Seeking advice on how to run a REMOTE power hour or call blitz for my team

I have a few specific questions but any advice on the topic would be greatly appreciated. There will be about 5-7 sales reps participating across the US from various teams.

  1. Did you use Zoom?
  2. How did you track results?
  3. What metrics did you track? (only calls, or all types of outreach like texts, LinkedIn messages, and emails)
  4. What did you do to celebrate the wins or progress being made since people weren't physically together?
🔎 Prospecting
💌 Cold Emailing
📞 Cold Calling
20
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
6
Sales Rep
This my opinion on them or how I have done it

1. Hop on zoom for results, not during it. We dont need to watch people make calls
2. In the CRM
3. We do points, 1 per call, 10 per meeting set
4. If its a contest, usually the winner gets an extra day of PTO
MissCongeniality
Executive
3
CoS
Awesome advice @Kosta_Konfucius!

Does the 1 point per call apply to each dial or each conversation they have?
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
Per call
Wellss
Tycoon
3
Channel sales
I agree with your first point x10000! My manager had the brilliant idea of us doing Zoom call power hours together & it was the strangest, most unnecessary thing. If you have a call scheduled right after to go over the results, then you can trust that they're actually making the calls because they'll need something to talk about.
NotCreativeEnough
Big Shot
1
Professional Day Ruiner
I like this strategy minus the extra PTO day as the reward. Personally, if it isn't a monetary incentive I don't care. Love the point system though so it isn't based strictly on dials or meetings set
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
We usually do PTO day since its easy to tell them not to track the PTO day and they dont have to go through approval for a prize, plus there is always a struggle for how much should the incentive be
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
5
Bravado's Resident Asshole
This doesn’t really work well. Just track metrics in CRM and then call at the end of the blitz to come together
nomdeguerre
Executive
5
Account executive
Sounds like an awful exercise. Why exactly do you want to do this? Do you think they won’t make calls if you’re not watching on zoom. If so, I think you have much bigger problems than organizing this. If that is the case, are you gonna watch them every day to make sure they are making calls.

If you’re not worried about them not making calls, then what are you trying to achieve? If you think this will boost morale or people will somehow learn from watching 10 people making calls while they are making calls, you’re kidding yourself.

For the life of my I cannot come up with one scenario where this would be beneficial. It sounds like you’re trying to recreate the boiler room from the 1970s, and I suspect you’re a micromanager who is terrible to work for.
SaaSsy
Politicker
3
AE
My advice would be do not do this.

If you must, yes Zoom, run a competition, only track important metrics like qualified meetings booked. And #4, competition with $.
MissCongeniality
Executive
2
CoS
Why do you recommend not doing this? And I definitely will include rewards for winners :)
SaaSsy
Politicker
3
AE
Yeaaa it feels forced and micromanagey to me. If your team likes it and it motivates them, more power to you but I would not be a fan. Unless you make it a real power hour and have some fun drinking game rules 🤣
salesgolfer
Personal Narrative
4
Low Handicapper
I think if this feels micromanagey to the team, then you need to have a conversation with your team about what their goals are. In that situation, it sounds like they're not very engaged in what they do.

If they're making their calls and they're successful on their own, then you don't need to do this at all, but my guess is that this is a means of helping people get their work in, not watching them do it.

As the leader, I would pick up a list and get involved too, showing them you're leading from the front and shoulder to shoulder with them.
SaaSsy
Politicker
2
AE
Great point about leading by example!
MissCongeniality
Executive
2
CoS
@salesgolferLove the leading by example :)Was thinking about doing this and including my boss as well and now I definitely will!
SoccerandSales
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
I spent a year as an SDR with a weekly call like this. My first advice is that no matter how fun it is, there will be plenty of reps that flat out don't like it because if we are all on a zoom call doing calls, it feels micromanage-y.

