There is this weird perspective in sales that could very well derail your forecast. There is this belief that any sales conversation is better than no conversation. This means that someone on your team is meeting with a buyer who either does not fit your Ideal Customer Profile or has no intention of buying. In essence, a salesperson could have a full calendar and look busy but really have no genuine deals. Hubspot reports that 52% of sales managers emphasize using sales conversations as a tracking metric. While tracking sales conversations is useful, it reinforces the perception that a salesperson should fill up their time with any conversation.

This opens the question, “What conversations actually fit in the funnel?” I know this is Sales 101, but the top of the funnel is supposed to feed the pipeline that feeds the forecast. Without being clearly qualified, your forecast may have fluff masquerading as opportunities. This is going to derail your forecast.

Management expectations

There are some dynamics that perpetuate this perspective. Some of it could be missing or erroneous information in your database so there is too much trust that the right buyers are being developed into leads. You could also have unspoken or accidental expectations. But some of it is the attitudes that lead to certain hires. As in, hiring salespeople from certain companies or level of experience coupled with the belief that this makes them more likely to meet quota on a regular basis with little or no development and training.

Sales Effectiveness is hit or miss on the ground

It is tempting to think that any salesperson that gets hired just has ready-to-use, highly developed skills when they walk in the door. But the current buyer research that shows that:

• 13% of buyers believe that salespeople understand their needs (The Brevet Group)
• High performing salespeople use more dialogue that is dynamic, encourages participation, and engages the buyer (Hubspot)
• 23% of buyers believe that sellers put them first (LinkedIn)
• 80% of B2B buyers expect to have a purchasing experience similar to B2C buyers (GitNux)
• Buyers do not follow a linear path during their purchasing decision process (Gartner)

Complex sales are more sensitive to shifts in buyer behavior. In their most recent survey, Salesforce reports that 80% of B2B buyers expect their experience of your organization to match the quality of your product or service. This creates a higher level of pressure for the salesperson as each sales conversation must be high quality. High quality requires that the buyer feels acknowledged and the deal has momentum.

Something is missing

There is a disconnect between “any conversation is better than no conversation” and that these sales conversations must lead to a clear yes or no. Without resolving this, it is hard to have a forecast that is reliable and consistent. While there are random times when an unexpected buyer pops up and completes a sale, you cannot make a forecast of these. One of the frontline managers we worked with would often ask about upsides when there was a looming quota deadline. You could hear the hemming and hawing of his reps trying to balance their understanding of what could really happen and maybe being the hero for that reporting period. It is not unusual for sales teams to have more muddy forecasts when they know they are going to miss. After all, they are aware of how they are producing revenue for the organization.

CROs, is any conversation better than no conversation?

There is anecdotal evidence that CROs have about a 2-year tenure so they need to make an impact in a hurry. Noting trends in the effectiveness of the sales team is definitely in their purview. They are depending on competent sales conversation skills to give them usable information. These skills contribute heavily to the quality and consistency of this information. One vice president we worked with built these extraordinary spreadsheets to manage information and his team still under-performed. The product was stable and could be a game changer for their customers, but the conversational skill level was highly variable across his team. There was a tendency to focus more on scheduling lots of conversations more than scheduling the right conversations. In essence, this could result in a derailed forecast because CROs expect that all of this communication with buyers will yield deals.

Stop believing the myth

Wasting time with conversations because “you never know” eats into time that could be spent with qualified sales prospects. Any conversation is not better than no conversation if it is eating up resources that could be spent on qualified buyers. In our Advanced Sales Conversation Model© training, we talk about the intrinsic nature of qualifying buyers as they commit to their buying decision in small steps. While it feels good to talk with people, there is still an expectation that sales conversations are happening because there is interest with direction.  Developing a mutually beneficial conversation that openly talks about aspirations, goals, concerns, and next steps is going to lead to better forecasting information. Relying on an assumption that all salespeople come with complete conversation competencies could be derail the forecast.

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When you think about sales effectiveness at your organization, does it seem like you are close but just missing those unique elements that give you that competitive edge? Looking for a way to understand how your buyer thinks, decides, and reveals information? At The Nova Consulting Group, we believe that professional selling is a craft. With the Advanced Sales Conversation©, you have those missing elements that move your salespeople from competency to mastery. With our deep understanding of what makes and sustains high-performance organizations, we provide integrated solutions that do not replace your sales methodology and yet advance a progressive selling mindset. Be bolder, more insightful, and get results. To learn more about how to master the craft of sales and encourage sustainable high performance, call  (617) 933-7249 or email info@novaconsultinggrp.com.