Top Five Excuses Given For NOT Hitting Your Daily Activity Number
Now that I have completed my first year of blogging I now feel I’ve earned the right to Jump the Shark and create my first ever Top 5 List. While my team has been off the charts this month from a performance standpoint, they have also been refusing to listen to me (hence the great performance) so I’ve decided to pick on them a bit with this list. For your reading pleasure, The Top 5 Excuses Given by AG Insides Sales Reps for Not hitting their daily call number.
#5: “I forgot”. Seriously, this was given to me once. The gentleman in question forgot to hit his call number. Now we don’t run a sweat shop here. 105 activities per day is the number, it’s not easy, but most certainly reasonable. This response was so absurdly lame that I won’t even give it due by speaking anymore on it.
#4: “I’ll make up the missed activities tomorrow”. Great thanks. If that is how we are going to run our business how about I short pay you next week and make up the difference on the following payroll. Consistency is key in this business...don’t borrow from tomorrow at the expense of today.
#3. “I was researching my accounts”. In theory I applaud this concept. Being prepared for a call with some knowledge of your target company and contact is a best practice. However, you don’t need to review the quarterly financials of the company nor do you need the contact to respond to your Facebook friend request before you make the dial. A simple check of your previous call notes and a visit to the company website will suffice.
#2. “I was writing up my leads”. now this one is tough. They have a point here. If I were a better boss I’d have a more automated way for leads to be written up (I’m working on it). That being said, c’mon people don’t set out to write War and Peace. Keep it informative and simple. Unless you’ve had a killer day (3 leads or more), this just isn’t a viable excuse.
#1. “This list is no good”. Oh man, my blood boils even typing this blog. If I had a nickel for every time I’d heard this excuse over the years I’d be able to afford a robot that could write this blog for me. There is no magic list. You need the company name, the email syntax that the company uses, and a phone number that gets you into their system. That’s it. Call the number, ask for your contact, when you hear that they left the company 10 years ago, ask for their replacement. The original contact name you call is the right one 10% of the time.
I’ve got a great team of inside sales reps and like I said, they are killing it this month and quarter. That still doesn’t stop them from dropping these beauties on me daily. Next one to lay one of these on me gets a special shout out in next week’s blog!!