Field Salesmen in constant contact with Office Staff?

32 replies
Hi everyone;

I'm thinking about having my door to door salesmen in constant contact with virtual staff in the Philippines. Every salesperson would be paired with a "virtual buddy" via cell phone speakerphone for their entire 4 hour shift.

The goals are:

1) To keep the salesperson motivated throughout the day by having a friendly & supportive person always in contact

2) To have instant feedback on all calls delivered and discussed.

The only time the pair would NOT speak is when the salesperson is talking to a prospect. This makes up a fraction of the salesperson's field time (most people aren't home so there's a lot of "dead time" in between conversations. I believe this to be a bad thing for most people)

I'm not an experienced sales manager so I thought I'd ask for some feedback on this plan. The added labor & phone costs are not an issue; I just want my guys to be more effective, have more fun on the job, and have less staff turnover.

Thanks
#constant #contact #field #office #salesmen #staff
  • Profile picture of the author James English
    Good in theory, what happens when your "virtual buddy" starts talking in his pocket during a sales call?
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  • Profile picture of the author Rearden
    You mean I, the salesperson, am going to have to talk to some foreigner who I don't know, for the sake of motivating me?

    If motivation and loneliness is a serious problem, enough to contemplate this solution, trust me, you've got bigger problems on your hands than you realize.

    What are you selling and what problems are you having with your salesforce?
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by Rearden View Post

      You mean I, the salesperson, am going to have to talk to some foreigner who I don't know, for the sake of motivating me?

      If motivation and loneliness is a serious problem, enough to contemplate this solution, trust me, you've got bigger problems on your hands than you realize.

      What are you selling and what problems are you having with your salesforce?
      You and I are on the same page. And think of how much time would be wasted with both parties.

      To the OP; Have you ever sold anything before? Would it have helped if a person was talking to you every minute of the day? To me it would be a major distraction.

      And how long do you think the conversation would be about sales? About seven minutes. Now you are paying two strangers to talk to each other....and they are tying to fill their time. The person in the office..are they trained sales managers that......

      Anyway, it's an idea that sounds wonderful until you actually know something about sales or sales management.
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  • Profile picture of the author TyBrown
    You are going to get an inexperienced person to critique your door to door salespeople all day? This idea confused the snot out of me.
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  • Profile picture of the author J. Barry Mandel
    Hi,

    Your salesperson should be financially motivated enough to go through the Gobi dessert (that's a metaphor) on his/her own without company of any sort from another human being.

    If he/she has an issue then the manager should be available for assistance.

    Work isn't always about fun, but I can appreciate where you're coming from

    Best of Luck,

    Justin

    Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

    I just want my guys to be more effective, have more fun on the job, and have less staff turnover.
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  • Profile picture of the author Delta223
    hi; to clarify a few things:

    - My door to door guys handle most of prospecting work and then either call me directly and pass the phone for me to talk to the person directly, or try to schedule an appointment right there at the door. It's a tough job and motivation to continue is the #1 issue. I also need to make clear that these aren't top level professionals; they're $12/hr + commission part timers.

    - I didn't fully explain the role of the virtual staff. They'll be trained on monitoring the person to make sure they hit their key talking points and also evaluate the delivery, probing for hot buttons etc.

    - Staying motivated is tough in this line of work. Turnover is high. If this plan helps reduce turnover by even a small amount then it pays for itself many times over.
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    • Profile picture of the author J. Barry Mandel
      Why not appropriate the extra hourly pay to your sales people that you would've put towards virtual staff to give them some extra push?

      $12 is hardly motivation all depending what their commissions are.

      Your sales guys should *ideally* be self-sufficient and should only be contacted/contacting you for assistance, not "babied" with support.

      Also Master Windu was 100% right when he said "It is a horrible idea...and your "virtual staff" have no business monitoring your sales person."

      End of subject.

      Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

      I also need to make clear that these aren't top level professionals; they're $12/hr + commission part timers.
      How will they "monitor" the sales person if they won't be with them on sales calls as you mentioned in the original post?

      - I didn't fully explain the role of the virtual staff. They'll be trained on monitoring the person to make sure they hit their key talking points and also evaluate the delivery, probing for hot buttons etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author Delta223
        Originally Posted by Justin Mandel View Post

        Why not appropriate the extra hourly pay to your sales people that you would've put towards virtual staff to give them some extra push?

        $12 is hardly motivation all depending what their commissions are.

        Your sales guys should *ideally* be self-sufficient and should only be contacted/contacting you for assistance, not "babied" with support.

        Also Master Windu was 100% right when he said "It is a horrible idea...and your "virtual staff" have no business monitoring your sales person."

        End of subject.



        How will they "monitor" the sales person if they won't be with them on sales calls as you mentioned in the original post?

        I could raise the pay instead of hiring virtual staff. It's an option, but I think will produce less of the desired results than having a feedback & motivation loop in place.

        I don't mean to sound hostile but I do not see any justification for your opinion about the monitoring. Why are you against any & all monitoring?
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

          I could raise the pay instead of hiring virtual staff. It's an option, but I think will produce less of the desired results than having a feedback & motivation loop in place.

          I don't mean to sound hostile but I do not see any justification for your opinion about the monitoring. Why are you against any & all monitoring?
          Dear Delta person;
          OK, now I see you have some smarts.
          But your idea is severely flawed. I could explain all the reasons why, but an hour of experience with this should convince you.

          What is not a bad idea is for them to call in to you, at the end of each hour. Why? Because they are responsible to you, and that is the motivation. Why every hour? Because it's harder to think of stories to tell you, if they have to call in every hour.

          Monitoring is a great idea. Having a non-sales manager be in continuing communication is simply a bad idea. And you need to be the monitor.

          An even better idea? Take the new guy out for an hour and show him what you want him to do. I know how that sounds. I know you would rather go to the dentist than cold call (if you're normal), but you should do it. That will accomplish several things;
          1) You will get a real set of numbers as results you can compare them to what your reps tell you.
          2) You show them that it isn't hard, and nobody yells at you or throws something at you.
          3) You'll get appointments just from this training.

          They need to see appointments made. They need to see success.

          And fire quickly. Some people will be great at this, and most won't. You need to sort through them quickly. A day is plenty of time to tell who will work out and who won't.

          Monitoring will not make a poor salesperson better. You just need to find better people. And having them call in every hour is a way to monitor them. At the end of a couple of days, that hourly monitoring will not be needed.

          Is money the motivator? Absolutely. Nobody will do this for another reason. Would you?
          Pay a bonus on the number of leads, appointments, whatever.

          Also, your guys need to know what you find acceptable.

          Once I hired two guys to go door to door to register people for a free drawing. I did not supervise or train then. I told them what to do (it was a one sentence script). I had been averaging 10-12 registrations an hour.

          The were gone for 5 hours. They both came back with one...ONE registration...for a free drawing. And a list of people that were going to "Think about" the free drawing. It was a free drawing!

          I let them both go. Oh yeah, I paid them by the hour. Huge mistake.
          I would (for you) pay them by the hour the first day, and for every appointment after that. If you keep paying these canvasers by the hour, you'll end up with a very unproductive canvasing force working to keep their jobs.

          Find the good ones and pay them more.

          And don't try to fix the bad ones. I promise you, once they are bad, they do not improve. The bad ones will give you excuses every hour. The good ones will be eager to get back to work.

          But take this from an experienced sales manager; Once they are a problem employee, they don't get better. It almost never happens. So let them go for lack of production, and excuses don't matter.

          And by the way, you can get great canvasers with a promise of $12 an hour plus bonuses. But the $12 and hour only has to be during a training period. The good ones won't need it.

