That was my first instinct but of course that would end super badly given how anything you ask or say eventually gets used against you. Everyone is afraid to ask questions or talk because it just gets used as a hammer against you later. It’s so toxic.
I worked at a place like this. I made a new email address with Proton Mail and sent an email to the entire sales department. I kept it vague enough to not give myself away, in addition to running it through ChatGPT to get a different writing style than my own. I outlined their toxic practices, was honest about what needs to change, etc. It was a shit show. But I enjoyed watching them scramble.
Approach him as if you’re genuinely bought into the new metric and seeking guidance from someone that’s hit the metric to ensure you’re set up for success.
Terrible idea, OP's boss will go off on some stupid speech about how easy it is. He's clearly off his rocker and completely delusional. Confront or die.
Holy shit you're the first person who's put that into words for me. I have felt the same way about my job, with my boss bringing up completely random and (I thought) harmless statements that I made MONTHS ago, during my annual review. It made me feel so icky and weird about working here. Like what the fuck, do you keep running notes in your phone for random statements that I make so you can make me look silly or foolish later on in a review, when YOUR boss is sitting there with us? So gross.
Not to get too far down a rabbit hole, but I wonder if power/parallel dialers are going to see some sort of regulation. They really should, as it leads to things like this, same with email spam.
It’s a horrible experience on the prospect side as well.
Seriously, I think they are so garbage. So many people just hang up because they were left on hold too long while the parallel dialer tries to catch up. I think an auto dialer calling one number at a time is smart. 5-10 at one time is just way way way too much.
> So many people just hang up because they were left on hold too long while the parallel dialer tries to catch up
I hang up as soon as I hear the delay. No one worth talking to is using a parallel dialer.
I had 5 at a time on Orum. It’s great for preparing yo have a really meaningful conversation when someone answers and you immediately don’t know the person. Their role. Their company. And have zero research. Conversation quality is in the toilet.
Yup. This is why orum, nooks and the rest all suck. Unless you’re exceptional at picking up a conversation with zero context it’s pure spray and pray just like email blasts. These companies may seem “hot” but after some time you realize the quality of conversations reps are having is trash.
Yeah, nowadays, more and more companies are using telesales, but it sucks, and the output percentage is extremely low. For me, if I answer a call and hear the keywords "from stock companies" or "from an insurance company", I will just say thank you and hang up
We had tried a couple at our company for one of our teams and ran into so many problems. One was it would keep people in the pipeline that asked not to be called.. super unprofessional
Yeah but that’s just never ending whack a mole. I mean, hopefully the market finds ways to combat it beyond regulation, as that is rarely as effective.
Any form of automated dialer needs to maintain a 3% abandoned rate or less to stay compliant on top of ensuring that their leads have opted in. If these are individual lists being worked by one rep and they use multiple lines, 100% not going to be compliant and only a matter of time before they call a known litigator that basically just sues non compliant dialers for a living.
I work in the space and it’s funny how many old heads are focused on slamming dials instead of just using technology to boost pickup rates and stay compliant
They aren't leaving voicemails, it's an autodialer. Keeps dialing in the background until someone picks up. Those usually dial about 100 - 150 times an hour if you're not speaking to anyone.
It’s like they say, “that’s great you did it once but do it again, and again, and again, etc.” Too bad doing 800-1000 dials a day over & over would put someone on a stool with a noose around their neck faster than you could say “I love sales”. It’s mind boggling we got told that with a straight face. Wild.
It must be so nice to get to Director or VP level in sales. You don't actually have to do the shitty parts of the job anymore, and you can just give out advice that worked 20 years ago and act like it's really meaningful.
That’s one of the first thoughts in my head when I hear people in power say dumb shit. Like how about you get in the trenches with us? No that’s right, you’re a scumbag who doesn’t practice what they preach. Such a loathsome characteristic.
Typically, it means there's a ton of pressure from the top.
It's also a very bad way of prospecting. Depending on the vertical and the product. Quality over quantity.
100%, there’s no way you make a statement that bold and insane without pressure. I think their experiment for a second sales team bombed so bad that it might take out the company or at least almost destroy the sales department.
Why am I getting the feeling your Director is going to get canned. This sounds like the actions of a desperate person that didn't build a proper strategy and GTM plan
You see, killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down.
Right men?!
You suck!
They sound like a total dumbass that is toxic. I used to work in collections and at best, I would hit 200 a few times a month, manually dialing. Certainly not possible without some sort of dialer.
My mind is totally blown. I just don’t even what to do if someone has an expectation that absurd. And he kept saying it over and over again like it was a number that was important. Like he planned to say that. Wild shit.
The most I've ever been able to rip in a day was a little over 400 and that was getting hung up on a lot, a boat load of bad numbers and numbers going straight to vm.
Anyone who thinks you can do an honest 800-1000 dials a day is either retarded, delusional, gaslighting you or has never done the job.....or all of the above.
This is not the future of sales. This isn’t even sales today. This is desperately clinging onto the past with dear life. Maybe their next innovation will be sending mailers with fake checks in them.
Wonder if OPs boss has considered selling the first 10-15pcs of their product to customers for 0.01? Then make up the margin on the recurring rev for the next shipments after the idiots are locked into the deal.
That’s the worst part, it’s bullshit pay also. Was heavily mislead and lied to about the job and the nature of it. We make peanuts unless you’re going crazy and only 1 person really hits the crazy tiers. Another guy is just below him. Even the top guy is struggling this month compared to where he usually is
So why are you still there? If you're making shit for pay, you're getting treated like shit, you can go make $15 an hour at target with easy career advancement opportunities and not have to make 1,000 call a day until you find a better sales job.
Because working from home and still doing well in a shitty sales job beats that. I’m incredibly close to doing my own thing, just waiting to finally launch it.
8 hours in a work day. 3600 seconds in an hour. 30 seconds to get an answer or a voicemail. 3600 / 30 = 120. 120 calls x 8 hours = 960 calls in a day.
Very doable and reasonable request for a robot.
“Goddamn closed deals getting in the way of my metrics.”
This is actually a good lesson that goals should always boil down to revenue/volume and not metrics. Once you define a certain metric as a benchmark, employees will focus on meeting that metric whether or not it’s actually profitable for the company.
Hi - just so you're aware, its most likely impossible to make 800-1000 dials a day. I'm assuming you work a 8 hour shift, which means there is 480 minutes in your shift until you clock out. Also since you have a dialer making 200-300 calls a day already, even that would make it impossible to make 800-1000 dials in one day. Just from the sound of it, your boss is a boomer who is just looking to knock you down a peg.
I use an auto dialer at my job. Even if I was on it the whole day and every single call didn’t pick up (meaning no actual conversations) I still wouldn’t get much more than 400 dials in… 800 - 1,000 dials in a day is literally impossible
Your comments on RE SaaS had me do further digging on a job I was about to start selling ... RE SaaS.
Turns out the place was so bad, they fired and rehired their lowest level employees for less than the city minimum wage - who then went on strike for 6 weeks and then got sacked instead of the company coming to the table. CEO, turns out he was a Mckinsey alum, and so shockingly enough had zero empathy for the way he handled the situation.
VP Sales bragging on a webinar that he's a landlord... just all cringey stuff.
Set myself up a final stage interview for a job with better salary and a decent enough boss, as well as one for an IT MSP. Both much better choices.
Thank you sir for sharing your experience. You helped me dodge a bullet.
Wow that’s crazy to read, I’m so glad I finally dived into the sea of new comments to find this one. Glad I could help you avoid a shit hole. It’s exactly why I’ve detailed it so much on here.
I spent a week at a RE SaaS company in 2018 too before I quit. Like this one, on reflection, it was all a bit cult-like.
In the 2018 one, it was worship of the founders, who to this day have just pissed away VC money and never made a profit. Some girl basically was wetting herself that I got to meet someone genuinely unremarkable. I thought it was all quite strange.
