You lost me at 'Hi, how are you?'
I’m in a secret sales group.
I could tell you about it…but you don’t have clearance.
Anyway, in this secret sales group is a young man interviewing for a senior BDR role at 1 pm today.
He asked for some help role-playing for his interview, so I hopped on a call with him on Sunday and yesterday.
He was bad.
Check that…
He was really bad.
Well, on third thought…
He was downright terrible.
Now, I don’t know his background, but since he’s applying for a “senior BDR” role, I’m assuming he has some experience. Otherwise, he’d be applying for an entry-level SDR/BDR role, but I digress.
To his credit, he is smart, quick, personable, coachable, and motivated. (He just got engaged, and nothing motivates a man like wanting to provide for and impress his woman.)
Both calls were about 45 minutes, and to his credit again, he recognized he needed to go back to the drawing board, and he did.
Yesterday was better, but he was tired from grinding and worrying about this for 48 hours.
We started over at least ten times. Probably 15+.
He took notes.
He adapted.
He tweaked.
He improved.
I’d let him go sometimes, while other times, I’d stop him as soon as he stepped on his…foot.
Keep in mind, in this role, he’d be making short, professional outbound calls to targeted prospects with the goal of qualifying (disqualifying) them for a mutually-agreed upon meeting sometime in the next few days with the decision-makers from their company.
Yes, outbound calling, i.e., cold calling, still works in the age of AI. Hell, it’s working better because of the crappy usage of AI. But I digress…
To make a long story a little longer, his opening was terrible…
He jumped into problem-solving too quickly. (You shouldn’t really problem-solve at all on a disqualifying call.)
He used too much industry jargon.
He rambled and mumbled a bit.
He was subservient in his tonality and making statements that sounded…like a question?
He listened to reply instead of listening to understand.
He was uncomfortable with silence.
He didn’t know how to close the call quickly, professionally, and with a confirmed next step.
Other than that, he was awesome!
Seriously. He was awesome because he’s in the game.
He’s jumping in with both feet.
He’s embracing the role.
He’s putting in effort to prepare for the role.
And he will be a success if he keeps this attitude and energy.
However, that is hard to do.
A Gallup study found that only 15% of employees worldwide feel motivated.
I bet for salespeople, that number ranges from 99% of the top 1% being motivated and 99% of the remaining 99% are 1% motivated, with a few being somewhere in between.
Why is it so hard for salespeople?
They haven’t had training.
Sure, they’ve had some product training by the ops team, but they haven’t had sales training.
And their sales managers aren’t offering it because you can’t provide what you’ve never had.
Besides, they're in over their heads because not only have they not had sales training, but they also haven’t had sales manager training.
Which is why so many people, teams, and companies miss their numbers.
It’s why the SDR/BDR/AE model is under attack. (As it should be.)
When you’re not making money, you start cutting the fat…then the bone…then the business.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
You don’t have to go it alone.
You can get inspiration, motivation, insight, and camaraderie for less than you’d pay for a 9-year-old, 4-cylinder, 2-door Cadillac with 56,294 miles that looks pink. Ugh!
Oh, and you can kick the tires one week at a time…and pick my brain the first week in a private call. That’s what you get in the Inner Circle.
Check it out.
https://info.wesschaeffer.com/inner-circle-silver
Talk soon.
Wes
