In today’s episode of the ‘Sales Samurai’ podcast, host Sam Capra who helps marketing leaders in the retail space go beyond the sale/transaction talks with guest Ralph Barsi and discusses 5 reasons why salespeople miss quotas. He also shares how we can learn and overcome them.

Episode Highlights

• 01:40 – Ralph shares, he oversees the global inside sales organization Tray.io in San Francisco. They are in a general automation platform and help a lot of companies integrate all the components of their tech stack.
• 03:23 – Sam enquires, how did Ralph got started in sales and what's his origin story around sales?
• 05:37 – What's not changed in sales is people buy from people and people selling to people must build rapport and credibility quickly by not thinking about themselves but the sellers point out Ralph.
• 07:10 – Ralph highlights, buyers have access to so much information to learn from, that's where the sellers come in. That's where sellers need to differentiate themselves as trusted adviser.
• 10:28 - The first obscurity just comes down to so many sales reps, especially sales development reps, who are initiating a lot of first conversations with prospects that nobody knows who they are.
• 11:05 – Ralph mentions, you attract opportunities by becoming attractive in the marketplace. You do that by adding value to the marketplace, and the best channel to do that is LinkedIn.
• 13:32 – You've got to build up who you are and why one should listen to you even more. You don't have to do that if you've been avoiding obscurity this whole time.
• 15:52 – Sam asks when Ralph says lack of focus, how that impacts salespeople missing quota?
• 16:25 - If you're trying to serve your mission of closing deals, making your quota, and moving the needle as a sales rep, you have to boil things down to one thing, says Ralph.
• 18:00 – Ralph mentions, one of the best tools that he has seen that might be effective from a lack of focus standpoint is it was published a few years ago, by a gentleman named Brendon Burchard. He created and published a one-page productivity plan.
• 22:50 – Sam enquires about Ralph’s thoughts around inactivity.
• 24:13 – It’s about planning your work, and not just kind of hoping it all works out.
• 26:28 – It doesn't matter at all if somebody opened your email, it does not move the needle but if somebody responds to your email, engages and books that meeting with you that means there's something you're putting in the right spot in terms of how you craft your messages.
• 29:10 - No matter what models you look at or acronyms you want to toss around, it always comes down to taking action and doing what you say you're going to do.
• 30:46 – You will establish conversation flow when you have a beginning, middle and an end in your mind in a conversation, states Ralph. 
• 32:15 – You’ve to be prepared as a salesperson at all times to establish conversation flow, mentions Ralph.
• 42:00 – Sam questions Ralph about his thoughts on failure to keep improving.
• 46:10 – If you just ask yourself, how good am I at this, you'll get your wheels cranking and, in your head, you'll start making some little changes that make the big things happen.

Three Key Points

1. To all the salespeople, keep your finger on the pulse of all that's going on. So be on point with where your competitors are today. Be on point with where your customers or competitors are today so that you can help and meet with your prospects and customers.
2. The five reasons why salespeople miss quota: 1. Obscurity 2. Lack of focus 3. Inactivity, 4. No conversation flow 5. Failure to keep improving.