Sales people/cold calls

[mixmastermo]

It's been proven time and time again to be ineffective with B2C, but can be effective in B2B. The best strategy I've had on work on me is when they don't push anything, just bring up their product and ask to send an information package. It gets kept in file cabinet for a while but eventually when said product does become needed, I remember that call and info. Wouldn't say Psycho but definitely the best ones play a patient long game

thanks, this is not the psycho approach.

 

[Darkavius]

Your sales team are allowed to close deals on products not approved by Dev? That's insane. What did they put on the RFP?

It is insane and it absolutely happens more than you would think. It usually happens when a company pushes finance over actual support. What is an RFP though? I think companies do it for dumb reasons like to pressure developers similar to why games from good companies come out and end up being crappy. In some instances I have seen companies get sued for doing it.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

Ok dude, remember this is Sherdog. Even on my serious topics (like this one) I still try to have a little bit of fun with the conversation.

To be fair you used these words:

stone-cold killers
certain type of person that just can brush off anything negative and keep plowing forward

put that through the Sherdog filter= Psycho

Very true. My sarcasta-meter is off....

Funny you say that. I mean, I get what you mean but I literally just flipped out on the sales team at work just now before heading home because they were trying to propose selling products to customers that we don't make.

How would they even accomplish this? Unless they are trying to act as a broker, and be the middleman in the deal. Or you all are able to come up with and produce new product that quickly, which would be very impressive if the company is that agile.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

It is insane and it absolutely happens more than you would think. It usually happens when a company pushes finance over actual support. What is an RFP though? I think companies do it for dumb reasons like to pressure developers similar to why games from good companies come out and end up being crappy. In some instances I have seen companies get sued for doing it.

Request for proposal. You potential customer or client would request it. So then the company would have data and materials they would deliver, or a mock contract. Though it varies depending on the business.

 

[Darkavius]

Off topic but:

I was a manager at a call center that only hired agents within North America, and we were known for our amazing customer service. We started outsourcing a good chunk of our agents from the Phillipines and it tanked our reputation and business. People learned to recognize the Filipino accent, hang up immediately and call back. Our agents from the Phillipines would make false promises (basically lying) whenever they were confronted by a customer about something, even if it was small and instantly fixable. Our customer service scores bombed, phone sales dropped, and client cancellation rates went up. I was told by a trainer that went there to provide training that because hospitality is so important in Filipino culture, they don't know how to say no, and would rather lie to someone than say no. I experience this a lot now as more and more call centers in Canada start to outsource more. Would you say this is true about the culture?

I can't answer your question Kam but it's funny you bring this up. It's one of the reasons that Discover customers don't want them to be bought out by Capital One, bad customer service. I have heard this about the Philippines as well. I knew a woman who switched departments because she had to work with the Philippines employees. She said they were so nice but when she came in to work there were so many things that had to be redone because they messed up quite a few things consistently.

 

[Darkavius]

Request for proposal. You potential customer or client would request it. So then the company would have data and materials they would deliver, or a mock contract. Though it varies depending on the business.

So basically deliverables that it sounds like the company is liable for after the customer signs the contract. Yeah, I have heard of those and as dumb as this may sound if someone is good at sales I have seen them fooling the customer, getting the contract and leaving the support team in a world of hurt.

 

[Van Daz]

I am always courteous but there are people who will keep pestering no matter what, to the point of showing up at my job unannounced. These are not exceptions, it happens quite often.

I do have to agree, I've worked with some dodgy sales people. Problem was that they got monthly rewards & good commission, but I just couldn't do that. Glad I'm not cold calling anymore. I can relate to you. Get calls on my phone a lot from unwanted numbers.

 

[mixmastermo]

Very true. My sarcasta-meter is off....


How would they even accomplish this? Unless they are trying to act as a broker, and be the middleman in the deal. Or you all are able to come up with and produce new product that quickly, which would be very impressive if the company is that agile.

I'm in the food business, I am the head of supply chain

We already offer different flavors of our product, what these guys are doing is going to customers and asking what they want, then coming back and telling us we need to either make the same products in different sizes (which requires quite a bit of investment and engineering) and/or telling us we need to make different flavors (which requires a LOT of engineering) and/or telling us we need to make vegan, gluten free etc. options (which requires a lot of investment, a lot of engineering, and subjecting ourselves to even more audits every year).

Even after I told these guys to stick to the standard product offerings for these small customers, they went off and started planning specs and offerings for other shit. We did land an account recently where this customer agreed to buy full truckloads of our product with bespoke packaging.. but that made sense because they gave us a year-long commitment with the potential to extend it, and they are buying full truckloads of the stuff at a time. These sales guys really think they can take to same rules we applied to a customer like that and apply it to a customer that *might* buy 1/100th of that volume. It's psychotic.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

So basically deliverables that it sounds like the company is liable for after the customer signs the contract it what it sounds like. Yeah, I have heard of those and as dumb as this may sound if someone is good at sales I have seen them fooling the customer, getting the contract and leaving the support team in a world of hurt.

Yeah, that stinks. I have no experience in those kinds of scenarios. Never really worked for a bunch of shady people, really. Fairly cut and dry in my industry(energy).