          I might pay $30 for an appointment. That will be worth it to you, and worth it to them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
    It is a horrible idea...and your "virtual staff" have no business monitoring your sales person. I don't know any sales person that would be ok with that for 12 bucks an hour.

    Not to mention, if you don't trust your sales people to hit the "high points" why did you hire them, and who trained them?

    You could easily pay an appointment setter the 12 bucks an hour plus whatever you're going to pay to your "virtual" people to set you appointments qualified to your specifications.

    Motivation is the MONEY they make, if they are making money, they will have fun.

    Please don't use the model you are explaining, it will tank hard and then you'll be back here in a short while asking what to do since you have no sales people.
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  • Profile picture of the author Delta223
    - Is money the only motivator?

    - Why do you say virtual staff have no business monitoring?

    - Monitoring is not about trust, it is about feedback & reinforcement. Everyone makes mistakes and has room for improvement

    - You are encouraging me not to even try this model because you're sure it will cause all my salespeople to quit. What if I tested this with just a couple people and sought out their advice/feedback? Does it have the potential to help them in some way with refinement?

    Yes, some of these questions were rhetorical. I'm just trying to ease the negative cloud you have and hopefully make this more productive.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
      I do apologize for sounding negative...and it's possible, but not probable that you know what you're doing and have actually created a workable plan. However, since you are here asking us, that leads me to believe you either don't have a plan, or have no idea if it will work. My background and knowledge of sales/callers/and training, says it will not. Is there a shot it will...always.

      - Is money the only motivator?
      No, but it helps...tell me, do sales people that make no money seem motivated to you? Other motivators are good training, incentives, and knowledge.

      - Why do you say virtual staff have no business monitoring?
      Your "virtual staff" unless they are sales trainers, or have a background in doing what you are suggesting are simply a call center paid by you to do what you tell them to. Will they say they can monitor, report back, motivate etc...of course! You're paying them to do so! Does this mean they know what they are doing? No. Do you think your sales staff is going to feel motivated being monitored by people that have not done their job?

      - Monitoring is not about trust, it is about feedback & reinforcement. Everyone makes mistakes and has room for improvement
      Ok, true, however, you don't monitor people with other people who don't know what they are doing (and don't tell me you're going to train your virtual people...that is a cluster waiting to happen). I can list 10 other ideas that will make you money, make your sales people money and will work better than what you are proposing.

      - You are encouraging me not to even try this model because you're sure it will cause all my salespeople to quit. What if I tested this with just a couple people and sought out their advice/feedback? Does it have the potential to help them in some way with refinement?
      No, it won't cause them to quit, it will cause them to think you don't know what you're doing and when they figure out how to do it better, they will leave you and do their own thing...or they will go work for someone that pays more.

      Refinement can come from many other ways.

      You are free to do what you like, but since you haven't done this, and you have more than just me saying it's a bad idea...I'd suggest you not do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
    One more observation...if you are so adamant that it's a good idea and that we are wrong...why haven't you already done it and why are you asking if it's a good model?

    Seems you would be open to other ideas if you came here unsure and asking for feedback. I don't think anyone here is trying to crush your dreams, but it's really not a good plan.
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  • Profile picture of the author Delta223
    I'm not adamant that it's a good idea. I do want a rational discussion though, and will point out if I disagree somewhere. I hope that's not interpreted as "being argumentative for the sake of argument"

    The key question seems to be how well I can train the virtual staff to evaluate my field guys. I'm going to focus in on this and make darn sure they do a good job.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
      Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

      The key question seems to be how well I can train the virtual staff to evaluate my field guys. I'm going to focus in on this and make darn sure they do a good job.
      That is the bad idea...I have no improvements for it. I have alternatives.

      How are you going to make darn sure they do a good job?
      Are the sales people going to report to you how good their monitors are?
      Are the monitors going to tell you how good it's going?
      You're pouring money down the drain if you depend on that.

