I was reading an interesting article in Fast Company regarding a conversation they had with the founder of Intuit, Scott Cook. The premise of the article was that every organization needs to find a way to unleash their employee’s potential. According to their current statistics, 70% of all US employees are not “actively engaged” in what they do every day and 20% of those folks are “actively disengaged”. While I’m not much of a mathematician, I wouldn’t say those are particularly uplifting numbers.
Cook does provide encouraging tips on how to improve those sobering stats. His suggestion starts with allowing your employees to experiment a bit. Take a read: How To Unleash Your Human Potential.
They also mention that Google allows their engineers the free reign to dedicate 20% of their day to their own projects. While it may seem a bit unfair to use Google as an example since their stock is at 541.34 a share at the moment, they can provide us all with a little inspiration. Though most companies may not be flush with cash these days to allow their employees 8 hours of playtime a week, we still need to find a way of seamlessly weaving employee creativity into what they do everyday.
During most of my interviews, I try my best to convey the culture we represent here at AG. What I want them to know is that they are going to be responsible for running their own small business here. I know it sounds a bit hokey but I really mean it. Every Business Development Rep when given a bit of autonomy (assuming they’ve earned it) will take a little more pride in their calling and thus will be more engaged because they are not being micromanaged.
While the reps we have on the phone have to stick to our core calling philosophy, we do allow for them to incorporate their own approach/style to their dials. If that doesn’t happen, most likely every conversation they have with each prospect will sound very scripted. From what I’ve seen, if you sound like you’re reading off of a carefully worded piece of paper then you aren’t going to capture anyone’s attention, whether it be an admin all the way up to a C-Level Exec. We also try to encourage our people to employ different tactics that work to get in front of a decision maker. The faster we get to that yes or no, means we are now freed up to call on the next valid prospect. My feeling is, as long as it’s legal and you won’t be slapped with a harassment suit, get as creative as you can to get on your target’s radar.
So what do you do to keep your inside sales reps engaged?
Craig Ferrara is the Vice President of Client Operations for AG Salesworks. He has extensive experience in the sales and teleprospecting process. Craig joined AG Salesworks in 2003 and has successfully managed several teams of high-performing Business Development Representatives. To read more of his articles, click here.
