Post by changedname on Dec 19, 2014 15:23:16 GMT -5
I was in the exact same boat last year. My title was changed to business development manager and we were told to do 5 cold calls a day. I've been a sales manager for 10 years and feel like I did my time doing cold calls. I do sales callas every month but those are not cold calls.
50 calls a day is outrageous for a seasoned sales person who manages accounts too. He could get an entry level person to do that and leave you at your regular job.
And I can guarantee you that he had lunch with someone, saw some webinar, golfed with someone, read some article that said how cold calling is an good way increase sales. That seems to be these things go - i.e., coming up with some random plan that makes no sense - in a small business. DH has seen it happen several times and it never ends well.
And I don't know your industry, but really for two people running 40-50 calls a day, aren't you going to run into a wall of new customers pretty quickly? It seems so unrealistic and ill planned on so many levels.
Thank you all for confirming that he's nuts. And @meepmeep I ask myself that question all the time. I think he is SO out of touch. I could go on and on about many of his personality traits that drive me insane too but I don't have all day and dude DOES sign my paycheck every week.
We have a little over 20 in house accounts. Even if we get 1% of those calls as new business we would never have the support here to actually manage these additional accounts. He would need to hire new support staff for me. I only have ONE assistant right now for 20 accounts. What is he going to do if we suddenly have 30 new accounts? There is only ONE of me. I don't know. So frustrated.
Post by birdistheword on Dec 19, 2014 15:31:07 GMT -5
Not unreasonable at all. I would never take a job that required me to make cold calls, so if my boss suddenly tried to change my duties to include cold-calling, I would be livid. And 50 a day is insanity.
Post by VeryViolet on Dec 19, 2014 15:38:05 GMT -5
Holy shit that is nuts. DH is in sales and he has to log 40 calls a week and they don't all have to be cold calls they can be client calls. He bitches so much about how the logging and tracking of those calls hinders his ability to do his "job". I cannot believe that your boss things this is reasonable and furthermore than he decided to announce it via email. How is your other coworker responding to this?
Post by cheeseandcrackers on Dec 19, 2014 15:42:53 GMT -5
50 calls when you have "down time" during the day?? Does he think you are sitting around all day and doing nothing, because 50 calls take a lot of time! Sorry op, hope this gets settled.. right before christmas too.. so annoying.
There is no way I would stick around for that. I hate hate hate cold calling. So much. The number of calls is insane, but I agree that it wouldn't matter to me. I hope he sees reason.
So we just had our Christmas party at a local high end steakhouse place. I got my $1,000 cash bonus first before telling him that he was off his rocker. I then went to his brother (CEO) and told him that he needed to re-think that request. I was told that I have nothing to worry about and if I didn't want to do it, he'd have my back.
I am still insulted and a little peeved though.
But its Friday and I just had a $50 steak on the boss' tab so I will simmer by Monday.
Post by crazycakes on Dec 19, 2014 20:05:59 GMT -5
No. I'm in account management, and if they tried to get me to do cold calls I would be outta there. That's not what I do. It's not a good use of my time. I build relationships, I up sell existing clients based on their needs (which I know, because I have relationships with them). I am not a telemarketer. No. I am pissed on your behalf.