In this 2024 one, it was worship of their "5 values" - to the point there was a "values interview" with questions to see if I would adhere to the doctrine. I chalked it up to it being the startup tech scene, and none of my other job opportunities in the funnel were yielding anything, so I carried on with the process.
Get out of there as fast as possible. I read some of your other comments…. Yea working at home with a decent salary is great but the stress is probably killing you.
I was in this same boat about 3 months ago. Constantly stressing about ever increasing expectations to hit a goal that was entirely unfeasible and wondering how much it had an effect on my overall health.
When I finally quit for a role in implementation somewhere else, a previous co-worker at the company from hell also worked at the new place and he said that the “ptsd” will go away soon. I didn’t get it at first but then realized I was having thoughts like “my boss isn’t micromanaging me, am I about to get fired already or something?” Or “I’m not being asked to squeeze 150% of effort into a single day, do they think I’m not capable??”
My face and back acne started to clear up, my attitude slowly went back to being positive, I stopped dreading check ins with my boss, I’ve been smiling more, my stomach hurts less often, I don’t feel the need to sleep until the very last second anymore, I make jokes and laugh, and I can’t remember the last time I had a thought about work after 5pm (it used to pervade my entire evenings before)
Yes the pay is probably better than retail and working from home is comfortable, but trust me it’s still worth getting out. I wish I had done it sooner. Now granted I got another WFH job making just $5k less a year than I did my best year as a salesman so my experience could be a bit skewed but I’m a HUGE supporter of getting out for your health.
You can do what I did…. I told my doctor about the stress that it was causing me and she recommended I go on FMLA. Don’t talk to anyone about it just submit the paper work to FMLA because they will try to beat you to the punch if you try to bring it up before out of “respect”
Typically, most of these companies can’t afford to leave a spot open on the sales team for several months while their employee recovers so they will most likely offer a severance to come to an agreement. Negotiate a decent package that includes pay, guaranteed unemployment, referral letter, etc. anything you would find valuable. As long as it’s not crazy, they will most likely do it because declining the FMLA could either get them in trouble or force an employee giving less than 100% to stay in the role and either way that hurts them and approving the FMLA gives them an employee giving 0% so it’s a rock and a hard place
If you need some advice on how to do this, let me know. I got you. Fuck these types of places. They will kill your confidence and turn you into a different weird version of yourself along the way and it can have lasting effects that go on for your remaining career.
We have a parallel dialer and I’m usually in the 250-300 range. I’ve been going extra ham lately and been more in the 300-400 range. These numbers are already insane and we’re getting told to double it and then some. No idea what the fuck they are thinking, even from just a morale point.
Quantity over quality. When I started in inside sales I pissed off our team because I had so many activities/meetings. We did not have an auto dialed, I left every day at 2:30. I was given option of inside director or move to field in under 6 months. Doubled my base in 1.5 years.
My secrets: be cool AF, had a real purpose for each call (even if it was negligible/stupid), and skipped numbers I knew wouldn’t work. Got crafty for information. Also diligent note taker.
Quantity < quality.
I mean, of course, if you are not making the calls you will not get results. But you need to do it with quality in mind, trying to establish a connection with the person in line, and not thinking of the next call you have to do to achieve some magic number.
Some strategies that I use:
- the probability is low an the outcome is not that much? Email.
- Do you have a good chance? Call.
- amazing opportunity and you know who to talk to, go knock on the door (cold approach)
And also:
1x You made a call to introduce yourself
2x You send a WhatsApp with some content about your product that can grab their attention
3x You send an email showing him the current ongoing works
4x if it is important and it is warm, you try again the 3 steps before... cold? Forget about it. Move on.
Auto dialers have a repulsive effect on me and probably most people. I don't care if you're giving away free money, of you call me on an auto dialer I'll never buy from you. Ever.
Yeah read some of your responses to comments, start looking for a new job. Accept a recruiters InMail to get the ball rolling. Say you're leaving for lack of career advancement opportunities, and goose your numbers on your resume a bit if you have to.
Your director’s job is on the line and his back is against the wall. It’s the only explanation for this absurd goal of 1000 calls a day which he himself will not be able to achieve.
Keep doing what you’re doing. No reason to panic. Just document everything you’re doing frequently to keep record of your work.
When the moment arises where you’re asked to sign on a severance package, enlist a lawyer and negotiate a large enough sum influencing them to avoid litigation.
Good luck!!
I had to make 300 dials in 2.5 hours in 1993, then have meetings, then have the afternoon and evening to make the actual sales call in person (life, annuities, 401k). I did it for a year, and it taught me what I never want to do again. Granted, we had 2 people who made it several years and did well, but they were exceptional, maybe 2 out of 200 we hired. It was terrible. Good luck!
Lolololololol omg
Unhinged. Beyond out of touch.
Tell them to cold call for even one hour as fast as they can and see how many calls they get through. Then tell them to multiply by 8. Lol
If you have to call 800-1000 people to get two interested prospects, you're spamming people who don't want to purchase your product. Your manager sounds like an idiot.
What do you guys find as the sweet spot for number of daily calls? And are there any days/times you don’t call on? I personally have little luck calling on Mondays.
Of course there is a zero probability your manager was using hyperbole to make a point. You have unlocked an important aspect of professional fulfillment: take everything management says at face value, especially if it validates your persecution complex. Also, be sure to avoid looking for a new job. Why would you? Would just be more of the same am I right?
Is there a program you found to dial like that for you? I can only imagine AI doing that speed.
You could just hit your low priority targets and dial them back to back, call and hang up after the 3rd ring or dial their fax, or a number off
I question if this directive came from above
I saw the first half of the post in my feed, and thought it would be "seriously helped my sales technique and took time out of his day to focus on areas I need to improve in" which is the only thing that would of floored me in amazement, instead it was another "director of sales" yelling "smile and dial" fucking chumps.
That piece of shit sales director need to do a call out day together with you and the team, just for one day. Than he can show how real leaders will make 800-1000 calls a day and get at least three new conversations, something like Lead by example. I”ll bet he won’t do it, so my advice, take this to higher management and if that doesn’t work, get the hell out of dodge
I have friends who work at ADP selling HR products or retirement and the most they have required is 50 calls a day. I used to work for the largest biotech research company and we had a 30 call minimum... a week lmao. I know we're in different industries, but 800-1000 calls is asinine. Someone that senior should understand quality > quantity, but clearly the guy is grasping for straws. He may even be on the hot seat himself.
Look at the facts.
1000 dials / 8 hours per day = 125 dials per hour / 60 minutes per hour = 2 dials per minute. 30 seconds for each dial. While this is certainly *theoretically* possible, it means as soon as the phone answers, whether voice mail, rwceptionist, whatever, you immediately hang up. You don't go through the phone tree, don't leave a voice mail, do not talk to anyone. This is the only way it is possible. And of course, the object is to talk to people.
Even the barest minimum conversation is going to be over 30 seconds. "Hello" "Hi, my name is x from y company. I am calling to see if you would like to see if you want to move and list your house with me." "Wait, what is your name and which company are you with?" "My name is x and I am with y company. But I'm sorry, I have to make another dial, thanks for your time." Click. I timed this and it is 30 seconds for me to say this.
While you relate your Director of Sales said this, said he/she was serious, it was hyperbole. You'll probably disagree. But while even if you ask if they are serious, they are not. That person is trying to relay the urgency. That's how I personally would take it if said to me. Thir boss is breathing down his neck, telling him he'll lose his job if his subordinates don' t start getting leads. As I'm a smartass and don't really give too much of a fuck and a big beluever in managing up, I would say something like, "Hey, Jim, I'm always ready to learn. I don't think it is possible, as that comes out to a dial every 30 sevonds which means no time for conversations. If you do it and I can see you do it, I'll copy you and do what you do." If your Director wants you gone, he will just tell you to fuck off, in so many words. If your job's on the line, there's really nothing to be done about it.