      If you want them monitored, then why aren't you doing it?
      If you feel that you can train the monitors, why can't you just train your sales people better so you can trust them and know they are doing their best?

      It's just all around backwards, and I don't see that you understand that. Sorry.
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      • Profile picture of the author Delta223
        Originally Posted by Mwind076 View Post

        That is the bad idea...I have no improvements for it. I have alternatives.

        How are you going to make darn sure they do a good job?
        Are the sales people going to report to you how good their monitors are?
        Are the monitors going to tell you how good it's going?
        You're pouring money down the drain if you depend on that.

        If you want them monitored, then why aren't you doing it?
        If you feel that you can train the monitors, why can't you just train your sales people better so you can trust them and know they are doing their best?

        It's just all around backwards, and I don't see that you understand that. Sorry.
        I have a skype recorder so it's not an issue for me to evaluate the evaluator. And I can do to monitoring myself but it is just an issue of time (I have other things to do as well including the closings). Yes, the salespeople will report back their thoughts as part of their weekly reports. I'm a data guy--everyone reports and is spot checked against actual recordings.

        There is one thing I do want to comment on again:

        If you feel that you can train the monitors, why can't you just train your sales people better so you can trust them and know they are doing their best?
        As Druker would say, "tell me how you measure me and I'll tell you how I perform." I don't believe in "trust" for the long term; I believe that performance will always tend to stagnate without constant training, monitoring, feedback.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Delta money is not the only motivator but I agree that this is a bad idea.

    Good sales people don't like being micro managed. And I can't image being managed let alone mico managed by someone who is not a solid sales leader (aka sales manager).

    When is comes to motivation there are IMO (and many others) three kinds.

    1. Whip/Fear: This is where the person is motivated to "avoid" punishment. As you can guess this is not very good and only works to get minimal standards. Also you are likely to have high turn over. Many small restaurants and retail stores use this kind and you can guess why they seldom have the same staff year over year.

    2. Reward: This is the most common form of motivation used. Commission is reward at its most basic. Other forms come in the form of contests and etc. This form of motivation is very good but the problem with it is if you take away the award or if the reward is not enough they will stop being motivated. When designing a commission structure you must ensure that more sales are motivated properly. If a guy doubles his sales the guy's reward should double or more than double.

    This is why salary plus commission is so bad. If I sell 100 and make $40k commission and have a base salary of $20k I made $60k or $600 per sale. If I sell 200 and make $80k plus $20k I made $100k or $500 per sale. Can you see the problem? The reward gets to be less per sale as I sell more so selling less rewards me best on a per hour of effort basis. This is the number one reason I recommend per salary but with a draw (prepaid against future commission) or even better a guarantee (minimum pay per week regardless of sales, sell more you get the commission, sell less you get the guarantee) for the first 90 (or 180) days so they can be trained and paid well enough to want to stay for the higher pay later.

    3. Internal/Self: While the other two are done to the person this final form is all internal. But a good manager can foster this. I have done this myself multiple times and it works better. The people will still leave. But they will only leave for better opportunities. If your reward is high enough and they continue to have the challanege they need to grow year over year you can keep a good employee for decades using this. But the reward/pay of the position must be high. "A" level employees are almost always majority motivated by the internal. Some even stay in jobs making less due to this. But to build a team of "A" players you need to make sure the pay is the best for the job.

    A self motivated person will not be looking for another job. If they are looking they will be looking for a better opportunity. So if you can offer them the best opportunity and really feed their internal need for challenge you will be in great shape.
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    • Profile picture of the author Delta223
      Originally Posted by Aaron Doud View Post

      A self motivated person will not be looking for another job. If they are looking they will be looking for a better opportunity. So if you can offer them the best opportunity and really feed their internal need for challenge you will be in great shape.
      Thanks Aaron; that's a great point. Honestly I don't feel confident to hire A players right now. My guys are just low-level prospectors for the most part. Hiring & maintaining an elite sales team would be a paradigm changer
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      • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
        Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

        Thanks Aaron; that's a great point. Honestly I don't feel confident to hire A players right now. My guys are just low-level prospectors for the most part. Hiring & maintaining an elite sales team would be a paradigm changer
        With that statement and your others...I'm out. It's clear to me that you don't want advice, or actual salespeople that will make you money.

