Question from a B2B Software Sales professional:
“How should I split my time between calling new customers (or writing cold emails) and making follow up calls (or follow up emails)? How much time should I dedicate for each activity each week?”
My answer:
Firstly, my approach to Sales & Marketing differs from traditional Sales & Marketing team structures.
I’ve performed BOTH roles over the years and see there’s a huge disconnect between sales and marketing (not at all companies).
My view is your Marketing team should be the ones generating leads AND doing initial qualifying BEFORE they’re passed onto the Sales development team.
Why?
Paying a Sales person to research potential prospects, find contact details, try to make cold contact is an inefficient process.
It’s much more cost effective to have Marketing take care of that at a fraction of that cost.
So as a Sales Development professional, your time is better spent on:
- Existing clients
- Qualified prospects who show interest but have not yet purchased
So, having said this, I understand not everyone has control over this – so IF you are mandated to spend some time in developing new prospects/making cold calls, this is my approach:
It’s a proprietary approach I developed called the “5-4-1 Formula”.
I usually train people in deeper detail on this in my Ultimate Sales Alchemy training, but in a nutshell, I suggest this ratio for a sales pro’s time to be spent:
- 50% on existing/past clients – goal is to focus on client retention and selling MORE to existing clients
- 40% on interested prospects but have not bought
- 10% on converting new leads into clients
Mainly because only 2% of cold calls result in an appointment (not even a sale). [Source: Leap Job]
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