The Glade 4.0

Of all the various factors driving me away from my current job, I'd have to say that putting up with the egos of inside salesmen ranks up there with the worst.

Everything from ignoring your inquiries, to stalling on the phone, to sandbagging for MONTHS on addressing problems, to my ultimate pet peeve -- deleting your e-mails without even reading them. I have stacks of problem invoices dating back to early 2009 (and I think even some '08s) that I have never heard a reply on.

Ugh. Don't these people understand that what I do in the accounting department is trying to SAVE the company and the salesmen money? Maybe if we turned unresolved issues into deductions from their paychecks, they'd start to wake up.

/sigh

So I guess your sales force doesn't turn over every six months or so?

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It's kinda been doing that lately, but the company I am assigned to (technically I am a temp employeed at an agency, but I have been assigned to this company for a temporary 2 years now) are generally pretty solid being a somewhat smaller, and as far as I know, privately-owned company. Lots of family works together, lots of people with lots of seniority. The economy and slipping performance has forced the power that be to axe a few people, but the core sales staff is still intact.

Start ccing their supervisors and yours. Always put due dates on response time, then put how late they are on the followups.

Example: Your response on this issue is needed before we can credit you with this sale and commission. Failure to respond within 5 working days will result in the commission reverting to either the company's legal fund or the Manager's Benevolent Fund, whichever is more appropriate.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I try to do that already. Like if a salesman is being particularly obtuse, I'll CC my supervisor and the appropriate branch manager. Also, if it looks like we are coming up on a discount date for an invoice, I'll put DUE SOON in the header.

The flip side of this, is that it threatens your rapport with the person you are mailing. I am by far the most lenient of the people in my department when it comes to dealing with the sales team, and as a result, I think I have a pretty good . . . well, rapport with most of them. I kind of like that feeling, and hate to potentially damage it by turning into a hard-ass, but man -- seems like that may be the only language some of these people understand.

/heavy cynicism

If you had a good rapport with them they would be responding appropriately to your e-mails. You're being played, they are sales people, not normal human beings.

Don't get in trouble because you think they are your friends, they aren't. Pure commission sales people aren't capable of having real friends. Don't start off real hard-ass, just up the ante a little. "Dude, you've already had all the slack I can give you, if you don't get back to me to resolve this your commission on this is going to be reversed out and your future commissions won't be paid until all outstanding problems are resolved. Neither one of us wants to see that happen. Just saying . . ."

Warn them, then follow through in the appropriate similar measures the company allows. Make sure everyone appropriate knows this is happening before it does happen.

"I tried man, I wrote him so many e-mails and voice mails trying to get this resolved it isn't funny. But I had to go by the book. Maybe he will learn something from this, for his next job.

/heavy cynicism lessened

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Yeah I do a lot of sugar-coating (which makes me ill sometimes), but really this is more of a case where a few bad apples spoil the experience. A vast majority of the sales team is just there doing their job, neither friend nor foe; a smaller percent is very helpful and passionate about their work; and the smallest percent are the stinkers. But man do those few bad ones REALLY stick up the place.

In this economy? Use some air freshener and get rid of the stinkers.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

As bad as this sounds, there are certain people within the company I would love to see get laid off.

What's even worse is when some of these people are genuinely nice people, but terrible to work with.

I try to avoid the "please return ASAP", "due soon" and "as soon as you can" and instead give flat deadlines.

Instead I give a specific deadling both date and time, as well as the consequence.

This must be returned by noon Thursday or it cannot be credited to your account.

For recurring events I send calendar appointments with reminders.

Those two tactics resolves 95%-100% of my issues.

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Gorse

I agree.

Allowing people to get away with stuff just ends up with them getting away with it. There was a whole group where I work that wouldn't reply to phone messages, e-mail or attend meeting requests when I requested it. I tried reasonable, then I tried unreasonable, still couldn't get their attention. I ended up conferenced one of them in ... while I had 3 levels of my bosses on the phone at the time. It was funny, the team lead of that group actually told me on that call that she didn't understand why I was taking that "tone" ... Interesting thing, now when we call or mail or send meeting invites, they reply

Now, my bosses never let me forget that... it was 2 years ago and STILL in meetings when someone says they're having trouble with this or that it gets mentioned that "We'll just get David to call them and use TONE".

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In time, this too shall pass.

Khross's Boss: "I need this done ASAP."
Khross: "Ok."
Three Months Later
Khross's Boss: "Why isn't THIS done?"
Khross: "Ok."
Three Months Later
Khross's Boss: "This still isn't done."
Khross: "Ok."

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