EP236: Why Your Pre-Call Research is Sabotaging Your Sales Success

Market Dominance Guys

In this episode of Market Dominance Guys, Chris Beall challenges conventional wisdom about pre-call research in cold calling. Drawing from a recent real-world experience, Chris dives deep into the mathematics and psychology behind sales conversations.

Is extensive research before each call truly beneficial, or could it hinder your team's effectiveness? Chris presents a compelling case that might surprise even seasoned sales professionals. He explores the delicate balance between being informed and being presumptuous and how this impacts your prospects' crucial emotional journey.

Whether you're a sales trainer, leader, or CSO, this episode offers fresh insights that could revolutionize your approach to cold calling and discovery meetings. Chris breaks down the true goals of these interactions and provides a framework for achieving them more efficiently.

Prepare to challenge your assumptions and discover a potentially game-changing perspective on pre-call research and sales strategy.

Here is the math from this episode:

Conversation Statistics for Chris' Team That Day:

• Total conversations: 438
• Total meetings set: 30
• Total dials: 12,522
• Dial-to-connect ratio: 28.59 dials per conversation (12,522 / 438)
• Average conversation length: 78 seconds

Research Time vs Conversation Time:
Let R = research time per dial attempt
Let C = average conversation time
Let D = dials per conversation

Research time per conversation = R * D Conversation time = C

Equation: R * D : C

Using the numbers provided:
3 minutes * 28.59 : 78 seconds 180 seconds * 28.59 : 78 seconds 5,146.2 seconds: 78 seconds

This simplifies to approximately 66 seconds of research to achieve 1 second of conversation

Chris rounds this to 90 minutes (5,400 seconds) of research to achieve 78 seconds of conversation

Research to Conversation Ratio: Research time :
Conversation time = 5,400 : 78 Simplified ratio ≈ 69 : 1

This means for every 69 seconds spent on research, only 1 second is spent in actual conversation.

Efficiency Calculation:
If a rep makes 60 dials per day: 60 dials / 28.59 dials per conversation ≈ 2.1 conversations per day

Actual performance: 438 conversations / 22 reps ≈ 19.91 conversations per rep per day