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PSA for outside sales people

4,538 Views | 36 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by $30,000 Millionaire
$30,000 Millionaire
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If you are in a cold calling role and get a senior execs cell phone number and you don't know them, don't keep cold calling and definitely don't call evenings, weekend, and holidays.

Send an email, send a text, but don't call on repeat if you ever want them to listen to you.
JohnLA762
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I was going to say the same thing, but for CEO's.
AgOutsideAustin
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Yeah man that really bothers ……., 30,000
Dr. Horrible
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This goes for anyone. Not just senior execs.

Don't be a dick. (Funniest part of this to me is the worst sales guy I ever had to work with was named Dick)
Fireman
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Nice humble brag $30K in 000's.
dc509
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If you want to make deals keep calling. If you're blasting cold calls it's a numbers game. One annoyed CEO is a rounding error if the sales person is hitting the volume they're suppose to.

PS White Pages has pretty much all of our cell phone numbers so it isn't a matter of somehow getting lucky to find it.
TxAg20
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dc509 said:

If you want to make deals keep calling. If you're blasting cold calls it's a numbers game. One annoyed CEO is a rounding error if the sales person is hitting the volume they're suppose to.

PS White Pages has pretty much all of our cell phone numbers so it isn't a matter of somehow getting lucky to find it.


All of my former company's cell numbers were registered to the company. I suppose you could call them all until you found the person you were looking for, but I rarely answered numbers I didn't know unless I was expecting a call from someone in the area code calling.

Another PSA, don't give your cell number when registering for an industry event. The Hart Energy Executive Oil Conference sold attendees' contact info 2 or 3 years ago. I assume other industry conferences may do the same.
dc509
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TxAg20 said:

dc509 said:

If you want to make deals keep calling. If you're blasting cold calls it's a numbers game. One annoyed CEO is a rounding error if the sales person is hitting the volume they're suppose to.

PS White Pages has pretty much all of our cell phone numbers so it isn't a matter of somehow getting lucky to find it.


All of my former company's cell numbers were registered to the company. I suppose you could call them all until you found the person you were looking for, but I rarely answered numbers I didn't know unless I was expecting a call from someone in the area code calling.

Another PSA, don't give your cell number when registering for an industry event. The Hart Energy Executive Oil Conference sold attendees' contact info 2 or 3 years ago. I assume other industry conferences may do the same.
No one at your former company had a personal cell phone? Even if that is the case, if you have to call all of them then that's what I would expect one of our guys to do. They would do it too. I'm in commercial real estate so that's just modus operandi. If you don't call all of them then you don't want it.

I'm sure conferences sell stuff all the time, but go to whitepages.com and type your name it and see what comes up.

As far as all of this goes, especially when it comes to junior people, go make it happen.
$30,000 Millionaire
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So here's the thing. I know the person on the other end has a job to do, but when it crosses the line, it isn't a matter of being annoyed, it's a matter of lack of professionalism and failing to recognize when enough is enough. I draw the line on weekends and holidays.

On the OP, I had a guy from a software vendor try to call me on Saturday, Sunday, and MLK day. I went male Karen, got in touch with the CEO of the company and told him that I couldn't believe he was running an operation like that. He handled it the right way, but there's no way he didn't know it was happening like he claimed.

If you have to treat your customers like marks and not people I feel confident in saying that your product sucks. If you really want my attention, don't cold call me, get someone I know and trust to recommend your product.
You don’t trade for money, you trade for freedom.
dc509
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Weekends and holidays aren't for cold calling but any other time is. You have to understand that from the perspective of the person doing the calling that all it takes is one "yes" among 1,000 who give them a "no." If the person making the cold call doesn't get that then they will be out pretty quickly. It's just part of their job.

JohnLA762
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dc509 said:

Weekends and holidays aren't for cold calling but any other time is. You have to understand that from the perspective of the person doing the calling that all it takes is one "yes" among 1,000 who give them a "no." If the person making the cold call doesn't get that then they will be out pretty quickly. It's just part of their job.




And this is exactly why people avoid salesmen. It all depends on the field you're in I suppose, but this is a sure fire way to get ignored by people you're calling on and all of their "connections"…
dc509
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JohnLA762 said:

dc509 said:

Weekends and holidays aren't for cold calling but any other time is. You have to understand that from the perspective of the person doing the calling that all it takes is one "yes" among 1,000 who give them a "no." If the person making the cold call doesn't get that then they will be out pretty quickly. It's just part of their job.




And this is exactly why people avoid salesmen. It all depends on the field you're in I suppose, but this is a sure fire way to get ignored by people you're calling on and all of their "connections"…
Depends on the industry and what you're doing. I'm not on that side, but some of the most successful people I know make 80-100 cold calls per day.
Definitely Not A Cop
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Yeah I would much rather be a solution for you than an additional problem. But when what your selling is a commodity, then recall and follow up is basically all you have.

