The CRAP Report

One of my all time favorite cartoons from childhood was the Laff-A-Lympics.  Do you remember this one?  There were three teams of Hanna-Barbera characters who participated in various sporting competitions.  You had The Scooby Doobies, The Yogi Yahooeys, and The Really Rottens.  One of the reasons that I liked this show so much was because it was chock-full of characters from all different cartoons.  You like Scooby Doo?  He’s there.  You like The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt?  They’re in there.  You like Grape Ape?  He’s there, too.  How about The Creeply’s from The Flintstones?  Yup, they’re in it, too.  You get my point.  The other cool thing about the cartoon was not only getting to see all of those characters interact together, but they were all competing against each other, which of course, always leads to hilarity.  I think competition is one of the things I like best about being in a sales environment, too.

As someone who’s been on sales prospecting teams and managed them as well, competing against someone else’s output is one of the best parts about the job.  We already know that lead generation is a numbers game, whether its number of calls or number of conversations or number of sales qualified leads passed.  If you have a team of BDR’s or if you’ve outsourced your teleprospecting efforts, one of the ways to get BDR’s more engaged in their jobs (because we know they can burn out!) is fostering a healthy environment for competition.  Competition, done right, can raise morale and improve the overall culture of your organization.  My colleague, Craig Ferrara, blogged about the importance of your company culture yesterday, and you can read more about that here. 

I think there are three important aspects to creating a healthy environment for competition for your BDR’s: 

1. Understand your BDR’s and what motivates them.
2. Set appropriate goals.
3. Keep BDR’s updated on their progress.

A while ago I talked about one of the top 100 qualities of a great teleprospecting rep being “a rep who understands what motivates them.”  As someone managing a team of BDR’s, you should know what motivates your reps, too.  This is huge!  You’ve got to know what matters most to your BDR’s, because more often than not, money ain’t it.  If you’re going to have them compete for something, having a better understanding of what is important to your reps makes all the difference in the world.  If you have a team of BDR’s who are not necessarily motivated by cash incentives beyond their salary, and you put money in front of them as a prize, you may not be able to extract as much out of them as you could.  Now, if public praise at a monthly company meeting means something to them, and they know that the winner of this month’s lead passing competition is going to be spoken about at the holiday party (with upper management there), setting that as a prize will more than likely drive production through the roof. If you’re going to foster a healthy atmosphere of competition for your BDR’s, you’ve got to understand what motivates them first.

Additionally, nobody wants to participate in a competition if they feel like the goals are too hard to achieve.  It is important, then, that you set appropriate goals.  For example, if your BDR’s average 50 activities per day, and you run a competition to see who can average 100 activities per day over the course of a month, your BDR’s are probably going to give up pretty quickly.  Though the math is simple, it’s still asking for twice the output that they’re used to over the course of an entire month.  They could probably do it for a week, but if you’ve ever made teleprospecting calls, you know its not as easy as flicking a switch to crank up your activity to double what you’re used to.  Make sure you’re asking your BDR’s to do something that is actually considered “do-able.”  Do they pass 12 – 13 qualified sales opportunities per month?  See who can average 16 – 17 for the month.  Are they able to average 12 – 15 quality conversations per day over the course of a month?  See who can average 15 – 20.  Regardless of the goal that you set before them, make sure its something that is not going to totally make them feel hopeless out of the gates.

Lastly, you’ve got to keep your BDR’s updated on their progress.  Sure, this one may seem obvious, but it is important to state nonetheless.  However you do it, whether you let them do it through reply all emails or you send out daily stats, make sure that they’re kept abreast of who’s winning and who’s not.  This makes for some great trash talking if you’ve got a great group of BDR’s.  Here, though, is where you need to exercise some care.  Some folks take that a little too far, and the last thing you want is a crying BDR or an angry BDR (or worse!) in your office because someone took the fun a little too far.  We’re not looking for HR to get involved here, just some good, healthy fun.  Not that I’m speaking from experience or have ever made Lindsay cry during The Infamous Call Blitz of 2003 because I made more calls than she did, but you’ve got to be careful.  To be fair, I didn’t say anything to her; I let my activity speak for me.  Keep your BDR’s updated on their progress, but also be watchful of when someone takes things a little too far.

Competition is great in a sales environment and it’s probably one of the main things I love about my job.  Again, if you do it right and you set the tone, a competitive environment can yield you greater productivity and boost morale at the same time.