38 comments

Sort by:
bigpicturemaverickstuff
Good Citizen
9
Senior Manager, Sales Development
We have a saying the SDR world, "You are not a real SDR until you've called a dead person."ย  It may be the single largest rite of passage in our ranks.
Captain_Q
Arsonist
0
Sr. Account Executive
LOL
BillyHoyle
Tycoon
3
Senior Account Executive
I used to sell to Independent Insurance Agencies (older demographic for sure) and this would happen to me multiple times every week. Super awkward every time.ย 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
2
โ˜•๏ธ
Well, nearly 600k people have died in the US alone in the past year from COVID-related cases, chances are you're going to call a few of them in any industry. Sorry for the bad vibes, but it's the reality.
funcoupons
WR Officer
1
๐Ÿ‘‘
I mean, most people who have died from COVID have been seniors over the age of 75 so chances are they weren't actively employed when they passed away.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
0
โ˜•๏ธ
Sure, but 110K of them were under the age of 65, which is still a significant chunk of working-age folks.
funcoupons
WR Officer
1
๐Ÿ‘‘
Approximately 50k people die from influenza every year and that's during "decent" flu seasons. In my country at least, there's been a ton of reports of hospitals marking anyone who tested positive for COVID as dying from COVID, even if that person was terminally ill or ended up dying of a stroke/heart attack.

Not saying nobody dies of COVID but the numbers being reported (especially for deaths of younger people) are skewed by a bunch of other factors that aren't commonly discussed.ย 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
0
โ˜•๏ธ
Yeah, that's why I qualified my comment with "related cases" because COVID is not always the chief cause of death. However, COVID is a related factor to the exasperation of the condition that caused death. In any case, I feel like it's not unlikely you'll call a prospect that contracted COVID and unfortunately passed. RIP.
funcoupons
WR Officer
2
๐Ÿ‘‘
Fair enough, thanks for clarifying!
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
Globally, infact. Yes that's so right
Captain_Q
Arsonist
0
Sr. Account Executive
500k of them were retired.
Adslanger1
Opinionated
2
Senior Account Executive
Iโ€™m so sorry to hear that. Who took his place?
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
Straightforward and clear
Captain_Q
Arsonist
0
Sr. Account Executive
Nailed it!
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
๐ŸฆŠ
Oh I'm sorry for your loss. Are you who I need to speak to about xxx?ย 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
2
โ˜•๏ธ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfCnKdidL6M
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
๐ŸฆŠ
YES!!! ๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿ”ฅ
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ”ฅ
Bittersweet0326
Politicker
1
Digital Business Associate
Happens once and a while especially when cold calling.
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
True that.ย 
funcoupons
WR Officer
0
๐Ÿ‘‘
It's happened to me a few times. I do research companies at least a bit before I call because some of the info in our CRM is stale and I want to avoid these situations but it doesn't always work out.

The best was:

Me: Hi, can I speak with Bob?
GK: Oh, Bob's not in.
Me: No worries, do you know when he'll be back?
GK: Never...he passed away.

I was dumbfounded as to why the GK would phrase it like that... so fucking awkward.

I have also cold called a prospect who told me she couldn't talk because she was attending a funeral service - pretty sure she wasn't bluffing, I heard someone speaking solemnly in the background. Why the FUCK are you answering cold calls at a FUNERAL?ย 
GrindingSales
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Wow those are both wild stories!ย  The first guy's give a darn was clearly busted!ย  And what kind of high pressure job did the second person have to make her answer that?!
funcoupons
WR Officer
0
๐Ÿ‘‘
Lol, the second lady ran a daycare. I'm sure she gets the odd call from parents or employees about the kids, but I still can't think of a situation where she couldn't let the call go to voicemail and discreetly step out to listen to it after the funeral service was done.
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
0
Director Sales and Market Development
Clean up the SFDC so that it doesnt happen to the next one. Ive seen it a ton, and not a recent passing, person was dead for 5 years. Just update the damn record, and of course RIP personย 
GrindingSales
Politicker
0
Account Executive
I have a weird boss that will instruct me to clean up the CRM but does not actually do that himself.ย  Drives me crazy, lol!ย 
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
Do as i say, not as i do. Hate that shit
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
+1 for this
GrindingSales
Politicker
0
Account Executive
I definitely have had this happened way too much!ย  I think the worst one has to be a lead given to me by my boss and I was cold emailing and leaving voicemails for a whole quarter before I found out through some facebook digging that she had passed away.ย  So embarrassed!
funcoupons
WR Officer
0
๐Ÿ‘‘
You'd think a company would shut down the email/voicemail for a deceased employee...unless you were calling them personally.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
My last company had us call through old pipelines for training. The 1st day we hit the phones I'm nervous as hell, running through the script in my head, all of that. I kid you not, the first person that answered the phone, explained it was her husband's cell and he had passed the previous week. I had no idea what to do. I hung up. Never been that rattled in my life - haven't been since.
funcoupons
WR Officer
0
๐Ÿ‘‘
Ugh that sucks...bad enough to have to hear that from their colleague, but their wife? So sad.ย 
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
0
Sales
I had one when I first started. The prospect died unexpectedly the day before, at work. The secretary who took the call was distraught. Took a long lunch that day.ย 
SalesHead
Opinionated
0
Enterprise AE
Always awkward....but did you get the referral to their replacement?

Indakitchenwhippin
Politicker
0
Channel Sales
Kind of in the same vain, and actually very similar to a post on one of the sales humor accounts on IG, forget which, Anyways called some cold SMB lead and they told me they were shuttering and then talks to me about how fucked they were for about 5 mins. Could not get off the phone faster

Before anyone says I got played, looked them up a few days later on google and it had one if those red โ€œpermanently closedโ€ banners
Chep
WR Officer
0
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
Ooffff
Dialboy
Contributor
0
District Manager
Been there. Once I did it in person and that was REALLY awkward
BCD
Politicker
0
BDR
Ive had this happen twice. Googled both to make sure they we're just being super fucked up and trying to get out of a cold call, sadly they really had passed.ย 
Captain_Q
Arsonist
0
Sr. Account Executive
Hadn't happened to me in my almost 10 years of selling, then in one quarter, I had three DMs drop dead.ย  ย All good-sized deals too.ย  It was super awkward....

So, like a true sales savage, I went to all three funerals to meet the new DM.ย  #can'tstopwon'tstop

Related posts

51
Members only

Cold Call Reenactment: The Hospital

Official
๐Ÿ˜‚
๐Ÿฐ
๐Ÿ“ž
24
9

Cold calling someone who died....

Question
๐Ÿ‘‘
๐Ÿ“ž
๐Ÿง 
15
7

BOA ends cold calls by trainee brokers. What are your thoughts on cold calling?

Discussion
๐Ÿ’Œ
๐Ÿ“ž
8
How do you feel about cold calling?
75% Important to the job
13% Waste of time
13% Warm calls only!
55 people voted
Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.
Apple Store logo
Products
The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U
Company
About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty
Contact
Press Careers
ยฉ 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs
If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.