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I work for a small family owned business, my boss is the owner's son and he runs the entire company. Being in sales is tough, and in most of my career I've built my book of business from scratch by cold calling. I've got it down really well, I'm great at it, I could train many others to do it and have in some jobs.
However my counterparts aren't cold calling. For some reason my co-sales people have been either assigned a majority of the leads that come through the phone lines/website, or they've been assigned a partnership with a company that has large sales forces that refer business to us. One of my fellow sales team members who started a month after me is killing it in sales, gets 3-4 large sales opportunities a month of companies who are "ready to buy".
I, on the other hand, scrape tooth and nail through 80-100 cold calls a day to get a shot at just a few opportunities and most of them aren't really in a position to buy. If they close, they don't buy for 3-6 months. My counterpart closes deals within the month because they're in a buying position.
I've talked to my boss about this and he's taken it as "I need to get you more quality leads". He doesn't have many other partnerships to assign to me, and he says that cold calling is my strength and he wants to play to my strengths to help me succeed. This has resulted in him providing me more lead lists. I don't need lead lists. I put together my own that are much better than anything he can supply me. Having leads to call isn't the problem, it's leads/prospects that are actually in a position to buy.
I sell an HR service that is never really at the top of the list unless something horrible goes wrong, so it's like finding a needle in a haystack when I call someone who is actually ready to make a change and a decision, and the window is about a 2-4 week window once every few years.
What do I do? I've been cold calling for 7+ years, I took this job because I thought this company didn't require as much cold calling. My friend who worked here before me said he never made a cold call and that's a big reason why I took the job. I don't want to leave, I just want to sell more and make more money. How do I convey this to management any clearer than I have? If I continue to lag behind my counterparts in sales because of this then I'm worried I could lose my job at some point.
If you have a track record of success in B2B sales with cold calling as your primary lead source, I'd say it's time to start looking for greener pastures - particularly if they're passing you over for the new warm leads.
If you are not getting the opportunities (career and salary wise), look elsewhere. Great salespeople are in demand in all fields and make great income, provided you can start and close the sale.
I work for a small family owned business, my boss is the owner's son and he runs the entire company. Being in sales is tough, and in most of my career I've built my book of business from scratch by cold calling. I've got it down really well, I'm great at it, I could train many others to do it and have in some jobs.
However my counterparts aren't cold calling. For some reason my co-sales people have been either assigned a majority of the leads that come through the phone lines/website, or they've been assigned a partnership with a company that has large sales forces that refer business to us. One of my fellow sales team members who started a month after me is killing it in sales, gets 3-4 large sales opportunities a month of companies who are "ready to buy".
I, on the other hand, scrape tooth and nail through 80-100 cold calls a day to get a shot at just a few opportunities and most of them aren't really in a position to buy. If they close, they don't buy for 3-6 months. My counterpart closes deals within the month because they're in a buying position.
I've talked to my boss about this and he's taken it as "I need to get you more quality leads". He doesn't have many other partnerships to assign to me, and he says that cold calling is my strength and he wants to play to my strengths to help me succeed. This has resulted in him providing me more lead lists. I don't need lead lists. I put together my own that are much better than anything he can supply me. Having leads to call isn't the problem, it's leads/prospects that are actually in a position to buy.
I sell an HR service that is never really at the top of the list unless something horrible goes wrong, so it's like finding a needle in a haystack when I call someone who is actually ready to make a change and a decision, and the window is about a 2-4 week window once every few years.
What do I do? I've been cold calling for 7+ years, I took this job because I thought this company didn't require as much cold calling. My friend who worked here before me said he never made a cold call and that's a big reason why I took the job. I don't want to leave, I just want to sell more and make more money. How do I convey this to management any clearer than I have? If I continue to lag behind my counterparts in sales because of this then I'm worried I could lose my job at some point.
Then why did you ever make cold calls at this job?
