120 cold calls a day, is this the norm?

I recently just joined my first 'SaaS' working for a company that helps the hospitality industry. To put it quite frankly we are a rewards system for restaurants. After doing some research in the SaaS industry I think my company is pretty lackluster when it comes to equipping their sales rep with the tools they need to succeed.


First off our KPIs are quite redundant. 120 cold calls a day, 3 bookings a day and 2 closes a week. For our CRM platform we use Zendesk (Is that even considered a real CRM?). What really baffles me is our leads are pretty much recycled. If someone doesn't close the lead it gets passed off to the next person pretty much after 2 weeks.


Now our product is pretty simple to understand so our sales cycle can range from the same day close to up to 2 weeks. But the process of going through 120 calls just to get 3 bookings and then going through an hour long demo on the hopes that it will close.... is this what sales is? When i first started i had that newbie energy but getting over 100 no's everyday is very moral crushing


In terms of leadership for our company the culture is actually pretty nice and everyone here is friendly. The only thing is when I managed to meet with the CEO he was a nice guy and all but he even told me his not much of a 'salesperson'. Pretty sure our higher ups dont put much budget into their sales side.

👑 Sales Strategy
📞 Cold Calling
🏷 Advertising
71
goose
Politicker
14
Sales Executive
This doesn't sound like sales.  This sounds like looking for a specific needle in a pile of needles.
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
The needles never stop coming too 🤢
Chep
WR Officer
10
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
As an S.D.R my KPIs are half that and you're closing too. I respect your grind sir🤝
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
haha appreciate it, what industry you work in if you dont mind me asking?
Chep
WR Officer
1
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
SaaS
Howdy
1
BDR
that is a grind - surley 
Prizrak
Politicker
6
Disruptor of worlds
I worked a call center when I first started in small biz sales. I want to say my goal was something like 40 or 50 calls a day. But it was also inbound so my call to close ratio was huge. I can't imagine doing this. I did door to door for 3 days before i ditched that. Get out as soon as you can.
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
Inbound... thats the dream
Howdy
0
BDR
door to door is a whole nother beast...
Incognito
WR Officer
5
Master of Disaster
*hugs*
NoSuperhero
Politicker
1
BDR LEAD
*group hugs*
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
👬
mythbuster
Catalyst
4
Account Executive
Change the job buddy .. This is not at all SaaS
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
Agreed
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
Are you sure you're not at a call center? Yikes 😬
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
I think call centers are a better option at this point lol
Annonny
Big Shot
3
Account Executive
I think 120 is kinda difficult. Not impossible but makes you exhausted. Seems all a little much imo
MagicFan1998
Politicker
1
Account Executive
I agree, beefany
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Yea dont get me wrong it was very doable the first month. But imaging just having to do it over and over again...
Annonny
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
Yes, I can imagine, kinda try and do it daily! 
SaaSKicker1000
Politicker
3
AE II
Shit I thought I had a hard day when I made 60-70 dials + 20-30 emails as an SDR
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Our emails dont even count as a KPI 😅
Howdy
0
BDR
wowza 
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
My BDRs range from 80-130 calls in a day. most Average about 90-95. It's how things roll in the copier industry. Contact sport. 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
Sounds more like a numbers game to me
lightsout33
WR Officer
0
Senior Manager
Gotta be smb?
TheRealPezDog
Notable Contributor
3
Account Manager
Do sales managers realize when they "require 100+ dials/day" sales reps will fake most of those dials just to inflate the number? 

As for advice, go look for a different job, you absolutely cannot go wrong with being a full cycle sales rep.  GO FULL CYCLE. 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
Surprisingly my sales manager is actually a really good manager. She had left the company a while back and they gave her a amazing offer for her to come back. Pretty sure shes set with what she got or else she wouldn't be working for this company 
Smithy
Politicker
2
Director of Sales
Nah, that’s not normal. 

50-70 is about standard for SMB or some Corporate level it 100 day means that the ICP for the sales people isn’t particularly good and that marketing should be able to do a campaign/s to help with inbound leads 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Thats another thing, i dont even think we have a marketing department 
paddy
WR Officer
2
Director of Business Development
Ur a beast
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Thanks my guy
sadness2
2
Inside Sales Manager
Well from a numbers perspective for an SDR/AE combine role: 120 calls, 3 bookings, 2 closes, I think it makes sense if you were a unicorn and worked 60 plus hours a week. 

120 calls at an ~8% connect rate would give you roughly 10 people to talk to a day. A good rule of thumb is 1/3 will say yes, 1/3 will say no, 1/3 will say not now. That means you will get 15 (3 a day with 5 days) yes's to explore further in a week. Of those 80% (12) will show up to that meeting, assuming you built enough value. If you can close 16% of the meetings you set you should be able to hit your 2 closes. 

All that said there is a reason SDR/AE specialization exists. You wouldn't have to juggle so much and be on point at every aspect of the sales process. 

My advice would be to ask your boss to walk through the numbers with you and point you to who is currently doing this successfully. Then ask them what they do, assuming someone is winning. 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
'I think it makes sense if you were a unicorn and worked 60 plus hours a week' - My thoughts exactly
SADNES5
Politicker
1
down voters are marketing spies
Eee. 100 dials a day is a good goal. 120 just feels like your SDRs/AEs are going to burn dials. Are they stretch goals by chance?

I mean those numbers made sense for pretty much all industry. 100 dials usually leads to 3-5 meets and 1-2 closes. 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
2
Account Exec
They aren't stretch goals and tbh even our top guys in the industry dont do that many calls. Most on average usually get 1 sale a week. It could be because of our lead source
SADNES5
Politicker
2
down voters are marketing spies
Spoken like a true sales person. "Crappy leads" 😂

I feel you man. Also 💯 username 🤣
lightsout33
WR Officer
0
Senior Manager
I think 50 is industry standard these days, I run sales dev and honestly think that's too high. I prefer 30-40 legitimate dials
JuicyKlay
Celebrated Contributor
1
AM
This is not the norm for saas or any “normal” type of sales 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
I am so glad i aint the only one
AdamUpchurch
Contributor
1
Idk man
It’s sales baby. 

it’s a numbers game. 

