The other day I received a prospecting email that really impressed me.

The seller, Josh Mellott from Manticore Technology, was putting me through a well-executed prospecting process – combining voice and email touches.

I, like most prospects, was ignoring him. Until he sent me this note: 

 
The other day I ran into this article from Harvard Business Review, Motivating Salespeople: What Really Works.

It's official! Our 2012 Lead Generation Metrics & Compensation Report is now available.

Photo credit: zooboing

 
It is a sales truism that we've been given two ears and one mouth and they should be used in roughly that proportion. This is the classical sales ratio - 2:1.

In recent years, there has been tremendous discussion and discovery around Sales as science, not art. I believe this to be true - at least in part. Sales is no longer a black box; a magical alchemy known only to the Sales illuminati.

(Take a look at HubSpot VP of Sales, Mark Roberge’s Scalable Predictable Sales & Marketing presentation for great perspective on metrics-based management)

The new sales ratio

Selling certainly isn't unknowable wizardry, but neither is it a chemical reaction.

That's why I'd like to suggest a new sales ratio. 1:1. 

A brief example

I'm lucky enough to have seen Jill Konrath present. Jill argues the case that buyers’ realities have changed (doing more with less, risk and change averse, using the web to self-educate) and this means our sales approaches must adapt.