What is going on in the world of sales?!

I sometimes wonder what is going on in the world of sales...

Here are a few hard facts:

Phone communication is at its lowest point for decades.

Electronic outreach is at the highest ever rate…and it’s getting more complex.

Gifs, videos, LinkedIn stalking, emails with 1000-word elevator pitches.

Tech stack after tech stack piling up...which the company has paid a small fortune for.

All too often it’s not being used properly if at all…salespeople become overwhelmed and it all becomes a bit haphazard.

Over the past two years the use of email in cold outreach has doubled but its effectiveness has decreased by over 40%.

Now call me old-fashioned, but that thing on your desk with a dial pad and handheld listening / speaking device.

What a piece of kit!

It only cost a tenner and you can actually have real conversations with people on it!

And not just any old people, but people who may want what you have in exchange for cold hard cash.

“Oh, we tried cold calling, it doesn’t really work for us.” Said an MD.

“Our guys prefer to use other approaches.” Said another.

Ever stop to think that maybe it didn’t work because the salespeople were doing it badly?

It’s a vicious cycle.

The phone doesn’t work.

So, people don’t use it.

So, companies invest in tech.

Salespeople become overwhelmed.

Some of these tech stacks were a waste of money.

Let’s try the phone again.

Cold calling doesn’t work.

Let’s try a desperate video message instead.

How about a bit of stalking on LinkedIn.

One all important skill is being lost to a whole generation – and that is the skill of SPEAKING TO PEOPLE and thinking on your feet.

An SDR will move into an AE position and quickly be out of their depth, as they just don’t know how to talk to people.

They never learnt.

They spent the past two years hiding behind gifs and email.

It's the same in our private lives - people message one another instead of calling.

People can only improve by actually doing something repeatedly and getting better.

Adept interpersonal skills honed over a period of years are a lifelong asset, not just to people in sales but to anyone in business and in life.

There is a massive gap in the market and the people currently using the phone for business are cleaning up...

What do you think?