dreadpiratescript

Producer

Valued Contributor

How are salespeople as prospects?

Background was in customer service prior to joining sales. Anytime I had to call customer service lines I would complete the survey, positively elevate etc. bc that job is ROUGH. Now on the sales side and in a role that has vendors trying to use me as a sales channel, I often find myself leaving my brethren's cold outreach unanswered, brushed off, or even taking an appointment knowing I can't/won't buy.

Interested to see where everyone stands on this and even just reflecting here realize I could do a better job helping my people out!

How do you interact when people are trying to prospect you?

Attached poll

Just as shittily as your prospects treat you Ignore them, help them hit their activity numbers faster Engage at arms length knowing the common struggle and trying to give them a small win Become their favorite prospect and agree to appointments right away Show me the results

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

😂 Sales Humor

🔎 Prospecting

18

20 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

11

☕️

Gotta be honest, I hate 90% of sales reps that prospect me. The poor execution of an outbound motion makes me so irritated.

dreadpiratescript

Politicker

2

Producer

agreed, tacky emails, awkward pattern interrupts especially to another sales person are confusing to me. reminds me of the the scene in boiler room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1BfwRi0pzY

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I have yet to receive an inbound attempt that has made me want to help the person on the other end. Lazy people shouldn’t expect any help.

bandabanda

Tycoon

5

Senior AE Mid Market

Agree.

But I will say that some people haven’t been shown the way. My outreach only got better because people stopped and said “don’t do this. Do this instead…” I’m better because of them. Also honestly I put a lot of time and research into my outreach. That said, I can’t take every opportunity to do this but I try to correct/help some people every now and then.

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

But you can tell the ones who expended effort, even if it's misplaced. Copy/paste emails offering me lead lists into an industry that doesn't fit my ICP are going to be deleted.

Sure, if there's an earnest attempt, I would. But I've seen very little that isn't batch and blast.

butwhy

Politicker

4

Solutions Engineer

I worked at Outreach long enough to know that selling to sales people is just as hard or harder than anyone else.

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

I do entertain them if I find the product to be a fit or else I tell them it’s not. I personally don’t like ghosting others.

dreadpiratescript

Politicker

0

Producer

Seems like you are one of the good ones uh *checks notes* Diablo lol. thanks though agreed i dont like it either, just got into a bad habit of it

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

I answered 'show me the results' because that's what I want from someone trying to sell me.

So many are terrible, and it KILLS ME. But I've bought when I've seen a good approach and been shown value.

punishedlad

Tycoon

1

Regional Partnership Manager

Going off of @poweredbycaffeine, it depends on how good they are at their job. If they are able to impress me with their outbound motions I'll at least give them the time of day. Sometime if they're really bad I'll try to give them some advice out of pity.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

I throw em a bone and then direct them where they need to go.

tightlines

Tycoon

1

Account Executive

I've been a dick

ventox35

Politicker

1

Sales Leader

it depends. game recognize game. if they suck, i probably ignore it. if they're good, i'll be very transparent and find a way to help them even if i don't buy their stuff

boredAnti

Tycoon

0

That One Guy

It’s way to easy to be a critic in these circumstances.

KB_FarmerType

Opinionated

0

Strategic Sales

Do you even get calls these days ?

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

0

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I can be a good prospect if the sales rep is well researched / remotely less pushy. I have had some very bad experiences with sales reps being extremely pushy / absolutely shitty pitches that fell flat. Or would just pronounce my name wrong, and that’s a turn off for me.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

0

Professional Day Ruiner

if they're actually good - I'm super easy to work with and end up being a lay down sale.

If they're using some cheesy tactic, being annoying, or ultimately just bad, I'm going to get annoyed and not end up buying.

Pachacuti

Politicker

0

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I took a call from an SDR the other day. I almost just told him to take a hike, but my curiosity as to how he was going to pitch me won out.

I listened to his canned pitch, which demonstrated he didn't know anything about my business (but few do), and I kindly told him those decisions were made by the Operations and Marketing teams in India (which was mostly true actually). And that I didn't know the people he'd need to reach out to.

He's peppered me with emails since then, to the point that I finally "unsubscribed" yesterday. I hope he doesn't continue his persistence but I do get it since I'm in Sales too.

JDialz

Politicker

0

Chief Operating Officer

All of you are shitty prospects for my business 😂

FranchiseSalesQB

Politicker

0

Franchise Sales QB

They should be the best prospects. Game respects Game, but that's just me.

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