Sales Savvy

“Bout to go into a meeting with Sales Director until a hottie turns up, then he says ‘Ill brief you later’ and goes in alone…HATERRRR”  Found on Twitter, 8:20 pm, Nov 26  

I ran across this in Twitter and found it to be an interesting example of how social media will change companies in terms of policy, management practices and principles. In the past, these stories would have had a limited audience—told at the water cooler with peers, or emailed (or voicemail) to a few friends—privately—to tell the story. Today however, social media now provides a public venue for personal situations and they can have consequences to businesses and individuals.

So why does this statement become an example of a cautionary tale? Here are some potential outcomes:

• The “hottie” is harassed, or feels that she is, and the Tweet reinforces possible intent.
• The “hottie” hears about the tweet and no longer wants to meet with anyone associated with the company.
• Several coworkers view the tweet and the potential work audience expands. The communication goes from viral to verbal and back. The message is less likely to be diluted since it is in writing (no game of Post Office) and the message can be retweeted…
• They win some business from this sales call but the competition has seen the tweet…and makes an issue of it.
• The Sales Director has an allegation of sexual harassment from within his company and this tweet surfaces—setting a possible precedence.
• The author of the tweet is female and no longer feels comfortable being alone with the Sales Director.
• The Sales Director makes the “hottie” uncomfortable and they lose the business opportunity.
• The employee is terminated or put on a performance planner  but uses the tweet to show that the Sales Director interfered with his/her opportunity to meet quota or grow business.
• The employee misread the situation but created a deluge of interest and gossip affecting the Sales Director’s reputation.

You can say there’s free speech, and that social media simply has become a vehicle for this. And this would be true. You can say that most people, given the sheer traffic in social media, are likely to miss this note. Also true…but we don’t know where else this message went. And you can say I’ve lost my sense of humor. Without a doubt, these are worst case scenarios and not representative of all possible outcomes but they help to tell the story.

The question is: are you prepared to handle how social media can affect the internal workings of your business? This isn’t just about whose manager has “the hots” for their client; the comments may leak confidential corporate information, confidential client information, or misinformation. For example, the message could be: “I’m very excited about our new commercial line which launches in January!” And while much of this is likely to be accidental or unintentional, it’s immaterial to the impact on a business.

The fact is that this type of tweet is not going away and it won’t be contained, audited, edited or likely even countered (i.e. with the truth or some semblance of a response). But today, companies should be prepared to handle the potential for such circumstances in policy, practice and management principles.

There are no easy answers. And there’s no real way to halt the public updates but a structured, proactive approach can help minimize risk for all parties and equally important, help to reinforce cultural values and behavior in an era of new communication tools.

Other tweets to ponder:

“not understanding why 3 male nurses have hit on me these past 2 hours..ugh” Dec 03

“Apparently client drunk-dialed my coworker last night after dinner to say he didn’t mean to hit on me or say anything inappropriate. Amazing” Dec 03

“Why does my boss insist on calling my into her office to tell me racist jokes? Es muy mal!”  Dec 02

“Chuckling sales director (m) just introduced new client contact (f) saying “She’s MUCH prettier than James, isn’t she.” FISTS IN MOUTHS” Dec 01