When you get promoted and one of your coworkers is jealous

Published: Wed, 03/23/22

March 23, 2022

Welcome back. On this day in 1806, having completed the first expedition across the U.S. to the Pacific coast, famed explorers Lewis and Clark began their return to St. Louis, which was probably still faster than it would take to get a call back from a prospect. In this week’s edition of The Quota, we’ll give you fifteen random (but interesting) sales tips from around the web, share a poll about how many teams are hitting quota, and help a sales manager who’s not getting much love from one of his sales reps. Let’s go.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

The percentage of sales managers who regularly work weekends.

Source: Pipedrive

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week

A sales icon has passed away, according to a recent report from Las Vegas. David Biddle, nicknamed the "King of Cars” was the first African American from Las Vegas to own a car dealership license. Over his long career, he sold cars to the likes of Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. Among the businesses he started were Biddle Motors, Biddle Barbeque, a T-shirt printing shop, a flower shop, and a bakery. You can read more about the late salesman here.
A classic and hilarious ad campaign involving an unsuspecting salesman resurfaced this past week, when Fanbuzz.com ran an article calling Jeff Gordon’s infamous car salesman prank the “ultimate” in NASCAR pranks. In a commercial for Pepsi Max, Gordon disguises himself as a car shopper named Mike, and asks to take a Chevy Camaro for a test drive. The salesman comes along for the ride, and gets more than he bargained for. You can read the article and watch the hilarious video here.

FEATURE

15 random (but interesting) sales tips from around the web

Some of you (lovely) readers have written in and asked us to include more sales tips as part of our content. Since we strive to do things a bit differently, we wanted to make sure the tips weren’t your generic, run-of-the-mill, “sales hustler” tips that you can literally find anywhere, and were instead a bit unique, and worth highlighting.

So we scoured the internet, and went searching high and low for a handful of tips that were good enough to make the cut. While none of these are the silver bullet that will turn you into a seven-figure earner overnight, they’re definitely worth keeping in mind. And if they can help you close just a few more accounts per year, then they’re worth it.

Telling prospects ‘no’ is okay. Disqualify fast and move on quickly. – Jesse Pappas
When you’re cold calling prospects for the first time, preface the conversation by telling them you just want to ask them three questions. On your end, you’re qualifying your prospects, which helps with your conversion rates; at the same time, this makes your prospect more likely to agree to speak with you. – Will Cannon
Nowhere is it written that a presentation must be a monologue. Put up a slide titled “Our Understanding of Your Situation” listing several of the prospect’s key issues and turn the “presentation” into a dialogue. You’ll be amazed how much the prospect will appreciate you making the meeting about them and not your offerings. – Mike Weinberg
At the start of every appointment, reaffirm why you're there, your agenda, the prospect’s agenda, and likely outcomes. Otherwise, you’re playing by their rules -- and nine times out of 10 they won’t tell you what those rules are. – Fraser Hay
Make shamelessness your superpower. I won’t even get started with all the ways shame can hold you back from being successful in business and life. To be an effective negotiator, you need to get past worries about seeming impolite or cheap. While you may not always win or get exactly what you were hoping for, you won’t know what’s possible until you try. You’d be surprised with how often you can get exactly what you want–with almost no pushback–just by asking. Other times, the other party will meet you somewhere in between, but that’s still usually better than if you hadn’t asked at all. Likewise, don’t be afraid to walk away if the deal isn’t what you want; this kind of shamelessness is one of the strongest negotiation tactics. – Heather R. Morgan
Everything ties into ‘I believe, let’s discuss, you decide.' – Nick Meikle
Be transparent. It may be hard to imagine, but something as counterintuitive as leading with your flaws can result in faster sales cycles, increased win rates, and make competing with you almost impossible. 82% of consumers specifically seek out negative reviews when making a purchase. Why not engage buyers with unexpected honesty? – Todd Caponi
At the moment you’re tempted to tell the buyer what 'he needs to do,' instead offer a story about a peer of the buyer. – Mike Boswort
Never try directly to diminish or minimize something important to another person. By making a direct challenge to a crucial criterion you are more likely to strengthen it than to diminish it. Your best strategy is to begin by accepting that the criterion is legitimately important. – Neil Rackham
Do not overlook junior staff. Many of them will be decision makers sooner than you’d expect. – Dzintars Lusis
When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. – Dale Carnegie
When it’s time to go home, make one more call. – Jeb Blount
Before the sales conversation, ask yourself “what do I not want to be asked”, then list those questions and prepare your answers to the best of your ability. – Marc Jantzen
The customer never wants your product. What they buy is always a means to another end: profits, prestige, time, and so on. – Jason Rekker
Never make statements, always ask questions -- preferably questions you know the answer to. This leads clients to draw their own conclusions and sell themselves, as opposed to being sold. Even when you’re asked a question and you’re unsure why they asked, it’s better to clarify by saying, 'That's an interesting question; why is that important to you?' rather than diving in and flubbing the whole process. – Steve Farmer

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which industry has the highest level of employment in Sales and Related Occupations?

