I have always been one to try to diffuse potential conflicts but I can think of one particular instance where I refused to compromise and the conflict escalated. I used to work for the ABC Foundation, which was a non-for-profit that used telemarketing campaigns to collect donations and raise money, as a caller. Like the 80 other callers, my job was to call potential donors to 1) update their information, and 2) try to collect a donation from them.
It was essentially a very simple sales job. Although there was no product, we were selling them on the idea of supporting the Foundation and that their money would be going to a good cause. We had a prescribed "script" that we could use but it was more so meant to be used a guideline. The script was relatively aggressive, you were supposed to ask for donations of different amounts at three different points in the call before you hung up. The idea was that you would build a rapport with the potential donor so that they would feel more comfortable donating later in the conversation. Not to toot my own horn, but I was a fairly successful caller because I was often able to convert a disgruntled "no" into a donation through the process of rapport building. My strategy was to get to build trust between myself and the potential donor by learning about them and telling them about myself. Once they felt like I was a real person, I would sell them on the idea that they had a vested interest in the future of the foundation and that they would be able to make a real lasting impact for the foundation's cause.
There was one call in particular that led to a conflict between me and my manager. I was speaking to a retired woman who, immediately after my first ask, declined to make a donation. She explained to me that her husband had alzheimer's and that she was working part time at an elementary school so that they could make end's meet every month. We eventually started talking, she told me about her grandkids who were in college, and I told her about my college experience. This was right around the time after Sandy Hook, and she was absolutely devastated about it because she couldn't imagine that done to the kids at her own school. We talked for about thirty minutes about it before we started talking about the foundation and her connections to it. I finally asked for the second ask amount and she said no again because she really didn't have the money, but it seemed like I could probably push her to. At that point I was ready to give up, I knew that I could probably convince her to donate but it felt morally wrong because I knew that she did not have the money to. As she went to go check her checkbook (yes she explained to me that she balanced all of her budget in her checkbook) I tried to explain this to my manager. Unsurprisingly they didn't give a damn, they told me to push for the donation, and since I had little time to negotiate I had to listen. So when she came back, we talked a little more and eventually I sold her on the donation and she gave $26, because it was all she could afford and wanted it to be dedicated to the children lost in Sandy Hook. I thanked her for her donation and we concluded the call.
After the call, my manager called me into a conference room to talk about it. I explained that I was pretty upset that we just took advantage of this old lady's emotions for $26, of which meant a lot more to her than it did to the foundation. My manager didn't care, and was actually upset that I would try to end the call without pushing for the third donation. Our disagreement escalated and led to an angry conversation.
Fast forward to the next day, I was then awarded for having "the best call of the week". This only got pissed me off more, because it felt like it was clearly done in spite by my manager because of our disagreement. This poisoned the relationship, and even friendship, with my manager to the point where a few weeks later I turned in my two weeks notice.
Having raised over $20,000 dollars in the semester, I quit because of a disagreement over $26 that was unnecessarily escalated. This was a lose-lose because they lost a good caller, and I lost a paycheck every two weeks, and all of this could have been avoidable if my manager had taken a more passive approach.
By intentionally escalating our conflict instead of trying to diffuse it, my manager failed to resolve this conflict. Had they just heard me out, and acknowledged that I felt what was done was morally wrong and put it to rest, the story would be very different. But to award me for it and portray it as something that I should be proud of was unnecessary. Although it was my job to get the donation, the situation sent me the wrong signal, and created a work environment that I no longer wanted to be involved with.
Interesting story. I hadn't previously heard of the ABC Foundation. I do wonder, given your story, whether your manager received some performance base pay or not. His behavior would be much easier to understand if his own earnings depended on how much his callers could obtain in phone commitments.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, I find this entire approach to business, distasteful. I will not respond to solicitations whether by phone, email, or in some cases face to face. That the act of soliciting matters in terms of how much money is generated itself says something about the validity of the activity.
Now the campus does a charitable fund drive and when I was a full time employee I contributed to that regularly, but there was an implied expectation that you would do so. On these other solicitations, there is no such expectation.
Getting back to your story, I wonder if you were always supposed to go through your entire script of if sometimes if you sense it was no deal, that you would end the call early so you could call somebody else. The part of the story that was most surprising here was how long you were on the phone with this woman. A half hour sounds like a very long time to me. If that is right, maybe your manager had some legit reason to be bothered with you.
Next week you are to write about what I call the triangle principal-agent problem. This might be an example of it. Perhaps you were captured by the caller. Something to consider for your next post.
I used the ABC Foundation instead of the real name, I didn't want to be too disparaging to the actual organization. I also think that this business approach is rather slimy, but the experience did teach me a lot about how to capture a sale, so it served a good purpose for my professional development.
ReplyDeleteTo return to your question, the script was more of so guidelines for the conversation. It included the information about the campaign, some interesting facts about it, and the three different ask amounts we were to ask for based on their previous donation history. We were encouraged to stay on the phone as long as necessary in order to capture a donation, so the amount of time was actually applauded because it was representative of a skill set that was needed for callers to collect higher level donations. Essentially, while the longer calls probably lost a few potential calls a day, they provided a training opportunity so that callers could be put on higher level campaigns where the ask amounts were in the tens of thousands of dollars instead of a few hundred. I think my manager was bothered that I wanted to end the call before all three ask amounts because they knew I would be able to capture the donation, where as I realized that what I was doing was pretty morally wrong, and that that conflicting perspective is what allowed for the conflict to escalate.