        You seem to be stuck on micromanaging and doing it your way. There have been many business owners that are hell bent on that method, and they have one thing in common...they will always be stuck doing the same thing, their way, and convinced it is right.

        Eventually, you will not need advice, because you will feel like your way is "weeding out the bad salesman" - but in reality, you are scaring off the guys that know that your way is not working.

        Hope it all works out for you, but I'm officially done with trying to help you see the light. With 4 people telling you the same thing, there's just no point
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      • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
        Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

        Thanks Aaron; that's a great point. Honestly I don't feel confident to hire A players right now. My guys are just low-level prospectors for the most part. Hiring & maintaining an elite sales team would be a paradigm changer
        Your wording is all mixed, you keep referring to these people as sales people, yet reading through your post they are not, they are mere appointment setters ? and your closing the sales is that correct ?

        Next 100% agree with everyone, a sales person does not not need to be hooked up to some drone on the other end of the phone, but again your not talking about sales people.

        Even an appointment setter as you seem to be referring to needs a very simple pitch that books the appointment but does also not need to be hooked up.

        If it were I was hooked up my first words would be, " Hello ? Hello ? Can't hear you properly bad recep^%%$ are6%$ Hel*&^. __ ___ __ ________.
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      • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
        Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

        Thanks Aaron; that's a great point. Honestly I don't feel confident to hire A players right now. My guys are just low-level prospectors for the most part. Hiring & maintaining an elite sales team would be a paradigm changer
        Hi Delta,

        So many things.

        Viewing staff as "just low level..." will not bring out the best in any staff. They will sense that is your opinion of them and not be too motivated to make money/work hard for you.

        Years ago there was research done where some teachers were told their class consisted of average students and others were told that their class consists of above average students. Same curriculum was taught and guess which classes did better? The "above average" of course. And, the reality was that all classes had the same mix of students.

        -------------------

        I manage a motel and can't even go out to breakfast on a slow day without my best housekeeper needing to talk to me when I come back. Reason: DeskClerk/Head of Housekeeping (Inherited problem the owner has thrust upon me) "monitors" the housekeeper. "Have you done this bathroom yet?" "When will this room be done?"...
        The housekeeper does a damn good job if you just leave her alone instead of pressuring her and/or breaking her concentration. And, it's darn easy to figure out when a room will be done so you can tell a guest when they can check in. Or call their cell when it is ready.

        -----------------------

        I reckon you are in the home improvement, roofing, or remodeling business and are ready enough and smart enough to handle a top sales person/eventual sales manager. (Keeping in mind that character and self-motivation and will to win are more important than experience. Especially when an "experienced" salesperson/sales manager looking for a new gig ain't really the best sign?) And, I'm thinking you could find that person and train them as needed to achieve your goals and eventually let them run the sales side and report to you, while you do what you are best at doing and is the most productive way to spend your time on your business.

        In my hotel business, should I shovel snow and do maintenance? Or, should I hire someone for that and spend my time doing things which will increase revenues to my targets?

        ------------------------

        Lastly, since you've already heard unanimously from the sales masters, my nickel's worth is to transition your business marketing model altogether. Research the top rated companies in your field and use some of their methods. One of the top roofing companies in my area does no door to door. They market in other ways such as local radio ads and radio and TV appearances where the owner is the expert in best practices for the industry. They get customers calling them from the marketing and publicity and insurance companies as well as repeat and referral business.

        A friend of mine marketed his lawn sprinkler business by being sure to work in the morning and evening when the neighbours could see the sign on his van and come talk to him.
        And, some customers would let him leave a yard sign in their yard for a while after he completed the job.

