Boost Your Sales Performance – In Just 7 Minutes with David Dulany

Resources/Links:

• Subscribe to Ten Bound Newsletter to Get Insights on Sales Development: Visit https://tenbound.com/

Summary
Finding new people to buy your product or service is an important part of the entire sales process. It is tough, Finding clients to buy your product or service is an important part of the entire sales process. And we know it is tough, right?

As a small business owner, boosting your sales performance is crucial to your growth and success.

And many mall business owners wonder if there is something specific they can do to raise their closing rate and boost their sales performance.

David Dulany is a Sales Development Program Building Specialist with deep experience building highly successful programs from scratch for technology companies.

In this episode, David shares his ability to effectively blueprint the entire sales function and the strategies a business owner can implement to boost and grow their sales performance.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:16 – David’s ideal client: “We work with mostly software companies, and they must have a sales development team. So, if they don’t have a sales development team, not much that we can help them with.”
• 01:34 – Problem David helps solve: Most companies that are running a sales team these days have spun up a sales development program, but they really find it hard to implement and put together. And so, if they’re struggling with it, if they’re trying to map it out, if they’re trying to figure out how to improve it, they come to us and we’ve got that expertise to be able to help them.
• 02:29 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to David: They’ll hire people, they’ll spend all the money, they’ll put them on the phone and give them all the tools etc. And then they quit, you know, six to 12 months into it. So, a huge expense, and it’s something that we see a lot of with people that are struggling with their self-development program.
• 03:27 – What are some of the common mistakes that folks make before finding David and his solution?: “They hire a very junior level person, they give him a list, they give him a few tools, they give him a list of phone numbers, and they just tell them to go after it.”
• 05:55 – David’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): You can look at the people. Do you have the right people on your team? Are they skilled up? Are they trained? Do you have the right processes? Have you thought about how everything flows together? Do you have the right technology? If you don’t have the right tools, and you’re not equipping the team correctly, you’re really, really behind the eight ball.
• 07:1 – David’s Valuable Free Action(VFR): Subscribe to Ten Bound Newsletter to Get Insights on Sales Development: Visit https://tenbound.com/
• 07:37 – Q: How do you know if sales development is right for your organization? A: Sales development is not just a cookie-cutter for every company. You got to make sure that it’s right for your organization. Ask yourself the question, ‘Is sales development right for your organization?’ first.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Sales development is not just a cookie-cutter for every company. You got to make sure that it's right for your organization. Ask yourself the question, 'Is sales development right for your organization?' first.”-David Dulany @tenbound Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: 0:09
Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by David Dulany. David, good day, very warm welcome, sir. Where are you hanging out?

David Dulany: 0:20
Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me on. I’m here in foggy, miserable, San Francisco.

Tom Poland: 0:26
That’s not what your background tells me. It tells me it’s just going on dusk and the Golden Gate Bridge is shining in the background. But yeah, great to have you on board. You’ve got a really interesting value proposition for us. For those of you don’t know David, he runs ten, that’s the number 10, Tenbound, a research and advisory firm focused 100% on Sales Development (SDR, BDR, ADR) performance improvement. And if you’re in sales development, you will know exactly what he means by that. But more to the point, lets come to this interview, our title today is, “How to Figure Out What to Change in Your Sales Process to Boost Your Sales Performance.” David is going to tell us how that’s done in just seven minutes. David, your time starts now. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

David Dulany: 1:16
Yeah, well, we work with mostly software companies, and they must have a sales development team. So, if they don’t have a sales development team, not much that we can help them with.

Tom Poland: 1:27
Nothing to develop.

David Dulany: 1:27
The bigger the better. Yeah.

Tom Poland: 1:29
Okay. Thank you. So, what’s the problem you solve? It’s six and a half minutes left, just over.

David Dulany: 1:34
Yeah, absolutely. So, most companies that are running a sales team these days have spun up a sales development program, but they really find it hard to implement and put together. And so, if they’re struggling with it, if they’re trying to map it out, if they’re trying to figure out how to improve it, they come to us and we’ve got that expertise to be able to help them

Tom Poland: 1:55
So, it’s not just what they need to change, but you’re actually embedding it into the business so that it’s like a train on tracks.

David Dulany: 2:04
We do. Yeah. We see a lot of those common issues among companies that are trying to do sales development. And we can usually come in and unpack that pretty quickly, give them a roadmap for moving forward, whether it be advisory, or for the train.

Tom Poland: 2:17
Okay. So good segue into question number three, five minutes 50 seconds left, before they find you, what are some of the typical symptoms that organizations are going to be experiencing who have the problem that you can solve?