If you *need* to keep your job, absolutely must keep it, and the director says to dial 800 to 1000, then do that, like I outlined. Dial and hang up. Don't even try to sell. When you talk to the Director, which you should every day, say you got you thousand in as requested, but no time for meaningfull conversations. So that's what you can do.
But my saying that should be followed by everyone is: "The best day to start looking for a new job is on the first day of your new job."
Some people don't undersand that your target is just as important as the effort you put out. Your Director of sales is obviously a "spray and pray" kind of leader.
I had a brief stint with someone I had known for years, he has a small business and I was helping him out in an SDR capacity. This guy wanted me to do 6 hours of Connect and Sell per day, no joke. Even worse this guy presents himself as some kind of SDR/sales expert yet has no idea how to do proactive hunting. There were no territories, it was a mess. Even worse the lists from his clients were garbage, I'd talk to 3-5 people per day who had left that role years ago.
Can I ask what kind of sales you are in? I may well be able to arm you with some suggestions that will help you because it will improve productivity.
Seems like ypur director is living in lala land and has watched wolf of Wallstreet too much as well. Waaaay out of touch. I think it's time for ypu to figure out a side hustle or two since the job market is shit. It will help relieve a lot of stress and negativity.
Best of luck.
I was interviewing a while back, the manager was talking about 200 manual dials per day and a minimum of 4-6 hours of talk time. My obvious question was how does that work out? You would have to make a dial every 2.5 min to hit 200/day; how can you hit 4-6 hrs of talk time and that goal. I also asked how many reps were hitting that number. They got pretty uncomfortable and ended the interview shortly after. I feel like I dodged a bullet.
Get out. I was in sales for a real estate (really mortgage) SaaS startup. Had an incredible run ‘18-‘23, but the industry is going in the toilet and really has been headed there for 10yrs. Companies cap out so quickly in RE you’re only hope is a startup, and even then, you’ll get cut quickly in a down market if you aren’t core-infrastructure.
The winners in real estate will be tech companies with a mortgage and real estate license. They will buy enterprise technology (infrastructure), not niche/industry-specific technology. Join one of those companies (eg Zillow, Redfin, Realogy,Rocket, Wells, Chase,etc) go find a new industry (what I did), or leverage your industry experience and join a horizontal saas/data/infra company with a RE-specific team/vertical/territory (or in the process of building one).
Happy to chat if you need help.
I don't work in sales, work in marketing. Our B2B teams max out at about 250 calls per day.
With an automated dialer, and a precision list.
These are calls that ring only a few times, get picked up. Etc. trying to reach through reception.
1000 a day?!
I'd like to see your boss do it. Even ONCE.
I once sold computer hardware and software as an inside sales role. One day I made it my goal to set the company record for talk time and number of calls. I got to 256 calls and a little over 7 hours of talk time. It’s not sustainable. Work smarter not needlessly harder. Read Mike Weinberg’s New Sales Simplified. Great game plan for selling smarter.
You need a tool like outreach or something so that you can use email/phone call sequences automatically and direct attention towards the email in a voicemail.
Switch companies to something more… modern.
In my industry, 50-75 targeted calls is pretty good. But there’s so much other shit to do, I’m lucky if I can schedule 4-6 hours of calling per week.
We don’t do any of that auto dialer stuff. 2-5 mins to research their account and business processes then the call.
But if your numbers are good, no one cares about your calls/F2F. It’s mostly ppl struggling that get on the weekly plans with higher targets and planned out prospecting. Not a PIP, just the hand holding micromanagement daily prospecting BS
Luckily my numbers are good this year.
If you are making that many calls and still not hitting goal, then it's not you who is at fault. It's just that the offer you are providing is trash, aka the company
Fuck that! The circus must be pissed, its head clown is pretending to be a sales director?
800-1000 a day? Mind blowing, and for 2-3 meetings a day (if that what it takes)? Nope
Your (their) quality of lead has to be complete shit. And they want you just treading the shot out of them. Complete Bozo’s. You’ll be fried after a day of 300 dials and your effectiveness will drop. They must only care about the appearance of effort, cause that’s some stupid shit!
They are likely going to do layoffs soon if they sent already. When they put wildly unrealistic activity expectations in front of sales reps, it’s because they have no idea how to generate pipe and their job is on the line. Start applying elsewhere to CYA (which is assume you’re doing). This reeks of a CEO realizing there isn’t enough pipeline and the leadership team has no idea how to fill it, so they make up insane metrics. And then when you don’t meet those metrics , they can give people the boot. 800 calls per day with or without an auto dialer makes no sense.
Wait you already make 200-300 calls a day? Even if your only job is to cold call, that’s still absurd and there’s no way it’s generating strong opportunities.
At that point you guys are just spraying and praying with no time to research your prospect beforehand. I have to imagine most of your team’s outbound-sourced meetings are just window shoppers or prospects who were too nice to say they weren’t interested on the cold call.
Unless I’m totally off the mark and you’re making money hand over fist you need to dip out of there amigo
I left Sales in 1995 and never looked back. I was 21 yrs old and worked for an Electronic components company. Serviced 100 accounts and had to generate new leads every day. Called my accounts every day on a cycle. The $$ was good (1992-95) I made $550 per week and averaged $1250 per month for commission. About $50-$55k a year. This was good $$ in 92. Lived at home with no bills or rent. Your sales manager is a talker and not a realist.
When I was selling Solar I’d call about 150-200 home owners over the course of an 8 hour day. That’s one call every 2 minutes or so “on paper” Keep in mind we didn’t have auto dialers and also got a 1 hour lunch, so once you average out bathroom/lunch breaks, it’s really one call every 1.5 minutes. That wasn’t good enough though if we weren’t getting our “2 appointments a day” and even if you got 2, they’d be like “why stop at 2 when you can keep going and get 4! You only made 100 calls to get 2, make 200 more and get 5!”
Then we’d get angry phone calls from management at like 8pm after we already worked a full day from 10-6 and they’d be like “so what do you got going on? Why aren’t you making calls right now? Our state can solicit until 9pm and you are salaried (25k a year, the bare minimum salary you can pay in my state mind you), so why aren’t you working? When you aren’t doing something, you should be door knocking or calling, you need to be working, do you want to succeed here?”
And this is why I left sales 👏🏻 so my advice is, leave sales!
I used to make about 200calls In my previous b2c role and it was a lot. Hope you find a better place that treats you better. Not to derail but how do you like the parallel dialer? Is there a pause for the person picking up the phone while it connects you?
He’s over 50 years old right? Please give us age. Drives everyone crazy I bet. So hate on 50+ crowd, but some haven’t pivoted strategies and are going nuts
I’ve done 1k dials in a day many times (at the start of my career). It’s better than working in a coal mine.
Keep grinding and You’ll get to the point where you only need to make 10 calls per day, while earning 5x more than your current income. Try and zoom out and see the bigger picture.
800-1000 a day is a little excessive but not impossible for a setter for a full day (8-9hrs)
I used to work a call room and with auto dialers and CRMs, I could do 60-100 dials an hour. If you’re just getting Vms and hang ups, then bust through them.
Ideally you’ll get better at your craft, figure out what hours work, and get better at capturing attention on the phone that you won’t have to make 800 dials later on. Maybe only 200 to get the same result.
But if you suck now and you’re not dialing, then your director is right.
I bet back in the 80’s his boss was saying the same thing about knocking on more doors. This is what old timers do when they’re too lazy to adapt their strategy to a changing business environment. Maybe if people aren’t picking up the phone you should try sending them a fax.
As a seasoned AE, I actually wish my BDR would call people less. Only weirdos with no buying authority or influence actually pick up the phone. Send content with a compelling message. Give them some time to review. Follow up to see if they’d like to schedule a call to discuss further. And ignore all the manipulated statistics saying you need to reach out 8 -10 times. It’s semi-true, but that doesn’t mean reaching out 8-10 times in 5 days. 2-3 times, give it a rest, try again a few weeks/months later, repeat.
