Interview with Doug Dvorak

Amid the acceleration of communication technologies, profitable businesses have learned to not only utilize these advancements but also strategize around them.

Veteran salesman and coach Doug Dvorak reveals how such data science works along with ways to leverage it for more successful sales.

Tell us about your sales background:
I started by selling cars in the mid-eighties, then worked for Boca Research, an environmental-services company, for ten years. Recognizing the evolving landscape of technology, I decided to study it more deeply and learn about data processing. I eventually became a regional sales VP for Boca to address the data-communications explosion. Afterward, I started the Sales Coaching Institute. I was a student of sales throughout my career and enjoyed success with the help of mentors, so I wanted to share these skills with the world.

What’s one of the greatest lessons you’ve learned in your career?
Almost every company is essentially The Flintstones or The Jetsons. Before the pandemic, some organizations and salespeople were aware of digital tools like sales-enablement technologies, but many didn’t have commitments from their executive leadership teams to build digital selling cultures or processes.

Today, everything is digital, so sales leaders have a responsibility to learn about how evolving technologies can help them grow and scale their businesses. These systems may include big data [large collections of data beyond what traditional software can compute], the internet of things [devices that connect and share data], Elastic Cloud [a data analysis service], and AI. Once leaders have those tools, though, they also need a dashboard to track important data points and make intelligent database decisions.

What specific software do you recommend salespeople use?
I believe businesses need a CRM, such as Salesforce, and Power BI, which aggregates APIs into sales-leadership dashboards. Pardot, the marketing-automation tool from Salesforce, can act as the tip of your marketing spear. Develop a good command of that tool, and you can organize a marketing calendar that speaks to your constituents. Then, when qualified leads are generated, you can go into Salesforce to examine your activity and optimize it.

Which are the most important data points salespeople should look for?
You need to keep an eye on how much you’re spending on digital marketing because people are bombarded by online content and ads day in and day out. Americans make up to 35,000 decisions every day, so as a sales professional, the biggest challenge is reaching someone in a world where you can’t even get in an Uber without a screen pitching you something.

The key is to utilize digital platforms that enable you to capture people who may be interested in your product or service. Given that it takes five to ten touches to reach someone, go omnichannel with text, email, voicemail, LinkedIn, and other tools. From there, you can start conversations, schedule appointments, and ultimately convert these leads.

It’s also crucial to track your marketing budget per year, quarter, and month. Measure how much you spent, how many qualified leads you got, and how many converted to a sale, then determine your margin versus your spend.

Furthermore, you need digital marketing tools that track these touchpoints in a simple dashboard and execute campaigns. Say that Nancy and Juan each received forty leads last month. Did they reach out via omnichannel communication? How many responses did they get? Did they schedule meetings? Were they live or virtual? Did they present a solution and make a sale? Marketing software will allow you to keep an eye on all these numbers so you can make adjustments when necessary.

What if an organization’s marketing budget just isn’t bringing in the ROI it expects?
First determine if you have an adequate marketing budget; most organizations spend around 10 percent of their total revenue on marketing. If you do, work with a marketing agency or rely on your VP of marketing to identify and start using the right outlets and tools to attract qualified leads. If your spend still doesn’t generate a compelling ROI, dial down your marketing expenses, track where your money is going, and assess which tactics are most effective. From there, use metrics to evaluate new strategies as you roll them out.

Would you explain the value of tracking consumer reviews?
Whether your organization is B2B or B2C, you have to be mindful of reviews and use a mechanism that allows you a line of sight into this customer feedback. If there are positives, you can repurpose them, then reach out to those who left them to give thanks or offer benefits; these “plusones,” or unexpected extras, can ingrain consumer loyalty.

If you’re getting bad reviews, though, don’t put your head in the sand—good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster. You have to make an effort to understand and rectify customer complaints. While many people cringe at negative feedback, the real pockets of opportunity and learning are in addressing it.

How can new salespeople start tracking valuable data?
Depending on your industry, you may want to do market research first, including calculating the total addressable market (or TAM) for your product or service. Determine how what you offer fits into the current or future market, then develop an outreach plan for it based on the TAM competitors. For example, you could hold a focus group to gauge public feedback and uncover data about your industry. This may reveal an underserved market that the competition has missed; conversely, you may find a mature market crowded with big competitors and low potential margins. Knowing which one you face is key. You could be the best sales rep with decades of success, but if you’re selling VHS or another technology that there is just no market for, you ultimately won’t get very far.

I recommend that entrepreneurs try to identify growing industries to tap into. Research sectors in the stock market that are exploding, like technology, health care, and e-learning. Then find the two best businesses that are leading in that market and identify how you can benefit from studying them.

How periodically do you recommend sales leaders share crucial data with their teams?
When I managed a global sales team, I would have bookend meetings every week: a Monday all-hands call to share important data and set the tone for the week, then a Friday check-in to celebrate deals or closings to go into the weekend on a high note. In between, regional VPs would have weekly one-on-ones with their direct sales teams to examine salesfunnel activity. Many great organizations also hold daily morning huddles for ten to fifteen minutes to maintain a strong team-wide focus.

Sales is the highest-paying hard work and the lowest-paying easy work. So as valuable as sales data is, the most important tool to success is really an accurate understanding of the profession. There’s no substitute for good training.

For more info, visit dougdvorak.com

TAKE ACTION:
Consider if you can adopt greater sales-data
technology in your organization, and instruct your team on how to apply these systems more effectively.