David Dulany: 2:29
Yeah, absolutely. So, people put sales development teams together in order to set appointments for the sales team, and to build pipeline. And so, one of the first things we see is that appointments and pipeline are struggling because they really haven’t figured out the right process for putting the sales development engine in place. Another thing that we see really often is high attrition rate. So, they’ll hire people, they’ll spend all the money, they’ll put them on the phone and give them all the tools etc. And then they quit, you know, six to 12 months into it. So, huge expense, and it’s something that we see a lot of with people that are struggling with their self-development program.

Tom Poland: 3:09
Okay. So, question four, just under five minutes left, what are some of the common mistakes that organizations make when they’re trying to solve that problem, trying to get rid of those symptoms? They’re going to try experiment stuff before they find your solution. What are some of the common things they’re doing wrong that’s just going to end up costing them time and money?

David Dulany: 3:27
Yeah. The number one biggest problem that we see in this space is, software companies especially, they know that they need sales development, they need someone who’s really focused on finding appointments for the sales team or for the founding team, and getting those appointments scheduled and helping to build that pipeline. So, they hire a very junior level person, they give him a list, they give him a few tools, they give him a list of phone numbers, and they just tell them to go after it. You know, it’s a recipe for, if anything, a flatline performance, in some ways it’s very wasteful. And so, you know, we always recommend that you look at it from a more strategic approach, plan it out and then hire somebody.

Tom Poland: 4:09
Thank you. So just under four minutes left, we’ve got plenty of time, so maybe give us a couple of examples of the type of clients you work with? How many employees, how many in the sales development team? How they cold calling, who they’re targeting? You know, maybe flash it out a bit.

David Dulany: 4:25
Yeah, I mean, I would say that our number one trigger event is if the sales development team has been passed, either from the VP of sales to the CMO, or potentially from the CMO back to the VP of sales. What we see in a lot of companies is that sales development is, it’s a bit of a hot potato. And, you know, it looks interesting, it looks like it might be kind of fun to do, but actually, when you start to do it, it’s very difficult and people end up wanting to punt it because they don’t want a bad track record on their resume. So, the number one trigger event that we see is, you know, a new CMO comes in, they’ve got the sales development team, and they’re wondering, “What do I do with these people?” You know, “Where do we start to be able to make this into a real engine, or appointments, or pipeline.”

Tom Poland: 5:10
Right. Okay. And I was hoping to give them an idea of company size, like how many employees or how many people would be on the sales development team? What sort of markets are they targeting? Just give us something to hang their hat on.

David Dulany: 5:22
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so, you know, we usually see, you know, five to 10 people on the sales development team. Maybe one manager, maybe a couple of managers and a director. And, you know, there’s just been some turnover potentially, on the leadership of the team. And so, the senior leadership gets that and they’re trying to figure out what to do with it.

Tom Poland: 5:43
Okay. Thank you for that. Two and a quarter minutes left. Question five, one valuable free action that someone listening to this, who’s got the problem you can take, not going to solve the whole problem, but might take him a step in the right direction.

David Dulany: 5:55
Yeah, well, I would look at it, we borrowed a phrase from Marco Solonis, but we made it for sales development, look at it from the point of people, processes, or technology stack. And so, nine times out of 10, we see one of these, or multiple of these, is the issue. So, you can look at the people, do you have the right people on your team? Are they skilled up? Are they trained? Do you have the right processes? Have you thought about how everything flows together? And, or, do you have the right technology? I mean, you know, it’s becoming noisier and harder to get appointments than ever. And so, if you don’t have the right tools, and you’re not equipping the team correctly, you’re really, really behind the eight ball. So, you can look at one of those three, or maybe multiple.

Tom Poland: 6:40
Three worthwhile questions, thank you. One and a quarter minutes left. Question number six, one valuable free resource we could direct people to that’s going to give them more information. And I’m going to suggest it’s www.tenbound.com, the number ten, B-O-U-N-D dot com, lots of resources there. Anything in particular you’d point them towards?

David Dulany: 7:01
Yeah, I would say jump on the newsletter, you know, we push out so much free content and we do a bunch of events. And you know, really a lot of free resources there to help you get started. If you’re newer to sales development, or you’re just trying to figure it out. And you know, the newsletter is the best way to see what’s new and to get direction on the website. So, there’s a sign up, tenbound.com.

Tom Poland: 7:23
Okay, thank you. And we’ve got, 25 seconds left. And by the way, folks, everything that David is doing here is research base, which I think is an important distinction. So sorry, 20 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

David Dulany:7:37
Oh, I would say, you know, is how do you know if sales development is right for your organization? I think that’s really important. It’s not just cookie-cutter for every company. You got to make sure that it’s right for your organization. So, ask yourself that question first.

Tom Poland: 7:51
Thank you, David.

Tom Poland: 7:53
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.