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

I'm in the food business, I am the head of supply chain

We already offer different flavors of our product, what these guys are doing is going to customers and asking what they want, then coming back and telling us we need to either make the same products in different sizes (which requires quite a bit of investment and engineering) and/or telling us we need to make different flavors (which requires a LOT of engineering) and/or telling us we need to make vegan, gluten free etc. options (which requires a lot of investment, a lot of engineering, and subjecting ourselves to even more audits every year).

Even after I told these guys to stick to the standard product offerings for these small customers, they went off and started planning specs and offerings for other shit. We did land an account recently where this customer agreed to buy full truckloads of our product with bespoke packaging.. but that made sense because they gave us a year-long commitment with the potential to extend it, and they are buying full truckloads of the stuff at a time. These sales guys really think they can take to same rules we applied to a customer like that and apply it to a customer that *might* buy 1/100th of that volume. It's psychotic.

Yeah, sales dont run shit here. It is all up to product managers and other stakeholders to decide what we sell. It kind of helps that our company moves at a glacial pace, because nobody can really get too far ahead of anyone else.

 

[blaseblase]

This day is coming soon. The younger generation has stopped picking up the phone and largely adopted the principle "if its important they'll text me". These techniques only work on older people and many of them have adopted the IIITTM path too. Many don't answer knocks unless they are expecting someone. You can also use cameras to see whose at the door.

I never pick up a number I don't recognize. If it's important they will leave a message. 90% of the time it's some foreign scam call. Also a big dog in the yard persuades people not to come to my door without good reason. He's all bark and no bite but they don't know that.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

So basically deliverables that it sounds like the company is liable for after the customer signs the contract. Yeah, I have heard of those and as dumb as this may sound if someone is good at sales I have seen them fooling the customer, getting the contract and leaving the support team in a world of hurt.

Would never happen where I work. Our devs, lead engineer and systems eng / project manager have to sign off on anything a sales rep (who also have to have a Dev or engineering background) agrees to with the client.

 

[Osculater]

@lsa is a salesman.

@lsa is the best cat in sales in the business

 

[GSP_37]

Convince them to put all their life savings into crypto and then buy a Lambo.

 

[Slobodan]

The key is to just close the door in their face. You don't have to yell or be mean, but just as soon as they start talking just say no thanks and close the door.

Doesn't always work, unfortunately.

He tried to sell me the full Microsoft office package even though he knows I can’t read or write.

What a good damn douchebag

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

I feel like it takes special kind of psycho to do that kind of work. I'm in a position at my company where I hold the purse strings on many things, such as the suppliers we use, transportation, and any software platforms we implement. Naturally I get inquiries from people wanting to sell all of those things so I often end up ignoring a lot of that stuff.

In the event that I do end up having a conversation with one of these people, either because I pick up the phone or they show up at the office unannounced, they try to get their hooks in and do not stop following up. Some of these guys border on harassment and use tactics like guilt tripping, saying stuff like "you told me to follow up in a week" (which usually isn't true).

I don't know what these guys are thinking. I literally hold all of the leverage. Maybe they think that if they harass enough the dam will break and I will give them a shot? Sometimes as I pass through a mall people will ask about my cell phone plan, I will tell them my phone is paid for by my company and they'll say something like "get another one"!

I could never do that kind of work.

I'm in sales (B2B in IT) and I'll make sure I leave any sales call by defining a time/date when I'll get back to them. If you leave a sales call open ended (let's chat soon etc) it's not a great way to do things.

 

[lsa]

He tried to sell me the full Microsoft office package even though he knows I can’t read or write.

It was worth a try.

Next time.....

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

There are really good salesman that can get suckers to buy things they didn't want. But they're akin to con-men. Just like Pacino in that same movie.

When you're selling huge contracts to CEO's, you can't use that strategy. Most CEO's are smart, so you'll do better being genuine than you will trying to con them.

Absolutely. You typically can't con executives. Using cheap obvious tactics.

 

[Bia]

This happened to me before. The sales team sold a service that we don't even provide, and then we had to scramble to create it, and of course it's shitty with a bunch of bugs to be worked out and it takes so many resources to make it work that I think the company is actually losing money on the deal.

And the worst part is that the sales guys got their commission and then left the company, so I think they knew they were screwing us.

I feel sorry for the team that had to support the rushed product

 

[StonedLemur]

I feel like it takes special kind of psycho to do that kind of work. I'm in a position at my company where I hold the purse strings on many things, such as the suppliers we use, transportation, and any software platforms we implement. Naturally I get inquiries from people wanting to sell all of those things so I often end up ignoring a lot of that stuff.

In the event that I do end up having a conversation with one of these people, either because I pick up the phone or they show up at the office unannounced, they try to get their hooks in and do not stop following up. Some of these guys border on harassment and use tactics like guilt tripping, saying stuff like "you told me to follow up in a week" (which usually isn't true).

I don't know what these guys are thinking. I literally hold all of the leverage. Maybe they think that if they harass enough the dam will break and I will give them a shot? Sometimes as I pass through a mall people will ask about my cell phone plan, I will tell them my phone is paid for by my company and they'll say something like "get another one"!

I could never do that kind of work.

I was the manager of a sales office for years.
I made a lot of money doing it, and it's just a job.