If you do go forward with it, I would recommend rewards and a competition because that will help to drive results.
MissCongeniality
Executive
2
CoS
great feedback, was there a time in the week that your team found to be the best for everyone? We are spread across the US (EST > PST) @SoccerandSales
MissCongeniality
Executive
0
CoS
Also was your whole team on Zoom doing this live?
SoccerandSales
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
I would vary it, it helps to change the time the calls go out, and certain reps will appreciate the variability in times
SDM
Politicker
1
Sales development manager
We do it using salesloft.. pretty easy
CallMeMaybe
Opinionated
1
Director of Sales
I do a Daily $ bonus for total calls and total Conversations. Set some rules like:
Even though we have pre-recorded voicemails, AE must leave a voicemail on every call to count.
Conversation needs to hit a certain time threshold (depends on the company last one we had was 7min)
saaskicker
Celebrated Contributor
1
Enterprise AE
tracking calls makes this easy to coast and game the system, track meetings and pipeline generated down the line for the winner. anyone can log fake calls and call it a day. it's the results you want to incentivize.
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
Never really done this, but I agree with keeping the Zoom part to a debrief after the fact.
Epad
Executive
1
Snr Business Development Executive
We have done this a few times across many time zones. We'd jump on a zoom, all start by setting out objectives as a team (eg 3 meetings in an hour block for a team of 5), having our list of prospects ready to go ahead of the call.

Then we'd all mute and start dialling.

If someone got speaking with a prospect (not switchboard), they'd unmute, and the rest could listen to their intro, pitch, questions etc.

At the end of the meeting we would discuss elements we liked, elements to improve etc.

Definitely put an office feel on remote working for a brief window which was nice.

Careful not to overdo these meetings but often led to higher call volumes, more meetings, better quality conversations, and improved team learnings.
Pachacuti
Politicker
0
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
If you do this, I would kick it off with a VERY quick zoom call, just gather the results on a spreadsheet, and then meet up again later on a zoom call to share any positive results. Keep it super simple. Surprise them with a $10 Starbucks card or something.
MissCongeniality
Executive
0
CoS
@Pachacutiwhat kind of results do you track? Do you use a point system?

@Kosta_Konfuciussuggested 1 point per call and 10 points per meeting set.
ChumpChange
Politicker
0
Channel Manager
Need to plan this 1 - 2 weeks out to ensure no meetings are booked. Turn off slack/messaging tools. Set a calendar appointment pre-emptively and invite your whole team on it. Track it within Salesforce on dials/booked meetings. Kicker awards/points to the highest or most successful member of the team. Set a team goal at X to get 2-3 hours off on Friday.
MissCongeniality
Executive
0
CoS
love this feedback! thanks for sharing @ChumpChange
1.000.000maxi
Politicker
0
BDR (Business Development Rep)
From the BDR perspective of someone who did remote call blitzes like this, we would have them at either 10 am or 12 noon (I’d recommend 12 noon cause it works in all time zones). We would track calls only (had to make at least 20 during the hour). We would have cameras on or off (I’d usually turn mine off cause it is kinda weird when I’m calling). We would block off an hour of time to do the call blitz, and the last 10 minutes we would share what worked and what didn’t. The last 10 minutes of the session was by far the most valuable, and can be a good time (especially for a remote team) to share tips/tricks and have banter. Sometimes we would have a spiff if you booked a meeting during the blitz but that was usually it. I would rate it 7/10 as a BDR and that was only because I had some cool coworkers and I would get some value when people would share what worked and what didn’t. (If someone booked a meeting, then sharing how they did it could be beneficial, especially if you’re working with very junior reps). It could definitely feel micromanagey if you forced everyone to keep their cameras on.
Hope that helps!
MissCongeniality
Executive
0
CoS
Thanks for sharing so many details @1.000.000maxi! Did your team talk in between calls or just all be on zoom without video and audio? It sounds like you didn't do any sort of awards for the most calls made.
1.000.000maxi
Politicker
0
BDR (Business Development Rep)
It was all Zoom without audio or video, so it was a bit awkward. We wound up stopping the blitzes after awhile cause people wouldn’t show up
MissCongeniality
Executive
0
CoS
Also, what did you do to prepare? Was everyone given a list before the call or was it up to each rep to build out their list?
1.000.000maxi
Politicker
0
BDR (Business Development Rep)
Everyone had to build out their own lists
Rallier
Politicker
0
SDR Manager and Consultant
Sounds like Nooks would be good for this. I imagine you could just track the results in Outreach/salesloft
NotCreativeEnough
Big Shot
0
Professional Day Ruiner
if you told me I had to make calls on zoom like this I would suddenly be busy for that hour. those dr appointments are so easy to forget about....
5

If your manager asked for one sales training you can attend at company cost, what would you take??

Question
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7

When the set prospect whose meeting has been planned and booked by SDR does not join on time and expects the same 1 hour, would you or won't you lend?

Question
18
15
Members only

Team stand ups normally last max 20 min, with WFH would you rather have your teams camera on or off? What has worked for you to get maximum value from your teams and set the tone for the day?

Discussion
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