When Sales Reps Attack

Few types of people can impact a teleprospecting reps day more positively than the sales rep(s) that they support. When you are creating opportunities via Outbounding, sales is your customer. Therefore, any teleprospecting rep worth their salt cares what their assigned sales reps think about them. When played correctly, a great sales rep can actually increase the value they are receiving from Outbound by playing the right role.  Unfortunately, it’s been our experience that they usually end up subtracting value through their interactions with their assigned teleprospecting reps. In many cases it’s up to the manager who oversees the teleprospecting team to provide the leadership, guidance, and big stick required to keep sales in line in terms of how they deal with their assigned teleprospectors.

When sales reps decrease morale and thus productivity of teleprospecting reps we call it, “The Sales Reps Attack”. Likes sharks in the sea, there are thousands of different types of Sales Reps out there but only a select few are dangerous to swimmers/teleprospecting reps. Let’s walk through the top two types of sales reps that are deadly to a teleprospectors morale and productivity and how to deal with them.  

1. The Chatterbox:  Beware The Chatterbox!!  The least aggressive and kindest of all the Sales Reps that kill morale and productivity.  The Chatterbox does it with a smile and a gentle pat on the back.  You see, The Chatterbox loves to talk.  He or she may not love to actually sell, but they sure love to talk about selling.  The Chatterbox is a diabolical predator in that they prey on the weak.  Those that support them.  The teleprospecting rep is often the person most abused by The Chatterbox.  Signs that one of your reps is being “chatterboxed” include but are not limited to the following:

More than 1 “territory review” call per week.

Lead review calls that last longer than 5 minutes.

Eye rolling from your teleprospecting rep whenever The Chatterbox’s name is mentioned.

Solution:  Put your sales rep in a shark cage.  The Chatterbox can be a valuable asset when you establish some rules of engagement.  Let The Chatterbox know how much of your teleprospecting reps time they are entitled to and manage to that.  This will bring out their best qualities and reduce the eye rolling from your rep.

2. El Burro (the Donkey):  Ugh...have fun with this one.  This is the sales rep that always crushed quota at their “last company”.  Please, don’t get me wrong, results matter.  However, it is not a fact that you can only achieve sales results at the expense of common human decency and decorum.  More importantly, what have you done for me lately.  Previous experience got you the job, current performance will keep it.  If you didn’t know this, El Burro was actually touched by the hand of god at birth and delivered to the rest of us so that we could behold his/her sales greatness.  El Burro eats weakness for breakfast and thrives on making those that show any pay the price.  The teleprospecting rep that supports El Burro often hears the following statements:

“I’m already engaged in that account, it’s not a lead”

“If this is the level of quality I can expect I’ll just do it myself”

“Who do you report to again”

Solution:  Get a harpoon.  El Burro is the worst kind of bully.  He\she must be met head on. Constantly share with El Burro and his/her boss where they stand from a conversion rate standpoint against the other sales reps.  Invariably, in our experience, El Burro is coasting on old pipeline and previous relationships.  Basically, engaging in the type of sales behavior that causes your true colors to be outed after a year or so.  Always measure where El Burro stands against the performance of other sales reps in terms of moving leads forward and train your rep to be confident and share that information when needed.  Counter each jab with an uppercut and just wait.  El Burro will either come around or be gone soon enough.

If you are running a teleprospecting team, you owe it to all of them to understand the different types of personalities they are going to encounter on the sales side of the fence. The two aforementioned are just a drop in the bucket.  It takes all kinds to close business, don’t put the blinders on and think that each one of your teleprospecting reps are dealing with the same set of cards.  They aren’t.