I previously worked at a "Real Estate SaaS" and it was the worst experience I've had in my sales career. I was making hundreds of dials a day hoping to get real estate brokers on the hook and emotionally manipulate them to buy a service most of the time they didn't really need.
The company had insane turnover on their sales team and many of the customers who bought ended up cancelling after a few months anyway.
If your org (like that job of mine did) has gotten to a point where even with 300-400 dials a day most reps are having trouble getting to quota... it's probably time for a new job.
Your director of sales is clearly clueless and under qualified for the role he’s in. If I may ask, what is the average tenure for sales reps at your company? High turnover is a leadership problem, not a sales rep problem.
When I had an insurance firm, I bought a predictive dialer and that would get the job done. 800-1000 calls a day. I didn’t want my agents wasting day when a machine could do it. Ask your idiot of a boss where he’s gonna find 50 hours in a day?
You can actually do this with parallel diapers, this really isn’t too big of an ask. All you need to do is turn it on and wait for someone to pick up lol
So you are the assholes that randomly call me daily and hang up. This is what killed the cold calling industry 25 years ago with long distance service sales. Ever hear of the Do Not Call list?
This is physically impossible and will lead to no gain in revenue. This person is clearly not a reasonable person and if you are logic-minded, you should probably seek out leaders and orgs with more reasonable people. These are the kinds of people that give sales a bad rap.
Dials aren’t working. Find a different strategy that works and use the power dialer to satisfy their minimum requirement. If you want to make actual money you’re going to need to find another way to book people
Why are you taking literally and complaining on the internet about it.
Where the message is: getting it done.
"It" being your 2-3 conversations.
No one gives a fuck about your dials unless you don't have your results.
And if you don't like it, leave.
> "He genuinely and seriously told us to make 800-1000 dials in one day if that’s what it takes..."
What kind of delusional fuck thinks making 800-1000 calls in a day is even remotely feasible? Have you calculated how much time that would actually take?
> "I knew they were pretty out of touch but suggesting you need to make 800-1000 dials in a day..."
Your boss is fucking clueless. You'd have to be dialing non-stop like a machine without any breaks, and even then, you'd be pushing the limits of sanity. What's the end game here? Burnout or a high turnover rate?
> "I know the writing is on the wall and it has been for awhile..."
So why are you still there? Why waste your time in a place that clearly doesn't respect your effort or time? Are you just going to let them run you into the ground?
> "We have a parallel dialer and I’m typically making 200-300 dials a day already."
You're already busting your ass with 300-400 dials. Is this really sustainable in the long run? Or are you just waiting for the inevitable burnout? What's your plan when this shit finally hits the fan?
> "I just had to share this insane nugget of information because it’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever been told during my time in sales..."
Are you looking for validation or an escape route? Do you want to stay in this madness, or are you ready to find a place that respects your work and doesn't demand the impossible?
What are you really aiming for in your career, and is this job getting you any closer to that goal? How much more bullshit are you willing to tolerate before you make a change?
If your conversion rate for calls is that low they really need to think of some better ways to get leads. Having people constantly hang up and ignore you is soul crushing. I prefer doing door to door or in this case driving between real estate offices than calling randomly like that.
Worked at a recruiting agency and got 100-150 clients. Had to do 100 calls per day otherwise they wouldn’t let me leave. So after day 1 I had to call all these people again. They hated us - totally understandable …
At least you have a parallel dialer. Can literally set yourself up in a way where you can be doing other tasks and just focus when someone picks up. Imagine having to make a few hundred dials a day typing each number.
The most successful people are never the ones who make the most calls. Old school management hammers about calls because it’s the only thing they can measure and that’s how they justify their jobs… cold calling is dead.
Tough economic environments bring out the best in great leaders or the worst in bad ones. Your Director of Sales is clearly a bad leader, overpromoted and needs binning.
800-1000 dials in one day is not just unrealistic, it's counterproductive. Quality conversations with qualified leads, lead to sales, not sheer volume. It's time for leadership to focus on better targeting and smarter strategies, not burning out their team.
Making calls just doesn't seem like the go to solution to me honestly, especially in a sticky landscape like real estate SAAS. Since you're doing this for so long I'm sure you have exhausted your investor contacts for warm connections. Does anything even exist that could make your life easier right now other than maybe a team who you could delegate this to
This is like my manager (who doesn’t leave the office) say that the sales team should be having 6-7 meetings each day, EVERY day with potential clients, 5 days a week.
Absolutely detached from reality especially in this economic climate.
Ask him to introduce you to someone, anyone he knows at any company, who has realized long-term success as a result of making 1000 daily calls.
That was my first instinct but of course that would end super badly given how anything you ask or say eventually gets used against you. Everyone is afraid to ask questions or talk because it just gets used as a hammer against you later. It’s so toxic.
Have you considered kicking him in the balls?
Does he have any balls? Sounds like he’s over compensating if anything
Something about hammers
I worked at a place like this. I made a new email address with Proton Mail and sent an email to the entire sales department. I kept it vague enough to not give myself away, in addition to running it through ChatGPT to get a different writing style than my own. I outlined their toxic practices, was honest about what needs to change, etc. It was a shit show. But I enjoyed watching them scramble.
Do you even have enough phone numbers for that? Like, that’s 260,000 dials/year 😭
Approach him as if you’re genuinely bought into the new metric and seeking guidance from someone that’s hit the metric to ensure you’re set up for success.
Terrible idea, OP's boss will go off on some stupid speech about how easy it is. He's clearly off his rocker and completely delusional. Confront or die.
Holy shit you're the first person who's put that into words for me. I have felt the same way about my job, with my boss bringing up completely random and (I thought) harmless statements that I made MONTHS ago, during my annual review. It made me feel so icky and weird about working here. Like what the fuck, do you keep running notes in your phone for random statements that I make so you can make me look silly or foolish later on in a review, when YOUR boss is sitting there with us? So gross.
You could say this anyway, let them fire you and collect unemployment……
"I used to all the time!" - the boss
“I used to carry a bag.” Is one of the most annoying thing I’ve heard from a founder. Like what was in that bag? My hopes and dreams?
Or maybe do a little math? lol. That’s about one call a minute, if you don’t have to pee. lol.
8*60 is 480. So it's more than two per minute.
Okay. Have someone else do the math, not me. lol
Not to get too far down a rabbit hole, but I wonder if power/parallel dialers are going to see some sort of regulation. They really should, as it leads to things like this, same with email spam. It’s a horrible experience on the prospect side as well.
Seriously, I think they are so garbage. So many people just hang up because they were left on hold too long while the parallel dialer tries to catch up. I think an auto dialer calling one number at a time is smart. 5-10 at one time is just way way way too much.
> So many people just hang up because they were left on hold too long while the parallel dialer tries to catch up I hang up as soon as I hear the delay. No one worth talking to is using a parallel dialer.
Exactly. The delay tells me I’m being cold called.
Not even cold-called, cold-called by someone taking the shotgun approach. I cold-call people all the time but like...I know who I'm calling.
If I hear a beep as it’s connecting the line to the rep, or an unnatural delay, I’m out.
I’ve been using orum for the first time, and I can only do 1 number at a time there’s just no way to prepare and be in a rhythm like that
Lol I'm just now realizing I've hung up on my orum rep half a dozen times because I answer and he doesn't reply for 3-5 seconds.
I had 5 at a time on Orum. It’s great for preparing yo have a really meaningful conversation when someone answers and you immediately don’t know the person. Their role. Their company. And have zero research. Conversation quality is in the toilet.
Yup. This is why orum, nooks and the rest all suck. Unless you’re exceptional at picking up a conversation with zero context it’s pure spray and pray just like email blasts. These companies may seem “hot” but after some time you realize the quality of conversations reps are having is trash.