Instead of calling, walk into the restaurants. Be different. Also, pro tip, don’t call during lunch times. 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
During a pandemic i wish that was a possibility lol. Even then its quite time wasting if you gotta visit 120 restaurants a day. 
steakalldayerryday
Opinionated
1
AE
That's 15 calls an hour, every hour, assuming you do nothing else. Are you just dialing down a list? 
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Out of 20 calls, 10 of them straight up say NO. 5 of them are not available and the rest i ll be luck if i get to a decision maker 
salesnerd
WR Officer
1
Head of Growth
Woof, yeah no that's not normal. That's too many calls a day.
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Was thinking the same thing just wasnt sure haha
alyshahzi
Celebrated Contributor
1
Sales Development Representative
That's tooo much to ask and do! Damn!!
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
Its is quite the work especially when you have to do full sales cycle  
breezyboiii
Politicker
1
Sales Boiii
this isn't even normal for call centres. is this a ground floor type of operation?
I get they might want to be ambitious, but that's a large amount of numbers.
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
We all work remote. the thing is we are all considered AEs, so everyone is involved in the whole cycle no SDR or BDRs
NoSuperhero
Politicker
1
BDR LEAD
I call this senseless calling, you can sit a monkey down to dial 120 times, if that's the job try going for the quality vs quantity approach. 

I'm amazed that you're booking 3 meetings a day. You need to talk to your sales manager and see who is your ideal customer profile to make this easier on you and the rest of the team.

If you're booking 3 meetings a day by senseless dialing, imagine how much more you can get if you focus on the ones that are more likely to purchase. I value working smarter than just hard work. That's just me.
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
Yea this company also has a history of 'quick to hire, quick to fire." i literally got offered the job on the 2nd interview on the spot. I can see why
NoSuperhero
Politicker
1
BDR LEAD
Yeah, I think you can gain great experience here and I suggest you leverage that in your next job interview. :D
exec
Acclaimed Answer
1
Account Executive
the reality is we just got out of a pandemic and this is an industry that's largely impacted. sure, Zendesk isn't a CRM but for an early stage, high-risk SaaS company it does the job of maintaining records. in my opinion, there are better sales roles and company cultures you can join. this sounds like a high turnover space where the company absolutely needs to hit numbers to grow and will do anything they can to do so
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
You are on the money when it comes to how this company operates. I dont think this company is going to last long tbh with the platform they have
avocadobegood
Valued Contributor
1
MM Account Executive
re. "is this the norm" - fuck no, man.
Stringer
Arsonist
1
SDR
Sounds savage over there. 
LordStacks
Opinionated
1
Account Executive
I work in SaaS as well and our SDRs do 100-150 dials a day. Does it suck? Yes. Does it bring in money? Also yes.

We have/had a very rewarding system for SDRs, so it kept them grinding. Well, at least it kept me grinding. It really helped me to better understand who our ICP is and what they are looking for. Also, our VP would always incentivise us from his own pocket and etc., so that really boosted morale.

My suggestion would be to have a development plan laid out in from of you, so that you'd be working towards a goal. That's what I did on my first day at the company - received a timeline for being promoted to AE and just kept grinding. 
ChaoticGood
Contributor
1
Chief Revenue Officer
That's not sales. There's someone at the top that never did sales and maybe watched a webinar and decided they know everything there is to know about prospecting.

I don't give my guys any goals for daily calls or anything of that nature. I have a yearly revenue closed target for everyone and they can all do whatever the hell they want to close it.
BCD
Politicker
1
BDR
Seems aggressive. Mad respect to you! 
sugardaddy
Politicker
1
Head of Sales
120+ how the f... do you manage to do that. I respect you my guy. 
Onemoredial
Valued Contributor
1
Account Exectutive
How large is the company?
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
50 employess lol... 
Onemoredial
Valued Contributor
1
Account Exectutive
Oh wow ok, whats the sales leadership like, do you have experienced SaaS people in your head of sales/ CRO roles?
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
1
Account Exec
No unfortunately top brass are more software focused then sales focused 
Onemoredial
Valued Contributor
1
Account Exectutive
Yeah that sounds familiar, I'd work to position myself as the SaaS sales expert in the business. I appreciate it's your first role but I'd look at literature like "The 4 Disciplines of Execution" and try and present a working model to the business based on real figures, at the very least they may let you pilot it. 


I use a sheet which based on close rates, average order rates, meetings to opportunity conversion, and cadence to meetings booked values tells me how many cadences I need to start every day. It gives me a really good way to track performance to goal across the month/quarter, as well as actually stats I can refer to if I'm being questioned on my output.
Cepacol
Opinionated
1
BDR
Not worth it at all man. Want a piece of advice? Never sell something that is so cheap that you can do it in a day or two.
FatVeinyTip
Arsonist
0
Account Exec
yea you would think its pretty cost effective at least but the price of our product is 300+ on a monthly basis. thats quite high for our industry 
14
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How Do You React When You Recieve Cold Calls?

Question
34
7

BOA ends cold calls by trainee brokers. What are your thoughts on cold calling?

Discussion
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How do you feel about cold calling?
75% Important to the job
13% Waste of time
13% Warm calls only!
55 people voted
7

How many cold calls do you make a day?

Discussion
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# Cold Calls
42% I'm Hot shit, I don't make cold calls
41% 20-50
17% >50
116 people voted