With Labor Day upon us and the full nervous drumbeat of “how soon can I leave when nobody will know I’m gone?” reverberating throughout offices all across America I take this opportunity to, once again, make my way along the quiet and mostly empty corridors of corporate America gathering information.
“What kind of information?” you’re wondering.
ALL kinds of information – you’d be surprised what can be conveyed by an overtaxed, exasperated and sometimes resentful employee who’s left behind to man the flickering console.
“Gary Sparks/uhhh…XYZ Corporation,” the lone wolf answers as he momentarily forgets his newly appointed orders to answer the phones. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, Gary, this is Maureen Sharib, I’m trying to reach Mark Morrison – is he in?” I ask, knowing full well the chances of the VP of Sales (or his Executive Assistant) being in on this day before a long weekend are near zero.
“He WON’T BE BACK UNTIL SEPTEMBER 10 – you want me to transfer you to SOMEONE ELSE IN THE SALES DEPARTMENT?” he offers, adding information I hadn’t asked for.
“That would be good – is anyone in?” I demurely acquiesce before noting an emphasis on the word “anyone” with a slight chuckle on the dubiousness that anyone will be in. I try to convey a sense of being in the same boat with him on this difficult day of days.
“Who knows?” he says, and I can sense exasperation in his response. “You’d think one OUT OF THE TWENTY OR SO that are back there would be – let me try Rita – SHE’S INSIDE SALES and she usually answers-”
“Rita?” I interrupt, my back straightening and my fingers tapping into my silent keyboard. “What is Rita’s last name, just in case I hit her VoiceMail?”
“Wilson,” he dutifully answers before launching me into their phone system.
Several rings and then Rita’s automated voice trills, “Hi. This is Rita Wilson – I’m away from my desk but your call is important to me. Please leave your name and ph-”
I punch “zero” impatiently into my console and wait as the call transfers away from Rita and then back to the front desk.
“XYZ-”
“Gary, it’s me again, I say, familiarity enthusing my interruption. “I hit Rita’s VoiceMail – are any of the outside reps in that we might try?”
“No, THEY’RE IN VERY RARLEY – SOMETIMES FOR SALES MEETINGS BUT THAT’S ABOUT IT. THEY WORK FROM THEIR HOMES IN THEIR RESEPCTIVE SALES TERRITORIES.”
“So everyone back there is inside sales?” I stab, disappointed.
“Just about – there’s an admin, Vicky that supports Mark and THE NATIONAL SALES MANAGER, TOM TORRES. THEN THERE’RE THE INSIDE FOLKS-”
“Must be a pretty good sized group," I remark, trying not to sound like I’m probing.
“ABOUT TEN OR SO, I’d say.”
“Is Rita their manager?” I guess, based on my experience of usually being transferred first to management in a group and running the count in my head that ten plus an admin plus a couple executives doesn’t add up to twenty. I knew I had some investigative work to do.
“Kind of, she’s the Supervisor – THE SALES MANAGER IS MYRA RANDLE,” he adds.
“That’s 14, probably 15 if there’s an admin,” I think to myself, knowing I’m not there yet. Suddenly I realize that because this is a healthcare products manufacturer there’s likely to be a sales engineering group – sometimes they’re a part of the sales organization so I move forward on that tack:
“Who’s in charge of the sales engineers?” I gamble.
“Simon Mathews heads them up – he’s not in either. AND THOSE GUYS ARE NEVER IN – THEY’RE ALWAYS ON THE ROAD GOING OUT TO CUSTOMER SITES.”
I can hear the phone ringing in the background and I say to him, “Go ahead and answer that – I’ll hold,” as he gratefully accepts my offer. During the minute or so he’s gone I satisfy myself that I probably have the sales org pretty much flushed out but I do not know the size of the outside group and it’s the outside group I need. Remembering that he said they were territorial, and noting that the company’s sales were in the near half billion dollar range, I guesstimate that there are probably thirty or so spread around the U.S.
“I’m back,” he suddenly and cheerfully announces, breaking my thoughtful musings and alerting me to the fact that this guy might actually be enjoying talking to me. Could it be he likes the sound of my voice? Stranger things have happened, believe me. I change course.
“The outside people – are they all over the United States?” I daringly go where others don’t and hold my breath.
“Pretty much, - some of them cover more than their own states, THE GUYS HERE IN MINNESOTA COVER WEST AND EAST OF US – one covers the Dakotas and Iowa to the south AND THE OTHER covers Wisconsin and Illinois.
Glancing at the wall map I keep behind my screen I note that there’s a pretty good chance the guy covering the Dakotas and Iowa might reside close to their headquarters in southern Minnesota and the “other” guy may or may not be close by as well. Quickly I downscale my estimate of the outside folks, in my head, to twenty, maybe twenty five, recognizing the population ratios in the reported states against the 300million in the country. Chances are there will be a heavier concentration of sales folks on the east coast with a probable break between Southern and Northern California with each area of California being represented by a sole “Territory Manager”. Quick count in my head (and this happens fleetingly and instinctively after all these years of sourcing) tells me there are probably five or so in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, two in the upper Midwest covering Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, two -three in the South, three, maybe as many as five in the south central region with a sales office MAYBE in TX, and one or two in the southwest region of Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico, one in Oklahoma or Kansas and maybe one selling to the PacWest states of Oregon and Washington. Pulling those two in from California I guesstimate it probably comes close to twenty-five.
“Who covers Iowa? Is HE in? Can you transfer me to him?” I ask in rapid succession, ignoring the earlier directive that the outside sales force is rarely in and deciding to start the raid close to home.
“That’s Roland Williams,” he says, and then, “No, but I can give you his cell number,” he further offers.
“That would be great,” I answer, before dutifully recording Roland’s cell. “And just in case, who covers Illinois?” I press, knowing I’m skating out onto the thinning ice.
“Steve Peters – you want his cell?” Gary gladly asks. Of course I say I do.
What follows, dear reader, is an exchange of information that garnered every single one of the outside sales reps whose numbers turned out to be eighteen with the admission that several positions were “open”. Why he cooperated in answering my questions is as much a mystery to me as it is to you (I suspect there was a combination of things at work – he liked the sound of my voice, his day was slow and he was somewhat irritated at being one of the few persons who seemed to be working that day) but I can tell you this – these results are not outside the possibilities of a normally skilled telephone sourcer. For those of you who don’t do it these results may appear extraordinary. They are. But they are entirely possible if you use a combination of patience, politeness and. most importantly, perseverance. There is no one other single ingredient as important as this last. It’s a fine labor for the approaching Labor Day.
I hope all of you have a good and safe Labor Day!
******
This information is not to be re-published for commercial purposes in any form without my prior written permission.
******
There's still room - register for my October 16 Workshop at ERE's Fall Expo in D.C.: Telephone Names Sourcing: What Is It and Why You Need To Do It - Go here to read all about it! Questions? Contact amy at ere.net or call her direct at 360-264-5627 or also at 212-671-1181 x813 Use discount code of DC07SP (case sensitive) to receive a $200 discount off the conference registration cost.
Maureen Sharib
Telephone Names Sourcer/MagicMethod Trainer
513 899 9628
TechTrak.com, Inc.
maureen at techtrak.com
www.techtrak.com
Watch the Telephone Names Sourcing Video
******