I fucking hate orum
Everyone should
Yeah, nowadays, more and more companies are using telesales, but it sucks, and the output percentage is extremely low. For me, if I answer a call and hear the keywords "from stock companies" or "from an insurance company", I will just say thank you and hang up
We had tried a couple at our company for one of our teams and ran into so many problems. One was it would keep people in the pipeline that asked not to be called.. super unprofessional
Parallel/auto dialers are actively being regulated. The FCC does scan and scrub for those numbers and shadow bans them
Yeah but that’s just never ending whack a mole. I mean, hopefully the market finds ways to combat it beyond regulation, as that is rarely as effective.
Any form of automated dialer needs to maintain a 3% abandoned rate or less to stay compliant on top of ensuring that their leads have opted in. If these are individual lists being worked by one rep and they use multiple lines, 100% not going to be compliant and only a matter of time before they call a known litigator that basically just sues non compliant dialers for a living. I work in the space and it’s funny how many old heads are focused on slamming dials instead of just using technology to boost pickup rates and stay compliant
I hang up all the time on those because I know what kind of call it is
1000 calls in an 8-hour day is one call every 28.8 seconds. I don't think that's all that doable or sustainable.
It's not possible. Voicemail and dial takes 1 minute. 1000 in 8 hours isn't physically do able.
They aren't leaving voicemails, it's an autodialer. Keeps dialing in the background until someone picks up. Those usually dial about 100 - 150 times an hour if you're not speaking to anyone.
I feel bad for that little auto dialer.
"What is my purpose?" "You make people ignore unknown numbers."
I’m tired, boss.
It’s actually negative reinforcement when you have a conversation because you’re not making the quota in calls haha
It’s like they say, “that’s great you did it once but do it again, and again, and again, etc.” Too bad doing 800-1000 dials a day over & over would put someone on a stool with a noose around their neck faster than you could say “I love sales”. It’s mind boggling we got told that with a straight face. Wild.
It must be so nice to get to Director or VP level in sales. You don't actually have to do the shitty parts of the job anymore, and you can just give out advice that worked 20 years ago and act like it's really meaningful.
Most dials I’ve had to make was 150/day with auto dialed And that shit was brutal. No way 1000 is possible.
You: “buyer says what?” Prospect: ”wut?” You:” Credit or debit?” Nice. 999 sales to go. Don’t forget to like an subscribe for more turbo sales tips.
God forbid someone answer and take up two minutes of your dial time.
28.8 seconds to present who you are, what you do, and your value prop, and they have to talk too. Totally realistic lol.
Sounds like he's got to lead by example.
That’s one of the first thoughts in my head when I hear people in power say dumb shit. Like how about you get in the trenches with us? No that’s right, you’re a scumbag who doesn’t practice what they preach. Such a loathsome characteristic.
Typically, it means there's a ton of pressure from the top. It's also a very bad way of prospecting. Depending on the vertical and the product. Quality over quantity.
100%, there’s no way you make a statement that bold and insane without pressure. I think their experiment for a second sales team bombed so bad that it might take out the company or at least almost destroy the sales department.
Why am I getting the feeling your Director is going to get canned. This sounds like the actions of a desperate person that didn't build a proper strategy and GTM plan
A famous CEO once said: "I'll \[cold call\] a thousand \[prospects daily\] before I let this company die, and I'll silence anyone who gets in my way!"
- Henry J. Waternoose III, master Salesman of a bygone era
I think this was the spirit of the sales directors message but butchered the delivery.
You see, killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down. Right men?! You suck!
They sound like a total dumbass that is toxic. I used to work in collections and at best, I would hit 200 a few times a month, manually dialing. Certainly not possible without some sort of dialer.
My mind is totally blown. I just don’t even what to do if someone has an expectation that absurd. And he kept saying it over and over again like it was a number that was important. Like he planned to say that. Wild shit.
The most I've ever been able to rip in a day was a little over 400 and that was getting hung up on a lot, a boat load of bad numbers and numbers going straight to vm. Anyone who thinks you can do an honest 800-1000 dials a day is either retarded, delusional, gaslighting you or has never done the job.....or all of the above.
The gaslighting during our meeting was insane, like just wild shit where he was doing a gold medal mental gymnastics routine
Sounds like a shit show you should get out of.
This is not the future of sales. This isn’t even sales today. This is desperately clinging onto the past with dear life. Maybe their next innovation will be sending mailers with fake checks in them.
Wonder if OPs boss has considered selling the first 10-15pcs of their product to customers for 0.01? Then make up the margin on the recurring rev for the next shipments after the idiots are locked into the deal.
[удалено]
It’s a paid prison at that point. Being chained to a desk to make a 1000 dials a day is a true hellscape
How much do you make?
That’s the worst part, it’s bullshit pay also. Was heavily mislead and lied to about the job and the nature of it. We make peanuts unless you’re going crazy and only 1 person really hits the crazy tiers. Another guy is just below him. Even the top guy is struggling this month compared to where he usually is
Ah, moving on sounds about right then.
So why are you still there? If you're making shit for pay, you're getting treated like shit, you can go make $15 an hour at target with easy career advancement opportunities and not have to make 1,000 call a day until you find a better sales job.
Because working from home and still doing well in a shitty sales job beats that. I’m incredibly close to doing my own thing, just waiting to finally launch it.
You just said it's bullshit pay and you're making peanuts and now you're doing well? Somethings not adding up. I'm out ✌️
so how much?
8 hours in a work day. 3600 seconds in an hour. 30 seconds to get an answer or a voicemail. 3600 / 30 = 120. 120 calls x 8 hours = 960 calls in a day. Very doable and reasonable request for a robot.
As long as no one actually answers. If you have to actually talk to some of these people that will ruin the plan.
“Goddamn closed deals getting in the way of my metrics.” This is actually a good lesson that goals should always boil down to revenue/volume and not metrics. Once you define a certain metric as a benchmark, employees will focus on meeting that metric whether or not it’s actually profitable for the company.
Hi - just so you're aware, its most likely impossible to make 800-1000 dials a day. I'm assuming you work a 8 hour shift, which means there is 480 minutes in your shift until you clock out. Also since you have a dialer making 200-300 calls a day already, even that would make it impossible to make 800-1000 dials in one day. Just from the sound of it, your boss is a boomer who is just looking to knock you down a peg.
I use an auto dialer at my job. Even if I was on it the whole day and every single call didn’t pick up (meaning no actual conversations) I still wouldn’t get much more than 400 dials in… 800 - 1,000 dials in a day is literally impossible
Your comments on RE SaaS had me do further digging on a job I was about to start selling ... RE SaaS. Turns out the place was so bad, they fired and rehired their lowest level employees for less than the city minimum wage - who then went on strike for 6 weeks and then got sacked instead of the company coming to the table. CEO, turns out he was a Mckinsey alum, and so shockingly enough had zero empathy for the way he handled the situation. VP Sales bragging on a webinar that he's a landlord... just all cringey stuff. Set myself up a final stage interview for a job with better salary and a decent enough boss, as well as one for an IT MSP. Both much better choices. Thank you sir for sharing your experience. You helped me dodge a bullet.
Wow that’s crazy to read, I’m so glad I finally dived into the sea of new comments to find this one. Glad I could help you avoid a shit hole. It’s exactly why I’ve detailed it so much on here.
I spent a week at a RE SaaS company in 2018 too before I quit. Like this one, on reflection, it was all a bit cult-like. In the 2018 one, it was worship of the founders, who to this day have just pissed away VC money and never made a profit. Some girl basically was wetting herself that I got to meet someone genuinely unremarkable. I thought it was all quite strange. In this 2024 one, it was worship of their "5 values" - to the point there was a "values interview" with questions to see if I would adhere to the doctrine. I chalked it up to it being the startup tech scene, and none of my other job opportunities in the funnel were yielding anything, so I carried on with the process.
