For those who have been in sales for over a minute, we are very familiar with the saying, “Selling is a numbers game!” The idea is simple: the more calls you make, emails you send, and doors you knock on, the more sales you’ll close.
It’s all about high volume and low engagement. Move quickly until you get a “yes.”
With this numbers-first mentality, sales professionals risk overlooking essential details about the prospect. Lacking meaningful discovery conversations, they push solutions on potential customers that may not be the best. The prospect may not even be the right target.
I’m not saying that it doesn’t work. It does. But it’s inefficient. Not to mention, it’s hard work!
Successful sales professionals know that selling is about building relationships and trust and doing it with the right people. Rather than calling on 100 random people each day, they take the time to identify 25 or 30 prospects that closely match their ideal client profile. They know that these prospects will be much more open to their message and the solutions they provide.
This targeted approach has a direct impact on closing ratios. Whereas the numbers game selling approach (cold) may result in one prospect out of ten closing, the targeted approach (warm) could increase that ratio to three or four out of ten. Those types of results are significant to both the individual and the company.
The sales funnel and follow-up phase are the other areas where focusing on numbers causes problems. The tendency is to keep piling prospects on top of one another, without considering how viable each prospect may be.
The best sales teams have a system to determine each prospect's viability level. Not all prospects are created equal, and they should be evaluated from that perspective. The goal is to not only add fresh new prospects into the sales funnel, but to eliminate those lacking engagement.
Selling is not just about more and more numbers. It’s about meaningful connections.
Here’s another saying you’ve heard endlessly that is the perfect way to close this message:
Work smarter, not harder.