There are lots
of fancy-sounding excuses being bandied about to explain
the economic downturn and market correction of 2000
(dubbed by many the dot bomb explosion). Market
under-capitalization. Poor strategic planning.
Telecom infrastructure and inventory distress.
Blah-blah-blah.
Here's the bottom line
-- they hired salespeople who couldn't/wouldn't/didn't
sell.
FC Network tracks the failure
of Internet companies. When Avaya, Lucent's networking unit, cut about 3,000
jobs ( 11% of their total workforce), the press release said there was "lots of
negative performance numbers."
After laying off around
10% of it's people, Iinternet consultancy Digiterra has
tightened travel policies and cancelled all raises.
One employee summed up the real situation this way:
"this (downsizing) is apparently due to the stupid
sales(people) who couldn't sell dog **** to a maggot."
Rep Refugees
Whether you're a dot com
or not, you can't afford to hire salespeople who
won't actually get out there and sell. The world
is full of people who call themselves "salespeople,"
but they are really rep refugees.
A rep refugee is someone
whose resume says they've been "in sales"
for a long time -- 5, 10, 15 years. But for all
practical purposes, the rep refugee actually has about
a year's worth of real selling experience.
Rep refugees move around, taking up squatter's rights
in any sales organization they can convince to hire
them. They hang on through the training cycle
and can usually cajole managers into another 6 months
(sometimes more) with promises to do better and by attending
remedial workshops. But nothing helps. They
know how to sell, but they're eventually forced to move
on because they don't produce. Like refugees,
they pack up their belongings and hit the road again
looking for the next desperate recruiter who will hire
them on the basis of gut feel and intuition.
Here's how one rep refugee
put it:
"It's my experience
that when a company (is struggling), they usually
have no clue what is going on and a person could suck
them dry if they aren't careful. I did this once before
and got 9 months of pay before they realized that
I never even showed up for work. They tried to collect
back 3 months of the pay but could not because they
didn't technically dismiss me."
Rep refugees know all the
hiring tricks. They know how to convince recruiters
they can sell. They draw up dynamic resumes and
say all the right things on the phone. They've
taken so many sales tests, they're experts at manipulating
results. They'll sell the unsuspecting manager that
they have ability, aptitude, a winning personality,
and even a list of contacts ready to buy. The
only problem is -- in spite of what they can do, when
the pressure is on, they don't sell.