        The aggregate of the $12 per hour you can pay canvassers could go a long way towards other methods as suggested above and google and google places and purchasing leads....

        Hope this serves.
        Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Delta223
    Fair enough, thanks for the help. To clarify the post you quoted, I meant to say I was unconfident in my abilities to hire and maintain a team of that caliber because I have no experience with that
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    • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
      Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

      Fair enough, thanks for the help. To clarify the post you quoted, I meant to say I was unconfident in my abilities to hire and maintain a team of that caliber because I have no experience with that
      Then what makes you think you can hire sales people, and train someone else to monitor ANY sales person? Your goal should be to start with your sales people, where they are (in talent) and TEACH them to be great. If you can't get them to greatness, you have zero business doing what you are suggesting. Again, I just don't think you get it.
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  • Profile picture of the author DesertSand
    Lol. I'd quit and find a new job.
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  • Profile picture of the author Delta223
    Thanks Claude, I see where you're coming from. We do the in-field trainings right now BTW. Our numbers are across the board; we don't have a set standard of "good performance" yet.

    I like your idea of requiring them to report hourly. A question about that...

    By having them call in they have the motivation to perform, but that "instant feedback" I was gunning for is lost. How would you feel if I had a highly qualified sales manager with strong coaching experience listening in on the field guys and then radioing out feedback? The benefit here is he gets to provide feedback instantly, based on what he actually hears (vs what is reported)
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by Delta223 View Post

      Thanks Claude, I see where you're coming from. We do the in-field trainings right now BTW. Our numbers are across the board; we don't have a set standard of "good performance" yet.

      I like your idea of requiring them to report hourly. A question about that...

      By having them call in they have the motivation to perform, but that "instant feedback" I was gunning for is lost. How would you feel if I had a highly qualified sales manager with strong coaching experience listening in on the field guys and then radioing out feedback? The benefit here is he gets to provide feedback instantly, based on what he actually hears (vs what is reported)
      That's going to be very difficult to implement, and I doubt the value. There is value in the idea, but a day of training in the field with someone experienced is far better. How much dialog can there be? Aren't they just trying to set an appointment for you? this isn't really selling. And you do not want the ones that were hard to "close'.

      What you should be looking for are the easy ones. The prospects who already see a need. I honestly think you are giving this too much thought.

      Hire several new people, pay them $12 an hour during their training, and send them out for a day. Some will sink, some will swim.

      But the idea of feedback after every short presentation, would become very bothersome to any real producer. you might want them to use a form that reproduces the points they should make...just to keep them honest....and to keep them from missrepresenting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
    Stop with the "constant monitoring" idea!!!!!!!!! It is a waste of time and horrible. If you want instant feedback, do as Claude suggests and go with them yourself until you feel they are ready to be on their own, or hire someone like a sales manager to do that.

    You are trying to micromanage and treat them like they are school children. These are not callers in a call center, they are people you have hired to represent your company, either train them correctly, or do not use sales people and do it yourself if you don't trust anyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    There is something to be said for accountability. However, being accountable to a Philippine that was hired for cheap labor and cant really offer you much guidance or inspiration isnt cool.

    There is also something to be said for working with others...truly the larger a telemarketing room is for instance, the better it hums.

    I think the issue with most people is that they want to "have" a sales organization but they dont want to "build" one... They want to be perceived as an authority, but they dont want to BE an authority...which is cool if you are selling for yourself only... but if you want a team, they have to have someone to look up to...that person has to be a hero in their field in their eyes... People dont follow other followers, they follow leaders.

    You have to be one... or hire one... a REAL one....if you want to inspire an army of salespeople. No 3 dollar per hour worker is going to be your magic bullet. I seriously dont know where people get these ideas.