A. Clothing Stores
B. Building Materials and Supplies Dealers
C. Food and Beverage Stores
D. General Merchandise Stores

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

“This is more of a career fail than a sales fail, but when I read these things, I always think about something really dumb I did in my late 20’s. I was working this pretty amazing sales job doing financial sales at the time. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but compensation-wise, it was great.

We were an all-inbound call center, and our company advertised really heavily on the radio. Normally, an inbound-only call center would have a crappy comp plan since there’s no real prospecting involved, but this company paid well. You could break six-figures basically by showing up and going through the motions. It was a stressful sale, but like I said, if you showed up and answered the phone and weren’t completely incompetent, you could get paid.

At that point, I was making more money than I’d ever made before. Month after month. Honestly, it felt like a dream come true since I grew up in a working-class environment. But I somehow managed to screw it all up.

My sales manager at the time got into a pretty heated dispute with the general manager. He (my sales manager) felt like he should have been compensated for a particular deal, which he never got paid out for, since he was a producing manager. The general manager basically told him, “No one is chaining you to your desk,” basically saying if you don’t like it, then leave, and my sales manager took him up on it and left.

The company he went to was a startup in the same exact space. After he went, he recruited me and another guy that worked with us, and we both made the jump. Well, it turned out to be a ridiculously dumb move on my part. It was just the three of us in a tiny office, with absolutely no leads whatsoever. After a few weeks, the sales manager used his AMEX to buy us 10k worth of leads from some outbound call service, but we burned through those in an afternoon.

Long story short, after about a month, I ended up quitting and moving back in with my parents (lol seriously) and the company closed down a few months after that. The second guy that came with us went back to the company we both left, but I never got an invite back. Later on, the sales manager became a realtor, and is pretty successful from what I understand. I’m doing fine now, but I definitely walked away from hundreds of thousands of dollars in income. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Anonymous, 37 New Jersey

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- March 2022

WORTH A PEEK

While it mostly flew under the radar, the 2016 movie, Gold, starring Matthew McConaughey and Edgar Ramirez, is a must-watch for fans of sales and business flicks. McConaughey plays a down-on-his luck (but determined) gold prospector who’s looking for his big break. He teams up with Ramirez’s character to dig in the jungles of Indonesia, where they strike paydirt. But in the shady world of gold prospecting, not all is what it seems. You can check out the underrated flick here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team,

I’m in my fifth year working in sales, and I’m almost positive it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. This past year, I was promoted to sales manager. It’s my first management position, but so far, I’m loving it, and taking my responsibilities seriously.

But there’s someone who isn’t loving it: a guy who is on my team who used to be my coworker. It’s as if he’s unhappy that I got promoted while he is still selling. When we were coworkers, he was generally pretty cool towards me, and we never had any issues.

But now, he makes it pretty obvious that he doesn’t respect me as a leader. He sighs through sales meetings and messes around on his phone, he responds with “k” or “ya” when I message him asking to do something, and sometimes, he even completely ignores emails where I’ve asked him a question until I send a follow-up. He also refers to me as “boss” and “big guy,” which he obviously does in a condescending way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he talks about me to other team-members.

I’ve gone out of my way to try to be nice to this guy, but no matter how patient and respectful I am, he keeps doing this passive-aggressive act. Any advice on how to turn him around? He puts up numbers, but he’s not a top producer or anything.

Frustrated in Boston

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Dear Frustrated,

Congratulations on your promotion. It sounds like you’re committed to your career, and that alone will put you a step ahead of thousands of others who are not. Your situation isn’t that unusual, in sales or in any other profession. When someone gets promoted, there will be others who believe that they’re more deserving, or that you’re not.

You say you’ve gone out of your way to be nice to him, and, presumably, you’ve shown him more respect than he’s showing you. Since you’ve already tried that approach, maybe it’s time to try something else.

You are his manager, therefore he reports to you. If he’s unwilling to be professional about it, then he’s probably not a good fit for the role. It’s time to step up and be upfront about what’s expected from him, which will give him an opportunity to act professionally before you show him the door.

Set up a one on one meeting, and go over all of the things he’s doing that you don’t think are acceptable. Be sure to stick to things that are provable and obvious – for instance, don’t accuse him of badmouthing you behind your back (without evidence). Be clear and direct, and try to keep your emotions out of it. Unless he’s a fool, he’ll get the picture.

After the meeting, send an email documenting the things you’ve discussed. While there are always two sides to every story, the fact remains that you’re his boss. If he can’t accept that fact, then he should find somewhere else to work. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: D – you can see the data here.

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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