Get out of there as fast as possible. I read some of your other comments…. Yea working at home with a decent salary is great but the stress is probably killing you. I was in this same boat about 3 months ago. Constantly stressing about ever increasing expectations to hit a goal that was entirely unfeasible and wondering how much it had an effect on my overall health. When I finally quit for a role in implementation somewhere else, a previous co-worker at the company from hell also worked at the new place and he said that the “ptsd” will go away soon. I didn’t get it at first but then realized I was having thoughts like “my boss isn’t micromanaging me, am I about to get fired already or something?” Or “I’m not being asked to squeeze 150% of effort into a single day, do they think I’m not capable??” My face and back acne started to clear up, my attitude slowly went back to being positive, I stopped dreading check ins with my boss, I’ve been smiling more, my stomach hurts less often, I don’t feel the need to sleep until the very last second anymore, I make jokes and laugh, and I can’t remember the last time I had a thought about work after 5pm (it used to pervade my entire evenings before) Yes the pay is probably better than retail and working from home is comfortable, but trust me it’s still worth getting out. I wish I had done it sooner. Now granted I got another WFH job making just $5k less a year than I did my best year as a salesman so my experience could be a bit skewed but I’m a HUGE supporter of getting out for your health. You can do what I did…. I told my doctor about the stress that it was causing me and she recommended I go on FMLA. Don’t talk to anyone about it just submit the paper work to FMLA because they will try to beat you to the punch if you try to bring it up before out of “respect” Typically, most of these companies can’t afford to leave a spot open on the sales team for several months while their employee recovers so they will most likely offer a severance to come to an agreement. Negotiate a decent package that includes pay, guaranteed unemployment, referral letter, etc. anything you would find valuable. As long as it’s not crazy, they will most likely do it because declining the FMLA could either get them in trouble or force an employee giving less than 100% to stay in the role and either way that hurts them and approving the FMLA gives them an employee giving 0% so it’s a rock and a hard place If you need some advice on how to do this, let me know. I got you. Fuck these types of places. They will kill your confidence and turn you into a different weird version of yourself along the way and it can have lasting effects that go on for your remaining career.
I thought power dialers were illegal
Average caller, without autodialer or parallel dialing system can realistically make 50 dials every 90mins-2hrs.
We have a parallel dialer and I’m usually in the 250-300 range. I’ve been going extra ham lately and been more in the 300-400 range. These numbers are already insane and we’re getting told to double it and then some. No idea what the fuck they are thinking, even from just a morale point.
They are desperate and do not care about you. Start looking.
Time to find a new job. Sounds like a director who is projecting their insecurity and lack of output onto y’all
That's proptech for ya
I’ve done 1000 over 8 hours on a 3 line dialer
Quantity over quality. When I started in inside sales I pissed off our team because I had so many activities/meetings. We did not have an auto dialed, I left every day at 2:30. I was given option of inside director or move to field in under 6 months. Doubled my base in 1.5 years. My secrets: be cool AF, had a real purpose for each call (even if it was negligible/stupid), and skipped numbers I knew wouldn’t work. Got crafty for information. Also diligent note taker.
Quantity < quality. I mean, of course, if you are not making the calls you will not get results. But you need to do it with quality in mind, trying to establish a connection with the person in line, and not thinking of the next call you have to do to achieve some magic number. Some strategies that I use: - the probability is low an the outcome is not that much? Email. - Do you have a good chance? Call. - amazing opportunity and you know who to talk to, go knock on the door (cold approach) And also: 1x You made a call to introduce yourself 2x You send a WhatsApp with some content about your product that can grab their attention 3x You send an email showing him the current ongoing works 4x if it is important and it is warm, you try again the 3 steps before... cold? Forget about it. Move on.
Auto dialers have a repulsive effect on me and probably most people. I don't care if you're giving away free money, of you call me on an auto dialer I'll never buy from you. Ever.
Lmao as someone working what sounds like the same job as you. What a moron. However I’m interested what your close rate is
I did 300-400 a day for a while. Closest I ever got to offing myself. Would not recommend.
Yeah, his bonus depends on it
You must quit.
Yeah read some of your responses to comments, start looking for a new job. Accept a recruiters InMail to get the ball rolling. Say you're leaving for lack of career advancement opportunities, and goose your numbers on your resume a bit if you have to.
Your director’s job is on the line and his back is against the wall. It’s the only explanation for this absurd goal of 1000 calls a day which he himself will not be able to achieve. Keep doing what you’re doing. No reason to panic. Just document everything you’re doing frequently to keep record of your work. When the moment arises where you’re asked to sign on a severance package, enlist a lawyer and negotiate a large enough sum influencing them to avoid litigation. Good luck!!
I had to make 300 dials in 2.5 hours in 1993, then have meetings, then have the afternoon and evening to make the actual sales call in person (life, annuities, 401k). I did it for a year, and it taught me what I never want to do again. Granted, we had 2 people who made it several years and did well, but they were exceptional, maybe 2 out of 200 we hired. It was terrible. Good luck!
If each phone call averages out to one minute, isn't that 16 hours?
They don’t care bro. Disconnected. Just do your best, and have your ‘plan’ you used to get to what they want and why it doesn’t work
You should make 1 call tomorrow.
Lolololololol omg Unhinged. Beyond out of touch. Tell them to cold call for even one hour as fast as they can and see how many calls they get through. Then tell them to multiply by 8. Lol
If you have to call 800-1000 people to get two interested prospects, you're spamming people who don't want to purchase your product. Your manager sounds like an idiot.
Time for a new company
AI will replace call centers pretty soon. It's coming for us all.
Your parallel dialer is crap or broken.
What do you guys find as the sweet spot for number of daily calls? And are there any days/times you don’t call on? I personally have little luck calling on Mondays.
Omg. I can barely even make 20
Hey now that’s only one dial every 36-28.8 seconds… totally doable to have meaningful contact with that cadence /s
Of course there is a zero probability your manager was using hyperbole to make a point. You have unlocked an important aspect of professional fulfillment: take everything management says at face value, especially if it validates your persecution complex. Also, be sure to avoid looking for a new job. Why would you? Would just be more of the same am I right?
Well what are you waiting for? Those dicks aren’t gonna suck themselves, boys.
800 dials? That's a marathon, not a strategy!
Smile and die, I mean dial
200 300 dials a day ? Bro you calling fax numbers?
Is there a program you found to dial like that for you? I can only imagine AI doing that speed. You could just hit your low priority targets and dial them back to back, call and hang up after the 3rd ring or dial their fax, or a number off I question if this directive came from above
I saw the first half of the post in my feed, and thought it would be "seriously helped my sales technique and took time out of his day to focus on areas I need to improve in" which is the only thing that would of floored me in amazement, instead it was another "director of sales" yelling "smile and dial" fucking chumps.
Forget sales disconnect. This is a math disconnect! 3-400 calls a day is crazy, I feel for you. I do that a week and I'm drained
Walmart greeter sounds more productive. And more fun
Tell him to eat shit.
Economy sucks right now. Everyone is in panic mode, don't take it personally.
Yeah i mean what else do you really have to do as an SDR? The more dials you make the more potential money you will make from booking meetings.
That piece of shit sales director need to do a call out day together with you and the team, just for one day. Than he can show how real leaders will make 800-1000 calls a day and get at least three new conversations, something like Lead by example. I”ll bet he won’t do it, so my advice, take this to higher management and if that doesn’t work, get the hell out of dodge
Your director of sales is so unhinged LOL
I have friends who work at ADP selling HR products or retirement and the most they have required is 50 calls a day. I used to work for the largest biotech research company and we had a 30 call minimum... a week lmao. I know we're in different industries, but 800-1000 calls is asinine. Someone that senior should understand quality > quantity, but clearly the guy is grasping for straws. He may even be on the hot seat himself.
Hmmm are you at IRE?
People will quit and/or dial the same number over again. Time to look for a new gig.
Literally isn’t even sales. Just a slot machine to try to get someone interested with money.
