Be careful what you say on the phone

Published: Wed, 07/12/23

July 12, 2023

TOGETHER WITH

Despite the conventional wisdom, mid-summer is actually the perfect time to get ahold of prospects. After all, when someone’s lying on a beach or out on a boat in the middle of nowhere, the only thing they’re thinking about is which productivity software they should buy next. In this week’s issue, we cover a study on how companies can boost reps’ performance, share a Sales Fail about an inbound call gone wrong, and give some advice to an AE who is underwhelmed with their startup. Enjoy.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

250

The majority of sales agents (66.7%) have only reached out to 250 or less prospects within a year.

Source: Sales Insights Lab

SALES ROUNDUP

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

A touching story about a saleswoman’s life circulated around the internet this week, as Melba Mebane, of Texas, retired at 90 after 74 years as a saleswoman for Dillard’s department store. Melba started her career in 1949 as an “elevator girl” and in the seven and a half decades since, never once called in sick or missed a day. You can read the full article about Melba here.
Another story that’s been making the rounds is the story of Judy Joo, a Morgan Stanley derivatives salesperson who was feeling burnt out in her career and decided to make a change, ending up as a celebrity chef. Judy says she was running on no sleep and was burnt out, constantly getting sick. She spent her free time reading cookbooks and baking, and decided to make a switch. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. You can read the Bloomberg interview with Judy here.

FEATURE

Here’s how to boost your sales reps’ performance, according to a study from the University of Missouri

Srinath Gopalakrishna and colleagues at the University of Missouri conducted a two-year study to learn about what drives success in the auto insurance world. They studied 538 agents at a large Midwestern insurance company.

These agents were told to focus on both generating and converting leads. The agents were compensated strictly on commission, making the delineation of motivation clearer than if they were paid a salary, and each agent was given an advertising budget of several hundred dollars to use as they pleased.

The researchers also analyzed the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for each rep. Things like sales competitions and performance bonuses comprised extrinsic motivation, while intrinsic motivation consisted of agents’ responses to questions about why they do what they do, whether it was to feel like they had achieved something, to take on an exciting challenge, or to feel proud of performing a useful service.

The study showed some surprising results. Even though experienced reps didn’t find as many leads as newer reps did, their skill at converting them meant their overall performance didn’t suffer. Using this data, Gopalakrishna and his team came up with a few recommendations for sales managers looking to boost productivity amongst new and seasoned reps alike.

Don’t let sellers spread themselves thin by generating too many leads to follow up on. “Prospecting is not just throwing a quote out to interested buyers,” Gopalakrishna told Harvard Business Review. “To generate a quality prospect you have to talk to each person to figure out their needs. You have to provide a highly-informed quote. That takes time—and if you do too much of it, you won’t have enough time to close others.”

Some companies prefer to have newer sellers focus exclusively on prospecting (BDRs/SDRs) and seasoned reps focus exclusively on closing deals. But it’s more prudent to consider each seller’s individual skills in both categories and work with them to find the balance between prospecting and closing that works for them. “If you hire people only to prospect, they’ll feel a sense of incompleteness,” Gopalakrishna told HBR. “Salespeople like to see the end of the funnel. If you tell them to stop in the middle, they will feel cheated out of the best part of the job.”

Hire for intrinsic motivation, especially in more experienced roles, which positively affects both prospecting and conversion efficacy. Sales reps with long track records of success in similar roles are more likely to be driven primarily by intrinsic motivation than by bonuses or commissions, and they’re probably more intrinsically motivated than people who have moved through different industries or roles throughout their careers.

Focus external motivation efforts around getting seasoned reps to boost their prospecting — since they’re the best at closing deals, it will be worth the effort. It’s also prudent to spend advertising money on experienced sellers who know how to maximize the potential of ad messaging, as opposed to novice sellers who didn’t gain much from using their advertising budgets in the study. But there’s a balance to be struck — less experienced sellers still need help growing their networks in the form of ad spending, too.

“Our findings show that it’s important to understand the entire sales process, not just to think about the end results,” Gopalakrishna told HBR. “Too many sales managers have a purely bottom-line mentality.”

AI FOR ENTERPRISE SALES

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MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

Which famous actor worked at a dealership selling cars before getting his big break?

A. Bradley Cooper
B. Tommy Lee Jones
C. Tom Hanks
D. Bruce Willis

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).

I worked for a large 3rd party marketing company in my early 30’s and this was my first real sales job. I loved it and thrived there. We were paid a modest hourly rate and our tiered commission used conversions of phone calls to a sale to determine how much we would make the following month. However, when I first started I was on the late shift (we took calls until early in the morning). They scripted our calls (for the most part) and they also recorded ALL of our calls (for QA and training purposes, literally).

