Savagedoge

Account Executive

Talk/listen ratios in sales

I work for a conversation intelligence startup and one of the things that most managers, VP's of sales and Directors seem to care about is talk/listen ratios.

I get how it sounds like the right thing to do: listen more than you talk. But how many of y'all think that's an indicator of a good sales call or a bad sales call?

Talk/listen ratio is a metric to keep track of and take seriously?

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13 comments

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LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

If you are speaking more than 65-70% of time, I’d be willing to bet your close rate Is struggling,

MajorB

WR Lieutenant

Agree

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

This goes with anything. The best leaders are the best listeners.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

It’s definitely a good metric to track but this data point alone won’t tell you how effective a sales call is... but if you’re talking 90% of the time and your prospect is only talking 10% of the time, you done goofed wether you realize it or not.

Especially during a discovery call, you should really be shooting for 50/50 talk ratio.

NorthernSalesGuru

Politicker

Manager, Outbound Sales

It’s a great metric.

That said, it’s totally situational (in my opinion) given that there are different sorts of calls in a sales cycle

BillyHoyle

Tycoon

Senior Account Executive

Gong is the Billy Bean of Sales

punnirno1

Valued Contributor

CEO

It's definitely a threshold metric. Anything above ~65% is a red flag, and so could be anything below ~30%.

The problem occurs when sales leaders start calling a 45% as worse than a 50%, as if small talk, catching up after Christmas break etc. are crimes.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

If you are speaking more than 65-70% of time, I’d be willing to bet your close rate Is struggling

TheDragon

Good Citizen

CVO

Depends on the sales call. In the industry I work in, it’s not just one call. And if the client asks a question you have to be prepared to give a ton of in-depth information, so naturally you’ll be talking more. Coming up with a metric on WHEN to talk would be much more effective.

softwarebro

Politicker

Sales Director

Always be listening

sellingsellssold

Politicker

SDR

I think that this could be a good metric to use but it is defiantly not the most common method I've seen.

MR.StretchISR

Politicker

ISR

I don't think it should be required, but if you are not active on socials in today's selling world, you're leaving money on the table

Error32

Politicker

ISR

Not hiring someone because they don’t have a LI presence is just buffoonery.

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Savagedoge

Talk/listen ratios in sales

Talk/listen ratio is a metric to keep track of and take seriously?

13 comments

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