Why I would never want to sell any of those types of things. Also not a fan of shakedown type sales tactics you see in the car industry or timeshares, but luckily technology is allowing businesses like Carvana to get by without needing to use those kinds of tactics.
ATM9000
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Fireman said:

Nice humble brag $30K in 000's.

More than a decade into the bit and people still don't understand it.

That's not a humblebrag. It's message board flexing.
YouBet
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I never answered my phone at work unless it was my boss. Everyone else got ignored.

I never answer or respond on mobile unless your name is in my address book.

I ignore all emails from people I don't know unless you get completely lucky and cold email with a need I just happen to have at the moment and don't have the bandwidth to mess with it otherwise. That's happened maybe twice.

I think I get even more annoyed at the current "personalization" trend with emails that are automated from digital marketing platforms vs someone just emailing me straight out.
12thMan9
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Similar to this is the phone calls from area code & prefix of your phone, intended to make you think it's someone in your area.
Ronnie '88
Fireman
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ATM9000 said:

Fireman said:

Nice humble brag $30K in 000's.

More than a decade into the bit and people still don't understand it.

That's not a humblebrag. It's message board flexing.
Either way - $30K is an asset to this board. He should start a trading service where he posts his trades 1 minute after he executes them. I'd pay money to follow his trades even on a minute or two delay.
Sea Speed
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I dont follow his trades, but his insight on plenty of other things he decides to weigh in on are always valuable imo.
$30,000 Millionaire
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ATM9000 said:

Fireman said:

Nice humble brag $30K in 000's.

More than a decade into the bit and people still don't understand it.

That's not a humblebrag. It's message board flexing.
I don't need to flex on a message board, man. I have been humbled often in my life. I do like to rant. This post was a rant.
You don’t trade for money, you trade for freedom.
$30,000 Millionaire
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Thank you and I would, but I don't want the responsibility of other people's performance on my shoulders. If i knew the people on the other end were using proper risk management, I would.
You don’t trade for money, you trade for freedom.
DallasTeleAg
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I agree with the idea of not cold calling during those times. However, the idea of not continuing to call them is just not correct. You call until you get an answer. If you are not interested and tell them so on the phone, and they continue to call you, then they are harassing you. If you never answer the phone and give them neither a yes or no, then I would say they should continue to call you.

Many of these cold callers are given lists that their companies pay good money for. If they do not attempt to do their jobs (ie: call you until you either reject them or agree to a meeting), then they are fired. Also, these cold-calling jobs are either very entry level sales rolls or are dead end gigs. These are not your typical "outside sales" people.

As an Outside sales person, you should definitely do some cold-calling when you can or if you don't have anything else to do, but there are so many better methods for generating business. Cold-calling is simply a numbers game that no good outside sales rep should have time for.
NowhereMan
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Better advise get really good at creating pitches people listen to. Email and text is not going to work.
Read selling to VITO
Have something to say, say it well and say it often
Despite what people say about how awful Gordon Gekko and boiler rooms are, people want deals.

The first 10 seconds matter build a hook, make the pitch.
Definitely Not A Cop
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ATM9000 said:

Fireman said:

Nice humble brag $30K in 000's.

More than a decade into the bit and people still don't understand it.

That's not a humblebrag. It's message board flexing.


Is it? I thought it was joking about the guys straight out of college who eat beans out of a can for lunch and dinner so they can afford their BMW convertible payment.
TxAg20
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Definitely Not A Cop said:

ATM9000 said:

Fireman said:

Nice humble brag $30K in 000's.

More than a decade into the bit and people still don't understand it.

That's not a humblebrag. It's message board flexing.


Is it? I thought it was joking about the guys straight out of college who eat beans out of a can for lunch and dinner so they can afford their BMW convertible payment.


It was a common TexAgs term years ago. It referred to the young people making $30,000 per year (a common salary for a recent college grad when the term was coined) who leased a BMW and a condo in a nice area to "cast a shadow" that they were millionaires. I'm guessing the poster took on the username as tongue-in-cheek.
DallasTeleAg
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What? That's not a TexAgs term. That is a common term for people with nice cars in the driveway of a POS house. It's someone who buys something really nice to make it look like they have a lot of money when they don't.

We would always joke Dallas is filled with $30,000 millionaires back when I was in middle school... 23 years ago.
txaggie_08
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Lol, yeah, I've always heard it most when describing Dallas.
TxAg20
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I guess I should have written "a term commonly used on TexAgs".
Malibu
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DallasTeleAg said:

I agree with the idea of not cold calling during those times. However, the idea of not continuing to call them is just not correct. You call until you get an answer. If you are not interested and tell them so on the phone, and they continue to call you, then they are harassing you. If you never answer the phone and give them neither a yes or no, then I would say they should continue to call you.

