Signs of a Burned Out Teleprospector
At AG, a major priority for us is to create a healthy culture that our employees are excited to be a part of each day. One thing we are well aware of is that with making sales prospecting calls all day, you have to deal with some element of burn-out. We obviously manage to this in order to keep the team motivated, but here are some questions you should be asking yourself if you feel an employee is exhibiting signs that they have checked out:
Do they continually struggle to hit their call goals?
This is typically the first sign to watch out for if a teleprospector is having difficulty remaining motivated.
Has the quality of their leads diminished?
Lead quality is what builds a sales team's pipeline and results in closed business. Tie compensation into the feedback you receive on the leads your team sends over, and this should help to keep quality consistent.
Are they continually pulling in new contacts to prospect into, or are they cycling through the same individuals?
Your reps should be backfilling 5 new names a day into their calling rotation. If they don't, eventually they will just be spinning their wheels with the same prospects who don't pick up the phone.
Are they executing on your company's call strategy?
Any inside sales team I have been a part of has their own approach regarding how to best to navigate through a company to find a lead. If your reps aren't following this, you need to have a discussion.
Do you see a higher no-show rate on the meetings they have scheduled for your sales reps?
No shows generally tie back to lead quality. Generally a prospect will commit to a time just to get you off the phone. Your reps need to be aware of that when they are qualifying leads in order to not waste anyone's time.
Are they proactively soliciting feedback?
If they care enough about the job, they will want to know what they can do to get better.
Do they react poorly to constructive criticism?
Defensive teleprospectors are not fun to manage. As much as we try to encourage their creativity, if they can't handle a little constructive feedback then it is may be time to cut-bait.
Are they not proactively taking suggestions from trainers and applying it to their calling efforts?
I'm assuming your training team consists of your top performers. Since they are speaking from their own success, your potentially disgruntled teleprospector needs to check their ego and apply the suggestions they receive to their calling.
Do they detract from the company culture?
The culture is critical in keeping your team motivated. If you feel they are being negative in any way, from my experience, you need to address it with the employee right away.
When they have an issue/or a problem do they come to you with a solution?
Rather just throwing their hands up in defeat when they hit a roadblock, they need to be actively thinking about what they can do to get around it.
How can you tell that a teleprospector is burned out? What have your experiences been?