One thing that would surely keep you awake at night would be an accurate calculation of the percentage of time your salespeople spend in front of legitimate prospects each week.  You may think the number is north of 50%, but if you could really track it with a high degree of accuracy, you would likely be shocked (think more like 20%—if you’re lucky).

Why is this?  Are salespeople inherently unmotivated to make face-to-face calls with legitimate prospects?  Some of you might think so based on the new-business call quotas I have heard of in the field.  We have found that talented salespeople, properly trained, do NOT avoid face-to-face calls with prospects.  Rather, they are prevented from making a sufficient number of new business calls by the structure in which they operate.  (Read More)

In 17 years of media sales consulting, I have observed three issues that seem to rear their ugly heads repeatedly.  As radio retools toward The New Radio Model with a focus on generating higher revenue, these three obstacles must be overcome:

1. Too many rookie salespeople don’t succeed.
2. Managers want their people to make more face-to-face calls.
3. Veteran salespeople are not always good at getting quality appointments with prospects.  (Read More)