[jwdunne]

These rules only apply for higher-cost products and / or enterprise clients (in which the latter implies the former, anyway).

Your sales team can only spend as long on the customer as the ROI of having salespeople allows. If you're selling £19.99/pm software to individuals, you probably don't even need a sales team. But if you're selling enterprise software to Fortune 500, you'll need a dedicated salesperson, or account manager, to look after and nurture prospects over months or years.

So yeah, there are products and price points where if you're not closing first call you're probably wasting money.

[toomanybeersies]

If you're selling cheap software you don't want a sales team, you want a marketing team.