Talk Time Quotas -- by J.ust O.ver B.roke

I understand the concept - a certain amount of time on the phone has to lead to an expectation of a certain amount of deals. It makes total sense. Here's where it gets retarded: when you start tying in people's commission to their talk time on the phone. Obviously, I'm talking about this because it's something that goes on in our office. If someone is struggling, it makes perfect sense. You go down the checklist of why the sales aren't there and you ask, "Is this person making enough phone calls? Is this person talking to people long enough?" Those are two basic questions to ask in a phone sales job. But there are people in this office who have excelled past quotas in a number of areas, who have less than the required amount of talk time that will, because of company policy, not recieve commission this month.

Here's why it's really dumb: most sales departments don't have the personnel to look at every dial of every salesperson, nor to call on every suspicious looking dial. Hence, the talk time quota can be beaten by any half-way seasoned pro. I currenlty have 10 numbers that have voice mails that either loop automatically or that loop with a press of either the star or pound key. Some loop endlessly and some loop for 3 or 4 minutes before trying to transfer you to an operater/voice mailbox.

Now don't get me wrong, I actually try and do work while I'm in the office. I'm just not going to miss getting paid because of a talk time quota. I can get the work I need to get done with about an hour of talk time. The other half hour is pure fluff. Eff the establishment.