The CRAP Report

One of my favorite scenes from Office Space is when the Bob’s (you know, the pair of consultants whom Lumbergh brings in to weed out the non-essential employees), meet with middle manager Tom Smykowski.  Tom’s a little nervous to meet with them, as the precedent’s been set that if you don’t really give them a reason to keep you, the Bob’s suggest you leave.  During their meeting, Tom’s not doing that great of a job selling himself and what he does at Initech, and his frustration gets the best of him.  With confusion in his voice, one of the Bob’s asks him, “…what would you say…you do here?”  Angrily, Tom blurts out, “Well, look, I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to! I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?”  It’s funny because typically, if you have to tell people that, “you’re a people person,” chances are you’re not.   Managers are a special breed of people – and sales managers?  Well, they’re even more special because they are responsible for the people bringing in revenue.

So how can you tell if you’ve got a keeper, or if you need to, “fix the glitch?” Read more… »

Ah yes – you know where that line comes from, don’t you?  While country music is not necessarily my go-to choice of music genres, I really love the song The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.  I love it for a couple of reasons, really.  Growing up, I can remember listening to it in my parents’ living room, on their 8-track player no less!  There’s a nostalgic factor to that song that can take me right back to that living room some 30 years ago.  I also like that song because I enjoy playing poker; Texas Hold ‘Em for me, thanks.  It doesn’t get any more cliché than listening to that song while playing, but it means more to me because I do play (not well at all, in fact).  How does this relate to teleprospecting, though?  Well, I’ve got to tell that when you’re dealing with business development reps, sometimes you really do need to know when to fold ‘em. Read more… »

Did you ever have a Magic 8-Ball?  You remember that, right?  You ask it questions, shake it up, and then look at the bottom of the ball to see which side of the twenty-sided die inside floated to the top.  There were answers like, “It is certain,” “Ask again later,” and “Very doubtful.”  I had one as a kid and always thought they were pretty cool.  If the Magic 8Ball said that I was going to win a basketball game, then of course it was going to happen, right?  If only predicting the future was as easy as shaking one of those things.  Of course, with some of the answers you’d receive, I’m not so sure I want to leave the future up to fate.  So what does this all have to do with teleprospecting?  Well, it got me thinking about self-fulfilling prophecies and a conversation I had today.  Read more… »

Where do you get inspiration from?  Better yet, how do you inspire your teams to bigger and better things?  To pass more leads of higher quality?  To make more calls today than they did yesterday?  To make more calls tomorrow than they’re going to make today?  To talk with more people who will probably hang up on them?  To initiate interest in a product that the prospect knows nothing about but after a ten to fifteen minute phone call now has to have?  How do you get them to do that if you’re feeling burned out yourself?  If you’re a manager of BDR’s, you can’t afford to burn out.  You can’t afford to do anything BUT burn bright.  You’ve got to keep yourself ablaze if you expect your reps to even glow, so how do you do that?  Read more… »

Now, I’m not really much of a racing fan, car, horse or otherwise.  What I do know about the sport of racing, however, is that whatever method you choose to use to race, you’d better make sure that it’s in top shape.  It always amazes me, whenever I do catch an auto racing event on TV, is how fast the pit crews are when a car comes in.  Even for a flat tire, they’re so fast at changing them!  They have to be though, right?  I mean, there’s a ton of money riding on those races.  You can see where this analogy is going, right?  Your sales machine is typically the money maker of your organization, and the “pit-crew” of your sales machine are the folks who are fully qualifying leads for them.  If you want to keep that crew at a level of high performance, how do you go about doing that? Read more… »

As 2009 comes to a close, I’m thinking about the fact that I love lists – you know, countdown lists.  The “top ten” this or the “top five” that.  Whether I really agree with the person making the list or not, I still like reading someone else’s opinion.  Over the course of the next week, I want to share with you a few thoughts on what I want for your teleprospectors in 2010.  You can call it my top five “wants” for your teleprospectors in 2010.

If your BDR’s are like mine, chances are they spend most of their day trying to get in touch with people who don’t want to be spoken to.  If and when they get those folks on the phone, they are, at times, subjected to some of the most “not so nice” attitudes that prospects can conjure up.  I don’t care how tough you are, teleprospecting can take a lot out of you; and it can drain your confidence if you’re left hearing a lot of “no’s” all day. Read more… »

I’m sure around the holidays that you, like me, will have a good number of parties to attend.  Now, some may be family affairs while others may be for work, but for the most part those holiday parties typically have the same thing in common – food.  Wherever you go, I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of food to eat.  Folks will have spent time preparing and cooking great appetizers and main dishes, and desserts, too.  One of the things that may run through your mind while you’re at an event, and probably while you’re eating, is “how can I make this at home?” For a lot of you, though, the better question will be, “how can I make this better at home?”  That’s what cooks, do, right?  They find something they like and then they make it better.  The same thing can be said for your teleprospecting efforts, you know?  You’re sales prospecting machine may be great, but there’s always a way to make it better right?  Of course there is! Read more… »

We’ve all got friends in our lives that say that they’re going to do something and then they don’t do it, right?  It’s not just me, is it?  Hell, I know I’ve BEEN that person before.  I’m not proud of that, but it’s the truth.  For the most part though, hopefully we can forgive our friends if the gaffe wasn’t too great, and hopefully they’re able to do the same thing for us.  But when it comes to work, it’s a little different, isn’t it?  If you’re counting on someone to do something for you and they just never get it done, that isn’t as easily forgivable, especially if you’ve got deadlines to keep.  How do you keep people accountable to doing what they’re supposed to be doing?  And speaking about teleprospecting in particular, how do you keep BDR’s accountable? Read more… »

Oh man – we’ve all made them right?  Mistakes?  I can think of some mistakes I’ve made in my life and am glad I’ve learned from them.  No mistake, though, will be greater than what I call 2002’s Worst Job Move Ever.  I needed a job and took the first one that was offered to me from the- medical-technology-company-that-shall-remain-nameless.  This was a bad move all around for me.  For starters, it was business casual all the time.  Oh, except for Fridays when I could wear black jeans.  Yes, you read that right, black jeans.  Who wore black jeans in 2002?  My ex-boss, that’s who.  He made the determination as to what “casual Fridays” would be like, and black jeans were the only option.  Next, there was the travel.  I’m not a fan of flying – I’m not all John Madden about it, but I don’t like it.  I was told, at most, I’d travel 4 times a year.  Well, after 3 trips in 2 months, I realized I’d been duped.  We all make mistakes, but not all of us learn from them.  I’d like to talk with you about some teleprospecting mistakes and how your BDR’s can learn from them. Read more… »

One of the games I liked playing as a kid was Connect Four.  You remember that game, right?  It was like tic-tac-toe and checkers had a crazy love child.  You have to strategically connect four of the same checkers before your opponent does.  Playing the game with someone who’s never played before was fun, because it was easy to win.  More fun than that, though, was playing someone who had played before.  As a kid you could play for hours going back and forth with, “okay, how about best 9 out of 17?” or something like that.  The strategy of that simple game, much like that with tic-tac-toe, obviously determines the winner.  The same thing goes with teleprospecting and connecting with your intended contact.  How, then, do you as a manager (or maybe as the client of a B2B lead generation company) help your BDR’s connect “more”? Read more… »