21st Century Sales

In my other life, I'm a runner. I've run competitively and I've run for fun.  I've run on a national team.  I've even managed a national team. 

There are a lot of running metaphors that apply to my call center experiences:  Putting your money where your mouth is. Toeing the line.  Putting one foot in front of the next.  Keeping the pace.  Blowing up.  Hitting the wall.

Randy, my most recent call center agent told me he'd been making outbound calls for the better part of 5 years, he routinely made 500-600 calls a day and reached decision-makers 70% of the time.  Hummm... he talks a good story, I thought.  A "rock star" agent!  An Olympian.

My recommendation was that we take a few days for training then Randy pace himself by going out of the gate slowly with a small number of "perfect" calls.  He set his own goal at 40.

Training went well.  Randy consistently answered, "Yes. I understand," as we  discussed the client, the target market, the CRM system.  On the first day of calling, a Friday, Randy made 46 calls.  Great!  You overachieved your own target, I congratulated him.  We reviewed 5 calls together.  Decent interaction with the prospects, but it turned out he didn't log a single call in the CRM system.

Monday we went over the CRM system again.  Randy made 32 calls, but again, didn't log them in the CRM system.  More coaching. "Yes, I understand.  No problems, Sir", assured Randy. 

On Tuesday Randy didn't toe the line.  A rare illness that only a few family members were even aware of, I was told by the manager he'd worked with for the past 2 years.

Randy was back on Wednesday.  'Said he was feeling fine.  We again reviewed how to place a call, how to book a follow-up call, how to send an email follow-up.  Randy managed to overachieve his own goal of 40 by getting 50 calls in, but yet again, only a handful were logged properly.  The result:  No record of who had been called, who needed follow-up and who didn't.  Randy was not even keeping the pace he set for himself!

Thursday and Friday, Randy didn't even toe the line.  Serious illness?  AWOL?  Desertion?  Couldn't keep the pace?  We may never know.  Randy's out of the race.