This blog post was contributed by Provar’s Vice President of Global Sales, Michael Cipolla, as part of Provar’s executive blog series. This series features thoughts from Provar’s executive suite of leaders. For more contributions, please follow Provar’s blog and connect on social media.
Toilet paper shortages, to-go margaritas, arguments in the airplane aisles. All come to mind when I think of outcomes from the pandemic. We haven’t been far removed from these painful days, and reflecting on them is crucial. During times of strife, some of the most essential core deficiencies will bring themselves to the forefront. Does anybody relate to a dysfunctional family during a wedding, birth, or death? What was this core deficiency for business during the pandemic? I would have to put my money into quitting.
Quitting is doing the minimum requirements of one’s job and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than necessary. Now that we are returning to normalcy, quiet quitting persists and is probably tearing apart your organization. Whether your responsibilities involve generating revenue or innovation, quitting is active and prevents you from achieving your goals.
As a leader, you must remove unnecessary barriers for your people, encourage enthusiasm, and make their day-to-day worthwhile. I’m here to share how I put preventative measures in place to combat quiet quitting for my team of business development representatives.
One would argue that the business development representative (BDR) is the most challenging job in sales. You may have been on the other end of the line receiving a cold call while trying to sit down for a meal with your loved ones.
Rudely getting rejected marks just the start. You don’t realize this representative has to tediously dial 20 phone numbers to hear “jump in a lake.” Imagine dialing 150 numbers daily, jotting notes for each call only to hear “no” repeatedly. It’s not enjoyable and eventually leads to quitting. If you ignore your BDR team’s issues, you also ignore your revenue goals, career growth, and overall company success. Point blank: your people want to do more than mundane tasks. They want to contribute to the overall success of the company. They desire empowerment to learn new skills and think outside the box.
I hunted to find a solution allowing my people to do what they love the most: talk to people. I found a dialer solution that integrates with our CRM and would dial 6 people simultaneously. Conversations quickly went up, but most importantly, I could sense the positive vibes once again. When asking a question on Slack, I noticed responses were happening quicker. People were engaged!
Now, you are probably thinking, “What does this have to do with my software development lifecycle?” You probably have software developers who are sick and tired of testing their code. I mean, their name is “Developer” for a reason. They want to create, innovate, and change how we interact with the world. What happens when they have to spend countless hours debugging their code? As a tester, what happens when you go through the same 20-minute scenario five different times for each profile? Not only do you start to make errors, but you start to lose interest. You don’t go the extra mile to find the solution, and you don’t think outside the box on how you can bring more to your team.
Do yourself a favor and assess if you are doing everything for your people. Discover ways to eliminate mundane tasks, and you’ll cultivate a culture of success and innovation.
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