Here’s a skeleton from my closet: I was once put on a plan.
It pains me to say it, but that’s the honest-to-God truth. It was early on in my sales career, and I had not been passing as many leads to my clients as my co-workers were, and even though I knew it, I never thought that I’d be put on a performance plan because of it. My boss called me into his office late on a Friday afternoon and laid down the law: “You’ve got 30 days to hit your goal, or we’re going to have to part ways.” I was shocked. I was thoroughly embarrassed.
I began to make excuses. “It’s the client’s offering,” I said. “It’s the lists,” I suggested. I was wrong on both, and regardless, it didn’t matter: The decision had been made, and I had 30 days to get my act together or it was time to leave. Rather than give up and start looking for a new gig, I buckled down and went back to work on Monday morning with a vengeance. I made a vow to myself that I would make more attempts to connect with prospects than any of my peers.
“If I don’t hit the goal, at the very least, he can’t say that I didn’t try,” I thought.
I did just that. I made sure that each night before I left the office that I had made more calls than any of the other SDRs. At the end of the 30 days, I had hit my number and then some.