When you’re first starting out AND on the late shift, you get calls that “go against your conversion rate” but you have no control over (i.e. wrong number, wrong department etc). The company just told us everyone gets them so it “evens out”, deal with it.

One month, I was working and it was the last day of our month (for commission purposes) and I was teetering on falling to a lower level, which if that happened, would cost me literally thousands of dollars.

My shift was almost over and my headset beeped, indicating an incoming sales call. Well, after our scripted introduction, the guy on the other end asked for customer service (we couldn’t sell those calls, a ding against my conversion). I told him I’d transfer him and after I THOUGHT he was off the line, I mumbled, “Learn to hit the right prompt next time, dumb***”.

About a minute or two later, my headset beeped again and guess who was on the line?: Mr. Dumb***….and he was FURIOUS. He told me he heard what I said, proceeded to yell at me and then asked for my supervisor. Oh, by the way, insult to injury: ANOTHER ding against my conversion!! My stomach dropped and I panicked!! Not only was I rude to this guy but I apparently cursed on a recorded call which was a fire-able offense. I dropped my head and went to get my very tough supervisor with my tail between my legs. I quickly explained what happened and let her know he wanted to talk to her. I just knew I was about to get fired.

She proceeded to take the call, was very serious on the phone with him and I heard her tell him that I would be reprimanded to the fullest. (Oh, crap.) When she hung up, she looked at me with a gleam in her eye and said, “I know you’re under a lot of pressure since it’s the last night of the month but just don’t ever let that happen again please.” Then she chuckled and let me stay off the phones until the end of my shift to save me from losing thousands of dollars in commission. I spent another 5 years there and never once had anything like that happen to me again, lesson learned. I even got promoted twice!

Anonymous North Carolina

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- July 2023

WORTH A PEEK

Micromanagers are amazing!... said no one, ever. But they’re all too common in the world of sales. So what can you do if you’re stuck with a micromanager for a boss? A good article from Indeed goes into depth on examples of what you can say to a micromanager to get them off your back. Not all of these will work, but they’re a good guide. Check it out 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 work for a tech startup as an AE. The company has been around for about four years. In 2021, the company raised a huge amount of funding to speed up growth. I don’t want to say how much or give any other details about the company because people might be able to figure out which company it is, and I’d like to keep this confidential. But the money raised was over nine figures.

The company raised this money despite having revenue under three million dollars a year. The huge round of funding was one of the main reasons why I took this job. I was under the impression that if a company raised that much money, it meant they’re extremely successful or about to be extremely successful. After all, why would smart investors put in over a hundred million dollars into a company that hasn’t proven itself, right?

Well, unfortunately, I am finding out the hard way. I’ve been here for over a year and a half, and in that time, the company has really struggled to close new business. The lead flow is pretty good because the company has a bunch of money to spend on marketing. But our sales cycle is insanely long, and we’re not closing anywhere near the number of deals we should be. Basically, the customers tend to say that our product is a “nice to have,” not a “need to have.”

I was very excited to get this job, because of the idea of joining a rocket ship that was going to eventually IPO and make me a millionaire. Seriously, I was convinced this was the opportunity of a lifetime. But in reality, it’s kind of a miserable place to work. I feel like management kind of knows the company is not going to ever become a unicorn and they’re not as excited about anything as they were when I first came on right after all the funding hype. If you were in my shoes, would you move on to a different company or stick it out here and hope things get better? I guess I’m mostly venting because I can’t have this conversation with anybody at work. Thanks!

Dejected in Location withheld

Dear Dejected,

This is a perfect example of things not always being what they appear to be. A job you expected to be amazing ended up being a bit of a dud. It happens, and definitely not just in tech. Sales reps are known for moving on to greener pastures, and quite often, the leads, or the culture, or the pay, isn’t what it was cracked up to be.

As far as whether you should stay or go, you might want to reread what you wrote. “It’s kind of a miserable place to work.” We spend forty hours or more at our jobs every week, and if many of those hours are miserable, it’s really not the best use of our time on this earth.

There are plenty of great tech sales jobs out there. You might want to consider going to a later-stage company, or even an established player. Make sure to do your research beforehand. Check out RepVue and other transparency platforms before accepting an offer. And don’t worry, if you stick in sales long enough and commit yourself, you can definitely become a millionaire. It usually just takes a bit longer than it might seem. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: B – Tommy Lee Jones (you can read the source article here)

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

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