The Sound of Silence in the Workplace - Is Your Office Like a Library?

The noises of the open plan office have been replaced by the ringing of doorbells to take in deliveries for neighbours, the barking of dogs, the demands of children and the unfathomable timing of the mowing of the lawn next door only when a VIP customer calls.  The new (yes I’m going to say it) normal.

From mid March and throughout 2020 countries around the globe went into various states of lockdown.  Commutes were replaced with an extra half hour in bed, finding a parking space with sneaking a cheeky episode of your favourite Netflix show and ironing a last minute shirt or blouse with not ironing anything for months.  Millions of offices worldwide fell silent almost overnight.

But if we think back to the workplace PC (Pre COVID-19) was it all that noisy anyway?  If you stripped away the casual racism of “him in IT”, the inane “what are you having for tea?” chatter that starts at 10am and the whirring of the aircon that provokes the daily temperature wars then the main noise was tapping wasn’t it?  Tapping of keyboards as people carbon copy every man and his dog into another internal arse-covering circular which adds no value to the business.  A bit cynical?  Maybe, but the average office worker receives over 120 emails every day and around 50% of those are from colleagues.  

So apparently the average email is 240 words.

And the average reading speed is around 250 words per minute.

That means that people were/are spending an hour a day reading internal emails.

And another hour a day reading external emails.

And then there is the generation of emails to perpetuate the problem.

The average person types at around 40 words per minute (and a bloke I used to work with drags this average down significantly as I’m convinced he thought that keyboards only worked if pressed very hard, from very high up with your tongue out).  So if we assume their emails are the 240 word average and they are sending 50 emails they’re typing 2,880 words per day.  This takes them ~6 minutes per email.

So they’re spending 5 hours a day writing emails?!?

On top of the 2 hours they’re spending reading them?!

But they’re only at work for 8 hours and half an hour is lunch!

Okay, so the maths is a bit flawed.  It doesn’t account for people sending emails to more than one person and other variables I’ve overlooked that people will send in comments that won’t get past verification, but you get my point?  People are spending hours and hours each day writing and reading emails.  So no wonder the office sounds like a library.

A common response when this is raised in a sales or marketing department is that the customer prefers that method of communication.  Another one is that they need to write the email to confirm the information.  Or they’re on a different timeline, like in Wales.

Whilst I agree that this will be true for a percentage of contacts, the rest is a smokescreen for call reluctance.

It is call reluctance that is the primary reason the sales office is essentially silent.  And not only prospecting calls but account management calls too.  I have to admit that personally I’ve never struggled to find a reason to contact a customer and I’ve NEVER made the dreaded “just checking in” call that I hear predominantly from poorly coached recruiters.  Here is a translation of a “just checking in call”.

Caller: “Hi Simon, it’s Chlamydia from AAA Disruptive Recruitment Solutions.  We spoke a few weeks ago and I’m (wait for it) just checking in to see if anything has changed”?

Translation: “Hi Simon, it’s Chlamydia from blah blah blah Solutions.  I’m pretending that we spoke a few weeks ago, working on the premise that you receive so many calls I can openly gaslight you and you won’t know I’m lying.  I also think you’re a moron as I’ve never actually taken the time to understand your business, let alone pause for breath yet.  I’m bizarrely measured on the number of calls I make each week as my manager is stuck in 1998 and you’re on a list from 2 years ago.  I can’t be arsed to do any pre-call work and I’m under the impression that you’re essentially sitting idle waiting for an inane question so I’m going to wing it and ask you if anything has changed since our imaginary previous call”?

But seriously, call reluctance can cripple a sales pipeline very quickly, particularly for businesses that don’t spend big on Google Ads and/or create most of their leads through other online platforms.  So that accounts for a lot of UK businesses.  Lots of companies in the UK carve out niches, whether it be with their products and services or by location and often the most effective way to communicate these value propositions is direct conversations.  When I used to sell the unique bio chemical that helps to keep paint wet in the tin, a Facebook or Instagram advert wasn't going to help me.  It’s not really the type of thing people buy on a whim, the supply chain was very long established and people didn’t know our new company existed yet.

I’m not a Luddite though.  I appreciate that there is room for all of the above.  I’m literally creating online content with this blog post and I assume you’re not in an office reading it out loud to sound busy.  I buy gifts based on targeted Instagram adverts as I find it convenient - but if I’m looking for something specific, complex or technical I always want to speak to someone who knows more than me.  And of course, there are thousands of companies, products and services I simply don’t know exist yet - so I’m not going to look for them online.

Making a sales call takes most people out of their comfort zone.  Making a cold sales call takes most people out of their comfort milky way.  It is not easy when you don’t have the tools to do it effectively.  But it can be very rewarding and if done right, can be very effective and measurable.

Many marketers might sneer at the need to even consider making sales calls.  Email marketing, SEO and PPC campaigns can drive all the leads you can handle can’t they?  In some cases this is correct.  But with the exception of the perennial story you might see in National Enquirer or The Daily Sport, people don’t have relationships with computers or algorithms.  If I had a penny for every time I heard a consultant use the phrase “People buy from people” I’d - well actually I’d probably only have about £1.70 but you get my point.

So with a huge dose of #irony this blog post is purely designed to entertain, inform and hopefully get a handful of people to engage with me.  Like a balanced diet, driving sales requires a multi-pronged approach which making sales calls is a part of.

It is perhaps now the case that if you break the silence in your sales office with sales calls you’ll be doing something that a lot of your competition just aren’t doing.  And this is something I can help you with.  Just give me a call (or email me if you’d prefer ;))