Many of these cold callers are given lists that their companies pay good money for. If they do not attempt to do their jobs (ie: call you until you either reject them or agree to a meeting), then they are fired. Also, these cold-calling jobs are either very entry level sales rolls or are dead end gigs. These are not your typical "outside sales" people.

As an Outside sales person, you should definitely do some cold-calling when you can or if you don't have anything else to do, but there are so many better methods for generating business. Cold-calling is simply a numbers game that no good outside sales rep should have time for.

If you send me an 2-3 emails and/or 2-3 phone calls that go to VM and I don't respond to you, you don't need to continue following up to get an answer. Silence is an answer and it means no. A cold call or email does not create any obligation whatsoever for me to do anything. I get about 10-20 of these per week, so the idea that I have to spend any time professionally following up on these requests to say no instead of doing my actual job is silly.

Practically speaking because I will continue to get spammed. I usually just respond to emails with a one word "unsubscribe", any follow-ups to that with a "but wait just hear me out" get reported to spam.
DallasTeleAg
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Any sales training you take will tell you it takes around 7 follow-ups to get an appointment. I'm sorry it offends you so much that there are people who need to pay their bills and provide for their families, but that's the way the world works.

If you respond with "unsubscribe", then I am assuming you are not interested. But a cold caller loses nothing to go the extra mile to try to schedule an appointment. If you were never going to take an appointment, then pissing you off by doing their job isn't changing anything.

If I was just selecting your name/number out of a phone book, then I doubt I'm going to bother you over and over. But if I were to come across your company name and number off of a list of companies who are moving in the next year, and my product is generally purchased by companies who are moving, then I would call and email you once a day until I hear from you or someone else that you do not need my products/services.

Also, keep in mind that many of these cold callers for legit B2B organizations are early 20's recent graduates who are just starting their career. No reason to be an ass to them.
BO297
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I've tried avoiding this thread. I've been a salesman for 20 years. I've owned my own business for half of that. It's a small business and I still handle all sales but also manage the business and have salesman call on me.

I try to at least be honest with salesman, listen to who they are and what they do. As small and as specialized as my business is, I have very few needs and very few vendors. I let them know very early if I really have no need for their product. Or I'll let them know if/when we might need to hear back from them or let them give me a bid.

I might know why this thread was started. The calls, linked in requests, and emails ramped way up around rhe holidays this year. Went up a crazy amount. Calls on Christmas/New Years eve, the Friday between thanksgiving and the weekend. This all in addition to tons of other calls.

Two of the companies calling are ones I actually want to do business with. They will both take time to integrate, so I haven't had the time to really work on them.

But the calls have been so annoying that I might start looking at their competitors. I'm very sympathetic to sales people, but this has been crazy. Holidays are sometimes the only time small business owners get a break.

I think these initiatives get started somewhere up the chain. A few years ago, they all needed you to fill out a credit app. Or needed your business card. Several others. I understand the premise behind these, but they are a huge turn off.

As a manager, you know if your salesman are good or bad. Doesn't matter how much bs they make up on their call reports.
ag94whoop
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$30,000 Millionaire said:

Thank you and I would, but I don't want the responsibility of other people's performance on my shoulders. If i knew the people on the other end were using proper risk management, I would.


Honestly, someone should just build a macro that has all the buy triggers and sell triggers built in as well as risk management. Something that showed consistent results would be worth dumping a few 100k into
$30,000 Millionaire
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If you're serious, I can point you in the direction of someone who does this.
You don’t trade for money, you trade for freedom.
Proposition Joe
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DallasTeleAg said:

Many of these cold callers are given lists that their companies pay good money for. If they do not attempt to do their jobs (ie: call you until you either reject them or agree to a meeting), then they are fired. Also, these cold-calling jobs are either very entry level sales rolls or are dead end gigs. These are not your typical "outside sales" people.

The leads are weak.
ag94whoop
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$30,000 Millionaire said:

If you're serious, I can point you in the direction of someone who does this.


So they write the macros or do they place an investors money into an account run by this macro/AI ?
$30,000 Millionaire
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Proposition Joe said:

DallasTeleAg said:

Many of these cold callers are given lists that their companies pay good money for. If they do not attempt to do their jobs (ie: call you until you either reject them or agree to a meeting), then they are fired. Also, these cold-calling jobs are either very entry level sales rolls or are dead end gigs. These are not your typical "outside sales" people.

The leads are weak.



You don’t trade for money, you trade for freedom.
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