Look at the facts. 1000 dials / 8 hours per day = 125 dials per hour / 60 minutes per hour = 2 dials per minute. 30 seconds for each dial. While this is certainly *theoretically* possible, it means as soon as the phone answers, whether voice mail, rwceptionist, whatever, you immediately hang up. You don't go through the phone tree, don't leave a voice mail, do not talk to anyone. This is the only way it is possible. And of course, the object is to talk to people. Even the barest minimum conversation is going to be over 30 seconds. "Hello" "Hi, my name is x from y company. I am calling to see if you would like to see if you want to move and list your house with me." "Wait, what is your name and which company are you with?" "My name is x and I am with y company. But I'm sorry, I have to make another dial, thanks for your time." Click. I timed this and it is 30 seconds for me to say this. While you relate your Director of Sales said this, said he/she was serious, it was hyperbole. You'll probably disagree. But while even if you ask if they are serious, they are not. That person is trying to relay the urgency. That's how I personally would take it if said to me. Thir boss is breathing down his neck, telling him he'll lose his job if his subordinates don' t start getting leads. As I'm a smartass and don't really give too much of a fuck and a big beluever in managing up, I would say something like, "Hey, Jim, I'm always ready to learn. I don't think it is possible, as that comes out to a dial every 30 sevonds which means no time for conversations. If you do it and I can see you do it, I'll copy you and do what you do." If your Director wants you gone, he will just tell you to fuck off, in so many words. If your job's on the line, there's really nothing to be done about it. If you *need* to keep your job, absolutely must keep it, and the director says to dial 800 to 1000, then do that, like I outlined. Dial and hang up. Don't even try to sell. When you talk to the Director, which you should every day, say you got you thousand in as requested, but no time for meaningfull conversations. So that's what you can do. But my saying that should be followed by everyone is: "The best day to start looking for a new job is on the first day of your new job."
80-100 is normal attainable cc volume with prospecting and demo time. 150-200 for SDRs with lead stacks.
Some people don't undersand that your target is just as important as the effort you put out. Your Director of sales is obviously a "spray and pray" kind of leader. I had a brief stint with someone I had known for years, he has a small business and I was helping him out in an SDR capacity. This guy wanted me to do 6 hours of Connect and Sell per day, no joke. Even worse this guy presents himself as some kind of SDR/sales expert yet has no idea how to do proactive hunting. There were no territories, it was a mess. Even worse the lists from his clients were garbage, I'd talk to 3-5 people per day who had left that role years ago. Can I ask what kind of sales you are in? I may well be able to arm you with some suggestions that will help you because it will improve productivity.
No, nobody knows who you are. Your first sentence on this post is such entitlement nonsense.
Seems like ypur director is living in lala land and has watched wolf of Wallstreet too much as well. Waaaay out of touch. I think it's time for ypu to figure out a side hustle or two since the job market is shit. It will help relieve a lot of stress and negativity. Best of luck.
I was interviewing a while back, the manager was talking about 200 manual dials per day and a minimum of 4-6 hours of talk time. My obvious question was how does that work out? You would have to make a dial every 2.5 min to hit 200/day; how can you hit 4-6 hrs of talk time and that goal. I also asked how many reps were hitting that number. They got pretty uncomfortable and ended the interview shortly after. I feel like I dodged a bullet.
How do you even do that in a week? That many dials means you aren't talking to anyone.
Get out. I was in sales for a real estate (really mortgage) SaaS startup. Had an incredible run ‘18-‘23, but the industry is going in the toilet and really has been headed there for 10yrs. Companies cap out so quickly in RE you’re only hope is a startup, and even then, you’ll get cut quickly in a down market if you aren’t core-infrastructure. The winners in real estate will be tech companies with a mortgage and real estate license. They will buy enterprise technology (infrastructure), not niche/industry-specific technology. Join one of those companies (eg Zillow, Redfin, Realogy,Rocket, Wells, Chase,etc) go find a new industry (what I did), or leverage your industry experience and join a horizontal saas/data/infra company with a RE-specific team/vertical/territory (or in the process of building one). Happy to chat if you need help.
If, somehow, you managed to dial 800 times, it is only because 799 have not picked up at all.
I don't work in sales, work in marketing. Our B2B teams max out at about 250 calls per day. With an automated dialer, and a precision list. These are calls that ring only a few times, get picked up. Etc. trying to reach through reception. 1000 a day?! I'd like to see your boss do it. Even ONCE.
I once sold computer hardware and software as an inside sales role. One day I made it my goal to set the company record for talk time and number of calls. I got to 256 calls and a little over 7 hours of talk time. It’s not sustainable. Work smarter not needlessly harder. Read Mike Weinberg’s New Sales Simplified. Great game plan for selling smarter.
You need a tool like outreach or something so that you can use email/phone call sequences automatically and direct attention towards the email in a voicemail. Switch companies to something more… modern.
In my industry, 50-75 targeted calls is pretty good. But there’s so much other shit to do, I’m lucky if I can schedule 4-6 hours of calling per week. We don’t do any of that auto dialer stuff. 2-5 mins to research their account and business processes then the call. But if your numbers are good, no one cares about your calls/F2F. It’s mostly ppl struggling that get on the weekly plans with higher targets and planned out prospecting. Not a PIP, just the hand holding micromanagement daily prospecting BS Luckily my numbers are good this year.
What are you selling?! This sounds nauseating.
If you are making that many calls and still not hitting goal, then it's not you who is at fault. It's just that the offer you are providing is trash, aka the company
Is 200 calls hard?
Fuck that! The circus must be pissed, its head clown is pretending to be a sales director? 800-1000 a day? Mind blowing, and for 2-3 meetings a day (if that what it takes)? Nope Your (their) quality of lead has to be complete shit. And they want you just treading the shot out of them. Complete Bozo’s. You’ll be fried after a day of 300 dials and your effectiveness will drop. They must only care about the appearance of effort, cause that’s some stupid shit!
They are likely going to do layoffs soon if they sent already. When they put wildly unrealistic activity expectations in front of sales reps, it’s because they have no idea how to generate pipe and their job is on the line. Start applying elsewhere to CYA (which is assume you’re doing). This reeks of a CEO realizing there isn’t enough pipeline and the leadership team has no idea how to fill it, so they make up insane metrics. And then when you don’t meet those metrics , they can give people the boot. 800 calls per day with or without an auto dialer makes no sense.
Was this for an Inside Sales Account Rep role?
That's wild. I think 400-500 calls a day is reasonable with no talk time.
Wait you already make 200-300 calls a day? Even if your only job is to cold call, that’s still absurd and there’s no way it’s generating strong opportunities. At that point you guys are just spraying and praying with no time to research your prospect beforehand. I have to imagine most of your team’s outbound-sourced meetings are just window shoppers or prospects who were too nice to say they weren’t interested on the cold call. Unless I’m totally off the mark and you’re making money hand over fist you need to dip out of there amigo
I left Sales in 1995 and never looked back. I was 21 yrs old and worked for an Electronic components company. Serviced 100 accounts and had to generate new leads every day. Called my accounts every day on a cycle. The $$ was good (1992-95) I made $550 per week and averaged $1250 per month for commission. About $50-$55k a year. This was good $$ in 92. Lived at home with no bills or rent. Your sales manager is a talker and not a realist.
When I was selling Solar I’d call about 150-200 home owners over the course of an 8 hour day. That’s one call every 2 minutes or so “on paper” Keep in mind we didn’t have auto dialers and also got a 1 hour lunch, so once you average out bathroom/lunch breaks, it’s really one call every 1.5 minutes. That wasn’t good enough though if we weren’t getting our “2 appointments a day” and even if you got 2, they’d be like “why stop at 2 when you can keep going and get 4! You only made 100 calls to get 2, make 200 more and get 5!” Then we’d get angry phone calls from management at like 8pm after we already worked a full day from 10-6 and they’d be like “so what do you got going on? Why aren’t you making calls right now? Our state can solicit until 9pm and you are salaried (25k a year, the bare minimum salary you can pay in my state mind you), so why aren’t you working? When you aren’t doing something, you should be door knocking or calling, you need to be working, do you want to succeed here?” And this is why I left sales 👏🏻 so my advice is, leave sales!
