One of my daily tasks at work is printing out the phone records from the previous day for each station and culling all the local/personal calls. Because the most successful people in our industry make a certain number of outgoing calls per day (about 80) and have a certain amount of talk hours (four hours), we keep track of every second of phone time.
It's a sadistic little task--going through all those lines of phone calls and plucking out calls to whoever's momma/wife/brother and then subtracting that time from thir daily total. Bossman looks at these numbers every day at the end of the morning meeting and congratulates whoever made their goals. He then gives those who didn't the stink-eye and tosses around a few idle threats about them never being successful.
Well, Mr. 9.9 is supposed to make 80 calls a day but rarely does. He's one of those people who subscribe to the "Work smart, not hard" school of thought. Since he's relatively new to the profession, what that means for him is not picking up the phone, and just piggybacking on the sales that other consultants make--they bring in the client, he'll slither in with a few candidates and woo the hiring authority, thereby getting a half commission.
Technically speaking, the amount of work he does directly corresponds to the position directly beneath his. We keep threatening (idly) that he'd make a damned good project manager. However, project managers don't make big commissions. They get a little bonus percentage, but not a potential $11,000 commission.
I think he's waiting for a sale to just fall into his lap just on the basis of his charm. I'm sure if he waits long enough that would be the case, but I wouldn't count on it. He makes himself buddy-buddy with the candidates he places under pretenses that their new position is so high up that they'll be making human resources decisions of their own soon. When they do, he believes that they'll call him instead of the consultant that acquired the client to start with. No cold calls. No marketing.
I think it's funny. He's one of those people that talk really loud to make their presence known, but when it comes down to cold calling he backs off like a kid popped with hot frying oil for the first time. I've said it time and time again as a little joke that "Those who can't consult!" because that's exactly what he does. He gives loads of advice, specifically to Hat Guy, about how he should be marketing.
Hat Guy is thisclose to making his own full commission (about $7000) after three months of work. Hat Guy makes 80 calls per day and logs about 3 1/2 hours of phone time.
Hat Guy is frustrated that he can't see the light.
Mr. 9.9 would prefer to stay in the darkness.
Mr. 9.9 recommended Hat Guy for the job with a warning that his learning curve was pretty steep.
It'll be interesting to see whose business practice proves more effective. If I were in business school, this would make a very interesting thesis.
Posted by Tiffany at December 21, 2004 08:33 PM | TrackBack