    Just think, I hire you, I promise to lead you to success....and then I go find the cheapest non professional labor I can find to hold your hand.... People who have NO CLUE how to lead you... or even inspire themselves beyond 3 dollars per hour.

    That should not make sense to anyone.

    Here's the deal, you have to hire and train salespeople just like Cluade or Ken Micheals or any other offline sales organization you have ever heard of...and it aint gonna work pacifying people with some Phillipine buddy... I have no issues with people from other countries... but Im just telling you it wont work, and its almost insulting.

    You cant have a successful organization and look down your nose at your own methods simultaneously. I dont think you really respect this idea....and I dont think anyone else will either. Give them the credit of having at least as much intelligence as you do, if not, do you really need them on your crew anyway?

    Im sorry, there are 10 more reasons, but I do not see anything good about this idea. The best "buddy" is another salesman going out in the field working with you...either that or a true pro manager monitoring constantly either in house or remotely and offering feedback.

    Another thing is that your salesman wont be able to make distinctions with someone chattering in his ears all day distracting him from learning and messing up his focus.

    Sorry for the neg post....Havent read past the OP, some of this may have been said already, but you have better ideas than this Im sure. You are asking for input.... and so I feel sure that you dont take it personally when someone says this is a bad idea. I have had terrible ideas....this one is terrible. Not even in the general ballpark.

    In short:

    Dont re invent the wheel. Find out how successful sales organizations do it, and do it like them. There is no effortless bullet that requires no skill development. Running a sales organization requires the development of skills...not sloughing it off on some cheap, unqualified foreign labor.

    -John
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  • Profile picture of the author BusinessGuy7
    Ask your sales staff what motivates them, and work on helping them achieve that goal. A lot of the time what motivates people is simple recognition. I wouldn't waste time with hiring a foreigner to motivate your sales staff.

    Another idea would be to hire a business consultant and asking him/her what to do about your problem.

    Bottom line, you need someone with experience as a sales manager to help you get your problems under control.
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  • Profile picture of the author shane_k
    The goals are:

    1) To keep the salesperson motivated throughout the day by having a friendly & supportive person always in contact
    I have 2 responses to this.

    1) No one is going to stay motivated for 100% of their shift, for every shift. That is unrealistic.

    Seems to me what you are afraid of is your sales people slacking off, and you don't want to pay them for the time when they slack off.

    And you feel that having someone monitor them is the solution.

    But truthfully it is not.

    No one, even if they are monitored is going to be 100% productive all the time. Even your monitors.

    Instead of motivation what you need to look at is "productivity" which is different.

    This is why sales companies have sales quotas.

    The know that no one is 100% productive nor do they need to be. What they do figure out is how much that particular sales person needs to make in order for them to be considered an asset for their company.

    And instead of hiring monitors (a fancy word for babysitter) what you should do instead if figure out

    how many leads do your sales people need to make
    how many appointments do your sales people need to make
    how many sales do your sales people need to make

    all of this is geared toward making sure that they are profitable for you and your company.

    And if they are not, then you fire them, you don't babysit them.

    2) You can't outsource Leadership

    Just like John said, your workers are going to look to you, or a manager in your company for leadership and direction, even motivation.

    Yes your sales people should know or learn how to motivate themselves, but when they can't, or when they are down in the dumps and need a pick me up, that is when you are supposed to step in and inspire, motivate, lead, etc.

    A qualified sales manager who is good at motivation will be worth their weight in gold.

    And if they are not, then you fire them and find another.

    It might take awhile but just like everthing else when dealing with employees and leadership there is no magic bullet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cesar Sampaio
    I believe the money would be better spent hiring a manager, with strong interpersonal skills, that the salesmen could rely on for guidance and motivation.

    A guy in a far country working for even less than you wouldn't cut it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kilterman
    being in sales and working directly with sales people, I know for a fact they would hate their life. Yours and their sales would plummet and between you looking for replacements and them trying to find other work you business would suffer.
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