You have spoiled your boss by being "the one" who is willing to slog away and subsist on cold calls. You're willing to do the dirty work nobody else will and you have been successful at it ... he's not going to make it easy on you. NO WAY! It's no accident he is hand feeding other people who don't make cold calls the much easier stuff (incoming leads and partnerships) and just giving you lead lists. You are the designated cold caller. You will never get out of this unless you tell him you are burnt out on cold calling and want your share of the incoming leads and partnerships. He may very well not give any to you because there may not be enough to go around. I would say get another job and just offer to use your existing book of business there and DO NOT COLD CALL for another employer ever again!
Then why did you ever make cold calls at this job?
You have spoiled your boss by being "the one" who is willing to slog away and subsist on cold calls. You're willing to do the dirty work nobody else will and you have been successful at it ... he's not going to make it easy on you. NO WAY! It's no accident he is hand feeding other people who don't make cold calls the much easier stuff (incoming leads and partnerships) and just giving you lead lists. You are the designated cold caller. You will never get out of this unless you tell him you are burnt out on cold calling and want your share of the incoming leads and partnerships. He may very well not give any to you because there may not be enough to go around. I would say get another job and just offer to use your existing book of business there and DO NOT COLD CALL for another employer ever again!
If I was interviewing someone for sales and they told me they would not cold call ever.. they would not get the job
Then why did you ever make cold calls at this job?
You have spoiled your boss by being "the one" who is willing to slog away and subsist on cold calls. You're willing to do the dirty work nobody else will and you have been successful at it ... he's not going to make it easy on you. NO WAY! It's no accident he is hand feeding other people who don't make cold calls the much easier stuff (incoming leads and partnerships) and just giving you lead lists. You are the designated cold caller. You will never get out of this unless you tell him you are burnt out on cold calling and want your share of the incoming leads and partnerships. He may very well not give any to you because there may not be enough to go around. I would say get another job and just offer to use your existing book of business there and DO NOT COLD CALL for another employer ever again!
Maybe that is how it is at YOUR company, but apparently not all, including the one the OP currently works at:
For instance, how do you explain this from the original post:
My friend who worked here before me said he never made a cold call and that's a big reason why I took the job.
Plus the OP discusses colleagues who are GIVEN their leads and are not doing cold calls.
I am sure you are not in sales, and probably a good thing also. Even if a company has enough lead referrals that the sales staff never have to make cold calls, an applicant stating that they refuse to ever make cold calls, is a huge red flag. This is telling the company the applicant is not willing to do what ever it takes.
I would tell the boss that you do not feel the situation is equitable if you are paid based on sales. If other sales people are GIVEN hot leads you should be given the same. I would tell him you need to get as many leads as the other sales people get OR be set up on a different commission structure that reflects the fact you have to work 10 times as hard to get a qualified lead by cold calling.
I am sure you are not in sales, and probably a good thing also. Even if a company has enough lead referrals that the sales staff never have to make cold calls, an applicant stating that they refuse to ever make cold calls, is a huge red flag. This is telling the company the applicant is not willing to do what ever it takes.
This is true. Every job typically requires some level of cold calling. My company has a lot of referral partnerships and networks very well, but we only have a handful of sales reps.
But I agree, they've put me into this role. It started out in the beginning when my boss said "until I get you started with partnerships and networking referrals you'll have to pound the phones" to start, but he saw how good I was at it and the opportunities I was bringing in and he just did away with the rest. Instead my counterparts get the hot leads.
What sucks is if I look for another job I can't go in saying things like "I don't want to cold call" because just like rhawkins said: I won't get hired. There are jobs that get their leads through other means or have pre-defined/targeted companies which takes a little off the cold calling aspect. However companies looking for seasoned vets will sell the job as one that doesn't require a lot of cold calling....but in reality that is what the position requires day in day out.
I took this job to be in outside sales but they've pushed me unofficially into an inside cold calling sales role. This is not what I envisioned. I agree I have to get out of this company. What other option is there? How do you go to your boss and say "I don't want to cold call anymore" without getting fired?
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