What are some ways to avoid inside sales burnout?

Hi Erik,

Good question, and I don't think there's a profession out there that sees as much burnout as inside sales. I think there are a few ways that that we can delay, or even stave off, burnout for our reps. You've hit on a couple of them, and Carr has some good ideas, too. Here's what's worked for me in the past:

1. Be someone your reps want to succeed for - Carr is right when he says that "the answer to avoiding burnout is connection to something that matters." Now, I don't believe that is THE answer, but it's certainly one. I can only think back to my own experiences, and every time I worked for someone that I believed in, or someone that mentored me or spent time trying to make me better, it only made me work harder for them. If I felt burned out, it only took spending a little time with them to remember all they had done for me, and it was enough to get me back at it again. This takes time on the manager's part, though. This method of avoiding burnout is not a quick fix method, and not every manager is good at doing it.

2. Incentives beyond comp - So this is where the time off comes in. Your reps are already working towards exceeding their comp, but sometimes, and I know this is hard to believe with sales reps, but money isn't always a motivator. Managers need to spend time with their reps and figure out what motivates them. Is it more time off? Is it a better seat in the office? Is it an iPad or some new gadget? If you can focus in on what your reps value the most, and add additional SPIFF's to their monthly comp plan, you're going to get more production out of them and delay that burnout. We've all got to work, but if we, as managers, can make that work more enjoyable for the people that work for us, we're going to get more out of them.

3. A light at the end of the tunnel - Not everyone is satisfied with working entry level inside sales jobs, right? I wasn't, and I'm betting you weren't either. Often times if we can work with a rep and show them a career path that moves them up the corporate ladder, for the really ambitious folks, that's all they need to rid themselves of burnout. Show reps what they have the potential of becoming, and for some of them, you wont' have to deal with burnout again.

Hope that helps, Erik! Good luck!

You have some very good answers already, Erik. Here are my top # 1 and 2 for preventing burnout:

1) Make it a point to ask your reps to find out more about each customer's business, and how your solution will either make the prospect money, or stop him or her from losing money. The best way to do this is to ask great questions about the way his or her businees works, and don't make assumptions on anything. Avoid "feature dumping" your own solution, and instead focus on how you can improve the life of your prospect. Being a problem-solver is a great motivator for reps, who can lose focus making call after call, after call, after call... (see #2 below)

2) Don't have unrealsitic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). I get more comments on my blog about unrealsitic KPIs than just about anything else we discuss. Having intelligently thought-out and fair KPIs is a great motivator, as it keeps them moving forward toward a realistic goal that, when acheieved, will put more money in their pockets.

Realistically, reps can actually be on the phone enagaing with propsects for about 6 hours a day. If your KPIs are 120 dials per day, that's 20 per hour, or one every 3 minutes. How many in-depth, meaningful conversations with qualified prospects would you expect them to have, given those KPIs?

Instead, build your own KPIs from logical, meaningful statistics, so the reps understand how you got the numbers, and why it all makes sense. For a free templates that can help you build meaningful KPIs, take a look at http://www.alextrain.com/inside-sales-telesales-tips-blog/bid/7969/Increase-s...

Erik, Motivating Inside Sales Reps was the first blog post I ever wrote - December 2007. I personally think the biggest motivator is YOU! You need to become a mentor. Inside Reps want to get better and they want career paths. They can't do that without you and your management team's commitment to that investment.

For some reason we always focus on the tactical solutions. Maybe because the strategic are too hard. Anyway, you can read the full post on the Inside Sales Experts blog. The comments are great as well http://tinyurl.com/d68rw.

Not only career development, but also a sense that their input is both valued and required in terms of forming plans, strategy, and vision. This is tough to sometimes facilitate, but I heard of one company undergoing a very high-level strategic improvement (think Lean business). They created teams of representatives from all the affected departments to sit on these committees and participate in the workflow. Yes it was time off the phones and away from the desk, but the reps that were chosen to participate were immersed and working with other team members sometimes several paygrades above them.

Erik –

You’ve received some blanket answers in the previous posts, which is all that you can expect given the information you’ve provided. Perhaps you don’t have the budget in order to improve an incentive program for your team. Maybe there are no opportunities for advancement in the company. And you’re likely already the most motivational leader that you can be...

The best answer to any business challenge is based full knowledge of the particulars of the situation — specifics about the sales team, company, and sales operation, etc.

Sell well.

-Steve

Here's a few that have worked for my teams:

- ENCOURAGE TELEWORKING: It's very hard for sales managers (myself included) to let go of control for fear of losing productivity to unsupervised television watching and laundry folding, but you'll be amazed at how productivity remains the same or even increases. Why? Because reps don't want you to take away this privilege, so they try extra hard to produce while at home. Plus, they'll make up for sleeping in by working extra late, and they'll actually miss the office after a few days working in isolation without the comfort of coworkers sharing the same battle. If you don't have a technology setup where reps can work from home, get one ASAP by hosting your email server and phone system remotely.

