was glad to be rid of him. I’m still in sales, but I make it a point to never, ever pretend I know something that I really don’t know. Oh, and I’ve still never seen Star Wars.”

Anonymous, 30 Colorado

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram Poll -- December 2021

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team,

This probably isn’t anything anyone could help me with, and maybe I’m just looking to vent. I sell software, and make well into the six figures. I’ve been with the same company for just under four years, and I’ve been married to a wonderful woman for almost ten. She has a PhD but is a full-time stay at home mom for our two daughters. This was a decision we made together, and even though it’s difficult sometimes, we are both generally happy with the arrangement.

The problem is her parents. Her dad is a retired doctor, and was (from what I understand) some sort of visionary in his field. Her mother is also a PhD, but like my wife, stayed home to raise children. The problem is that neither one of them has any respect for what I do professionally, and they both look down on sales as a profession that they seem to think is beneath them, and, I’m assuming, beneath their daughter.

They’re nice enough to me, and I’ve known them for about twelve years, but the father makes these underhanded comments to me about my job. For example, he says that the “Guys designing the software are probably quite brilliant,” implying that since I’m the one selling it, I’m not. He’s also asked why I never wanted to pursue something more challenging, and said that all it takes to get an advanced degree is grit and perseverance.

Mind you, I’m busting my ass to support their daughter and grandkids, and the job they’re so condescending about pays for a great house in a sought-after school district, and we never, ever have asked them for a penny. My wife tells me to just ignore her dad, and that he doesn’t mean anything by it, but part of me wants to tell him off. Thoughts?

Annoyed in Connecticut

Dear Annoyed,

Your in-laws sound pretty obnoxious, but that’s not uncommon, is it? People who have never worked in sales often have preconceived notions about the profession, especially if they’re older and their frame of reference is the fast-talking car salesman of 20th century lore, not to mention that your wife’s parents sound like they might be intellectual snobs.

Here’s what we think: while your wife doesn’t want to rock the boat, it sounds like she might not fully grasp just how much this is bothering you. You should let her know, because she might be in a better position to tell her parents to cut the crap before it comes to a head during a family barbeque or over Thanksgiving dinner.

Ultimately, though, you should let your father-in-law know that you don’t appreciate his snide remarks. A good place to start is to say everything you said in the first sentence of your last paragraph. And don’t worry too much about his reaction; you have every right to stand up for yourself. And, more than likely, he will respect you more for doing it.

Quiz Answer: C

SHARE THE QUOTA

If you liked this newsletter, help us grow by sharing it with a friend.

Just send them this link, then sit back and enjoy the good karma. We’ll be forever in your debt!

How did you like today's story?

Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

Got a tip or an idea for something you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at [email protected]

QUOTA MEDIA LLC