Telemarketing Software Featured Article

When people brag about their careers, there are certain tasks they leave out. If you’re an up-and-coming inside sales person, for example, chances are pretty good that you’ll leave out the word “telemarketing” from your florid description of your rising career. There’s a good reason for this: telemarketing, or cold-calling, isn’t a career for the faint of heart. Anyone who has ever done the work is likely to understand that telemarketers deserve hazard pay.

While it may not involve a fight to the death, Business2Community’s Patrice Morrison likens outbound telemarketing to the Hunger Games, the popular series of young adult novels that take place in a dystopian future where each year, 24 young people chosen by lottery must fight to the death, leaving one victor, in order to appease a blood-hungry television viewing public.

No, outside sales personnel aren’t actively trying to kill one another, but people truly cut out for the work do have a highly competitive nature, as they understand that to the victor go the spoils. This may, in fact, help an organization learn the best way to motivate inside sales reps. While nobody’s suggesting you provide your agents with deadly weapons, there’s nothing wrong with them trying to one-up each other.

“Because reps are competitive by nature, a fun way to motivate the sales team is through friendly competition,” writes Morrison. “Many companies will use games or contests to promote competition among inside sales reps (gamification). Of course, inside sales competitions are much less deadly than Hunger Games competitions!”

But as anyone who has read the books or watched the movies discovered, sometimes team work is the best approach to surviving, and it goes even further when it’s led by a knowledgeable mentor.

“The tributes that created and maintained alliances were able to last longer during the games,” writes Morrison. “Inside sales reps are also more successful when they have the support of their coworkers. The tributes have mentors and sponsors to help them navigate the games; inside sales reps have a management team to assist them with goals and assignments.”

That would make you, the sales manager, something like Haymitch, the main characters’ mentor inside the arena (hopefully with fewer bad habits). By understanding when it’s important for inside sales personnel to compete and when it’s better to have them work as teams, you can motivate your people to succeed under any circumstances.