Frustration With Online Sales Reps

Now that I am back from Affiliate Summit and am somewhat getting caught up on work, it’s all about follow-ups. When I was in sales, one of my first priorities would be to follow-up with as many new viable business opportunities as I could. I always wanted to ensure that I closed the deal. I had a definite sense of urgency and drive, much as I do now, just in a different role.

It was not just about closing the next big deal for me; it was about closing in general and ensuring it was a fit for both parties. I learned early on that it’s easy to close; the challenge more so is in closing so it’s sustainable and benefits both parties. It’s all about long term; short term and you’ll get just that. This is a very small and tight-knit community where the word travels very fast, you burn one bridge and there will be a lot of fire down the road.

After a deal is qualified and assessed, even if it is small, if fostered and nurtured it will grow into a larger deal. If it doesn’t grow into a larger deal, the chances are the person on the other end will be working for another organization in the next 10-20 months. Who knows, they may just end up in an organization that you have been trying to get in with and they could very well be the ticket!

So knowing there is such strong turnover in the industry and knowing that small deals often grow into significantly larger opportunities, why are sales reps so bad at their jobs? I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head.

First, this is a young industry; many sales reps are on the younger side, 20’s and 30’s. Being in this age bracket many sales reps, like their peers in this same age range seem to feel a sense of what I will call, “instant entitlement” or that they deserve immediate recognition and success. Worse yet, many assume it will just come to them. The truth is, we all only deserve what we go out there and get for ourselves!

Second, this is still an emerging industry with many people who are incredibly unqualified to work in it. It is not news that there is a huge challenge to hire talented, well-rounded online marketers, but it’s even more challenging to hire qualified AND talented online sales reps. Even if you get one, what happens when they start getting the big commission checks, how do they handle it? Does the ego kick in and they turn cocky and unproductive?

This leads into my third point; that many sales reps already have nice financial buffers. They have hit a point where they are financially comfortable and don’t strive to provide current or potential clients with any further value after the IO is signed or after the IO is initially pitched. Sales reps need to be proactive with their clients ensuring that they stay on top of any issues that may arise.

Finally, the Manager, Directors and VP’s that salespeople report to have a lack of managerial experience themselves. There is a HUGE middle-management issue in this industry. Despite the fact that it is getting better, the challenge still remains. Many Managers, Directors and VP’s that sales reps report to do not have all that much practical or specified experience in their current roles.

These managers may have come from one company and done well in a specified role, but what about the organization they are in now? Are they able to manage sales reps in organizations with diversified offerings or a “hybrid model” as it is frequently referred to in our industry? Many times they just don’t fit the role and thus you get what we have now in the industry; the blind leading the blind.

So now that I have highlighted multiple reasons why sales reps are so bad, here are a few suggestions on how they could improve:

• Check your ego at the door
• Stop the shady tactics about how competitors are doing this and that; chances are high that as someone who signs the contract I know much better than a sales rep what my competitors are doing. (Save the credibility that you have while you have it.)
• Don’t send a contract with a 30+ day out. This is performance-based marketing, so if you don’t perform, I am going to terminate the contract in 24-48 hrs depending on the source of the traffic. If that’s not enough “notice” for you go back to a job working traditional media and see where that takes you
• Do your homework. What is my model about, who are my competitors, what is happening in the space that I work in?
• Present something unique about your organization, as you will hear “Why do I want to work with you? Are your traffic sources exclusive or are you just one of 100 new companies that started today brokering out the same poor traffic from larger networks?”
• Don’t lie to me about your traffic, what country your users are from, their average age etc…and especially don’t lie to me about some exclusive relationship you don’t have!

As someone who purchases Media, there are also a few things I need to keep in mind.

• Check my ego at the door (sound familiar?)
• Assess to see if there is true value, is the traffic unique. Can I just get it myself at 10-30% less, if so is it worth it?
• Do I know general rates, conversions for traffic types that I am looking into/being pitched?
• Did I check the site/source for the current inventory that they are running? Is it brokered or remnant network traffic, is it all AdWords etc? Who does the ad-serving?
• The metrics that they are giving me about their users, are they from a reputable third party or self-harvested?

In summary, transitioning from sales to marketing has taught me that there are always multiple angles that need to be closely examined and intensely scrutinized before the IO is signed.