- ACKNOWLEDGE BURNOUT AND COUNTERACT WITH A CHALLENGE: Burnout is a direct result of boredom from repetition, so break the routine."Jon, you're mailing it in. I dare you to make somebody laugh today by telling them how you fell out of the elevatgor this morning?!" Or better yet "Suzy, I'm sure that guy was a drag, but it sounded like you couldn't wait to get off the phone. I'll let it slide if you can get the next guy to tell me how he likes his coffee." It seems silly and possible reckless, but it will re-engage them.

- PROMOTE COPYCATTING: One of my favorite sales meetings, and admittedly not the most original, is where you ask everyone to come with something they did last week that worked for them. Let everyone have their turn, but don't let them get away with a bogus answer like "I just asked for the business". Request exact wording and tone. Then, ask everyone to raise their hand if they think what they just heard could work for them too. Whoever raises their hand, make them write down what they said could work for them and tape it up in from on them with the rule that they're not allowed to take t down until they've tried it x# of times. This only works if you reinforce by listening to calls and asking if they tried it and how often.

This is one of my favorite sales topics, and I'm happy to help anyone come up with a plan to counteract boredom (ahem, I mean burnout). Just shoot me an email.

Changing scripts or seating, offering more time off...while those can be useful, they are tactical approaches to an human problem. What causes burnout is the dislocation one feels, when performing work that isn't engaging. The answer to avoiding burnout is connection to something that matters, namely, another human being. Burnout isn't fixable, it isn't something that will go away by rearranging the furniture. In fact, perhaps, it is part of the job and its appearance on our emotional radar is an indication that we need to new paths of thinking about what we do. So...my answer is to tinker and experiment...take time to go to museums that you may not go to, listen to music you don't like or aren't familiar with, move towards art and music, and cultivate a new listening. These aren't small things, and they aren't trivial.

For too long, sales has been hooked on the drug of planning, on scripting and processes, on linear flow and the reduction of complexity through check listing best practices. Instead, work on getting rid of anything and everything that produces static between one person and another, and give or gain more freedom to choice.

Hi Erik,

The top way to avoid ‘Inside Sales Burnout’ is to not lose sight of the fact that fundamentally it’s all about the quality of the ‘Humanware’ you deploy to begin with.

While most everyone can use a telephone - not everyone is cut out to work in a Call Center environment. And while someone may have “The Right Stuff” to be a great Customer Service & Support CSR – it doesn’t necessarily follow that the same individual is also a good fit for the more demanding & sales-oriented requirements of an Inside Sales position.

Top Performing Inside Sales Operations drive their Revenue & Performance through Superior Hiring Tactics. Hiring the wrong Agent to begin with is the Root Cause of most Inside Sales Performance Issues. It’s also a significant drain on your Budget & Bottom Line - and on your Sales Results. Every failed hire represents wasted dollars down the drain. Not to mention the Lowered Productivity, Poor Morale & Higher Absences associated with a Poor Job Fit.

Typically there are 3 grades of Agents found in an Inside Sales Call Center: (Above Average), (Average), and (Below Average).

(Above Average) Agents seem to have “The Right Stuff” that pushes them to succeed & a natural compatibility with the duties of the position. They work hard - exceed expectations - do more than asked - achieve high-quality consistent results - can always be counted upon - need little direction & work extremely well with everyone.

(Average) Agents perform their duties adequately enough “to get by” - but no better. They are the partially competent. Generally they’re strong from a Skills standpoint but missing a key ingredient or two from a Job Fit standpoint.

(Below Average) Agents are the people who just don’t fit somehow. Sometimes they’re good people in the wrong jobs. They need extra coaching & supervision just to achieve average results. Often they cause unnecessary conflict. (Below Average) Agents have the Highest Levels of Absenteeism, Lowest Levels of Productivity & Sales, Poorest Performance & Customer Satisfaction Ratings, and generally have a Negative Impact on Team Morale. They represent the real problems in a Call Center workforce. While (Average) & (Below Average) Agents may seem fully qualified at the Interview Stage – they’re a Poor Job Fit – the cost of hiring them is enormous – with little value add to an organization.

SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software is easy-to-deploy, very cost-effective and highly-predictive of an individual's suitability for a particular Call Center job.

SPAS Call Center Pre-Employment Screening Software is a Proven Technology that meets and exceeds all Government Employment Standards Requirements as a Hiring Tool in the USA/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand/South Africa and everywhere else in the world where the ‘Language of Work’ is English.

SPAS screens out the Job Candidates who will burn out fast because they aren't suited for the work - and identifies the people with the Personality/Job-Fit, Soft Skills, Motivation, and Work Ethic to be Top Inside Sales Agents. With SPAS as part of your Hiring Process you will be able to select new Inside Sales Agents who will fit your specific employment needs better - and stay on the job longer - leading to an Inside Sales Agent Workgroup that has more experience and is more productive.

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