Is this how sales teams normally work?
Sadly, yes. So much of sales is just a numbers game - you get x number of leads from cold calls, you get x number of opportunities to quote from those calls, you get to x number of serious negotiations after you've quoted and then you get to actually close some percentage of those.
Honestly, some of the most successful sales people I've known get that way by doing massive numbers of contacts, with the full understanding you need to get through x number of "fuck offs" before you get to a "yes". The really good sales people also have a keen knack for not wasting time on those who will never buy from them, no matter how far along in the sales process they get. As one of my very successful sales buddies used to say, "No practice quoting."