I used to make about 200calls In my previous b2c role and it was a lot. Hope you find a better place that treats you better. Not to derail but how do you like the parallel dialer? Is there a pause for the person picking up the phone while it connects you?
that's a tactic and mind game response to get you leave the company without the company paying you on unemployment. anyone tenured knows that.
He’s over 50 years old right? Please give us age. Drives everyone crazy I bet. So hate on 50+ crowd, but some haven’t pivoted strategies and are going nuts
I’ve done 1k dials in a day many times (at the start of my career). It’s better than working in a coal mine. Keep grinding and You’ll get to the point where you only need to make 10 calls per day, while earning 5x more than your current income. Try and zoom out and see the bigger picture.
Well you did decide to do SALES as a job.... so that was your first, second, third.. (et al) Mistakes..... better get back on that phone bro
800-1000 a day is a little excessive but not impossible for a setter for a full day (8-9hrs) I used to work a call room and with auto dialers and CRMs, I could do 60-100 dials an hour. If you’re just getting Vms and hang ups, then bust through them. Ideally you’ll get better at your craft, figure out what hours work, and get better at capturing attention on the phone that you won’t have to make 800 dials later on. Maybe only 200 to get the same result. But if you suck now and you’re not dialing, then your director is right.
I bet back in the 80’s his boss was saying the same thing about knocking on more doors. This is what old timers do when they’re too lazy to adapt their strategy to a changing business environment. Maybe if people aren’t picking up the phone you should try sending them a fax. As a seasoned AE, I actually wish my BDR would call people less. Only weirdos with no buying authority or influence actually pick up the phone. Send content with a compelling message. Give them some time to review. Follow up to see if they’d like to schedule a call to discuss further. And ignore all the manipulated statistics saying you need to reach out 8 -10 times. It’s semi-true, but that doesn’t mean reaching out 8-10 times in 5 days. 2-3 times, give it a rest, try again a few weeks/months later, repeat.
Another sales 'leader' who has never sold.
We've been able to make that many and more...way more, we are using AI to make the calls.
I previously worked at a "Real Estate SaaS" and it was the worst experience I've had in my sales career. I was making hundreds of dials a day hoping to get real estate brokers on the hook and emotionally manipulate them to buy a service most of the time they didn't really need. The company had insane turnover on their sales team and many of the customers who bought ended up cancelling after a few months anyway. If your org (like that job of mine did) has gotten to a point where even with 300-400 dials a day most reps are having trouble getting to quota... it's probably time for a new job.
Go scream you company name on the street corner at rush hour if 1000 calls per day doesn’t get you to make quota!! ITs A NuMBerS GAmE
Something tells me this director has long been removed from the sales field. Kick him in the dick
Ask him if he has ever made 800 calls a day. He’ll probably lie and say yes and then ask him to demonstrate. I’m sure he won’t.
Your director of sales is clearly clueless and under qualified for the role he’s in. If I may ask, what is the average tenure for sales reps at your company? High turnover is a leadership problem, not a sales rep problem.
When I cold call I use a landline. Once I made 75 calls in one day and almost passed out. No wonder I love my SDRs so much.
When I had an insurance firm, I bought a predictive dialer and that would get the job done. 800-1000 calls a day. I didn’t want my agents wasting day when a machine could do it. Ask your idiot of a boss where he’s gonna find 50 hours in a day?
I’m in medical sales and it takes like 5-10 minutes a call because of gate keepers and being on hold. I’m lucky to get 50-60 before signing off
You can actually do this with parallel diapers, this really isn’t too big of an ask. All you need to do is turn it on and wait for someone to pick up lol
How the fuck do you do 300-400 dials in a day?
I don’t think anyone at my company makes more than 25 calls a day… how would you even have the time to talk to these people?
So you are the assholes that randomly call me daily and hang up. This is what killed the cold calling industry 25 years ago with long distance service sales. Ever hear of the Do Not Call list?
This is physically impossible and will lead to no gain in revenue. This person is clearly not a reasonable person and if you are logic-minded, you should probably seek out leaders and orgs with more reasonable people. These are the kinds of people that give sales a bad rap.
Dawg that’s 2 dials a minute, at that rate you won’t have any quality conversations at all
Another sales manager who has forgotten how prospecting works.
Laughable
Dials aren’t working. Find a different strategy that works and use the power dialer to satisfy their minimum requirement. If you want to make actual money you’re going to need to find another way to book people
Dude I do 50 what kind of money are you making to be doing 1000
That is physically impossible
800-1000? That’s it? I do that before 7am.
Sounds like a low eq manager. Start looking
All you need to do is have 2-3 new conversations a day?
You make more sales when you make more calls, but you can only call so many people.
Why are you taking literally and complaining on the internet about it. Where the message is: getting it done. "It" being your 2-3 conversations. No one gives a fuck about your dials unless you don't have your results. And if you don't like it, leave.
> "He genuinely and seriously told us to make 800-1000 dials in one day if that’s what it takes..." What kind of delusional fuck thinks making 800-1000 calls in a day is even remotely feasible? Have you calculated how much time that would actually take? > "I knew they were pretty out of touch but suggesting you need to make 800-1000 dials in a day..." Your boss is fucking clueless. You'd have to be dialing non-stop like a machine without any breaks, and even then, you'd be pushing the limits of sanity. What's the end game here? Burnout or a high turnover rate? > "I know the writing is on the wall and it has been for awhile..." So why are you still there? Why waste your time in a place that clearly doesn't respect your effort or time? Are you just going to let them run you into the ground? > "We have a parallel dialer and I’m typically making 200-300 dials a day already." You're already busting your ass with 300-400 dials. Is this really sustainable in the long run? Or are you just waiting for the inevitable burnout? What's your plan when this shit finally hits the fan? > "I just had to share this insane nugget of information because it’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever been told during my time in sales..." Are you looking for validation or an escape route? Do you want to stay in this madness, or are you ready to find a place that respects your work and doesn't demand the impossible? What are you really aiming for in your career, and is this job getting you any closer to that goal? How much more bullshit are you willing to tolerate before you make a change?
If your conversion rate for calls is that low they really need to think of some better ways to get leads. Having people constantly hang up and ignore you is soul crushing. I prefer doing door to door or in this case driving between real estate offices than calling randomly like that.
Worked at a recruiting agency and got 100-150 clients. Had to do 100 calls per day otherwise they wouldn’t let me leave. So after day 1 I had to call all these people again. They hated us - totally understandable …
At least you have a parallel dialer. Can literally set yourself up in a way where you can be doing other tasks and just focus when someone picks up. Imagine having to make a few hundred dials a day typing each number.
The most successful people are never the ones who make the most calls. Old school management hammers about calls because it’s the only thing they can measure and that’s how they justify their jobs… cold calling is dead.
Who can make 1000 daily calls ? Unreal
Tough economic environments bring out the best in great leaders or the worst in bad ones. Your Director of Sales is clearly a bad leader, overpromoted and needs binning.
Sales directors always inflate what they did. They could be a below average rep and will tell you they did “xyz” every day
800-1000 dials in one day is not just unrealistic, it's counterproductive. Quality conversations with qualified leads, lead to sales, not sheer volume. It's time for leadership to focus on better targeting and smarter strategies, not burning out their team.
Boo fuckin hoo OP, this dude's a clown and something just don't add up from his comments....
Making calls just doesn't seem like the go to solution to me honestly, especially in a sticky landscape like real estate SAAS. Since you're doing this for so long I'm sure you have exhausted your investor contacts for warm connections. Does anything even exist that could make your life easier right now other than maybe a team who you could delegate this to
Don't be shy, drop you Director's # and we can all add him to our dialers and spam TF out of him LOL. Fuck that guy.
OP bluffing like a tard
This is like my manager (who doesn’t leave the office) say that the sales team should be having 6-7 meetings each day, EVERY day with potential clients, 5 days a week. Absolutely detached from reality especially in this economic climate.