Every so often, salespeople do some shady shit.
It’s not always easy to catch them in the act, but if you value transparency like we do, there’s a good chance you can stop fraudulent sales activity before it’s too late.
We’ll get into the practical steps in a minute, but first, I want to share an insane story from Ryan Shank, founder and CEO of PhoneWagon.
Not long ago, Ryan hired a sales rep to schedule demos. The rep’s only job was to cold call prospects and set appointments. He’d get a commission whenever prospects showed up—pretty simple stuff.
One day, the rep said, “Hey, I’ve got a demo for you. He called in early.”
Ryan jumped on the call, but after a few minutes, it was clear that the demo wasn’t going anywhere. The prospect seemed to know nothing about marketing. He couldn’t answer simple questions like, “What campaigns are you running?”
After some back-and-forth nonsense, the prospect abruptly hung up.
Nothing About the Call Made Any Sense
For one thing, who calls in early for a product demo?
More importantly, the prospect should've been able to answer Ryan’s simplest questions. He had a legitimate marketing title. But even if the prospect knew nothing— if he’d somehow managed to land a job without knowing anything about marketing—how and why did the sales rep qualify him for a demo?
Ryan went into Close to figure out what was going on.
The first thing he noticed was that, at some point, the prospect’s email had switched from a work account to a personal account. When he tried pulling up the call activity between the sales rep and the prospect, he couldn’t find one call within Close. There were a bunch of call notes but not a single tracked call. No recordings. Nothing.
Frustrated and confused, he checked out other leads for evidence of recent communication. He started listening to voicemails left by prospects, but something didn’t sound right. Each call—from Dave, Chris, and Anne—sounded a little like the sales rep. They used the same phrases and had the same familiar drawl, and after periods of inactivity, they all wanted to schedule demos immediately.
After listening to a few of these voicemails, Ryan realized that the rep was leaving voicemails for himself.
While using a voice changer.
He created bogus email addresses to set appointments and called from mass numbers.
But here’s the craziest part:
That first demo call? The one that raised Ryan’s suspicions?
That was the rep, too.
The dude faked a technical demo with his own boss, the company's founder and CEO, all to raise his numbers.
The whole story is insane. If you want to see it unfold in real-time, check out the video Ryan posted a few weeks ago:
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Why Do Some Salespeople Cheat the System?
There are many reasons, but it all comes down to greed, desperation, opportunity, and pressure. Salespeople have to perform—there’s no way around it. And when things aren’t going well, some reps just don’t have the strength of character to work their way out of a bad month.
They start looking for shortcuts, like:
- Fake activity: They report several calls or emails (or a certain amount of time spent prospecting) without doing any real work.
- Bad opportunities: They talk to prospects who aren’t interested in the product, don’t qualify them correctly, or make false promises.
- Stolen leads, opportunities, and deals: When salespeople feel their leads aren’t good, they try to steal prospects from other salespeople.
- Bad closes: They close deals that shouldn’t be closed. They often say, “If you give me your credit card number right now, you’ll have 60 days to cancel before you’re charged.” Sales reps pretend prospects are fully committed when they’re still on the fence. They might even charge the prospect, which complicates the situation further.
- Straight-up fraud: They fake leads, contracts, and credit cards. You know, real criminal shit.
Here’s why this garbage hurts: not only are you paying out commission and bringing on bad customers, but you’re also forecasting successes—to your team and your investors—that aren’t actual successes. You’re planning your future around bullshit numbers. You’re projecting growth when, in actuality, these customers will churn hard.
What is the Best Way to Catch Fraudulent Activity?
Prevent it from Happening in the First Place
Be deliberate in your hiring process. Emphasize character, not just sales ability. Do background checks and backdoor background checks. Call people not on their reference lists. See how they worked with others on their team. Call former customers and ask about their experiences with that salesperson.
Ask candidates if they own a voice changer.
In short, take your time. We’re super thorough when we hire salespeople, and (knock on wood) I’ve never had someone steal from me in fifteen years.
Encourage Transparency
Every sales rep’s activity is an open book. There are no secrets.
Create a system in which you can review calls and emails regularly. You’re all working toward the same goal—to grow your business. No rep should operate on their own little island.
Trust but Verify
This is especially true when you bring on a new sales rep. Join prospect calls. Review their emails. When they close a deal, make a quality call to the customer and say, “Thanks again for your business. You talked to [new sales hire], so I wanted to learn more about that experience. Have we done everything we can to treat you well and set you up for success?”
You can ease off a little if all the feedback is positive. Instead of checking in every week, check in monthly or quarterly. No matter how much you trust a person, always verify that they’re still doing things correctly.
When You Catch Someone Committing Fraud, What Should You Do?
Don’t react immediately. But don’t dwell on the situation either.
Collect as much evidence as you can. Try to determine whether this is a pattern of behavior or an outlier. Check out their call and email activity. Check-in with prospects and customers. Take a day or two to do your homework.
Then, put together an action plan. What if you’re right, and something shady is going on? What might happen if you confront them and they admit to fraud? What might happen if they deny any wrongdoing?
Compile a termination checklist, just in case your suspicions are verified. And make sure there’s clear communication (emails, activity data) that proves why you need to take action. If the fraud is crazy enough, you might even want to contact your lawyer.
Eventually, you should calmly sit that person down—ideally with a third party in the room to witness and moderate—and say, “I noticed some weird stuff going on, so I looked into it further. Here’s the data I’ve gathered so far. Can you explain this to me?”
Don’t make any accusations. Don’t get emotional. Just provide the facts as you see them.
There might be a good explanation. We’re all wrong at some point. If that’s the case, apologize to the sales rep, thank them for providing context and clarity, and ask how situations like this can be prevented in the future.
But if the sales rep can’t give you a good explanation—if they don’t remain calm or provide any context that changes the situation—then you need to let them go immediately—no second chances. I don’t care if they’ve worked for you for three weeks or three years.
Even if you believe people can change, you can’t keep them around for two reasons:
- This second chance is probably more like a fourth or fifth chance. It’s just the first time they’ve been caught.
- By letting them stay, you’re signaling to everybody in the company that you don’t like this activity but will tolerate it.
Ultimately, part ways gracefully and call an immediate meeting with your team. Explain what happened, how it happened, and how you caught it, and ask them for feedback on how to prevent this kind of bullshit in the future.
Set a strong example. Fraud won’t be tolerated.
The team will appreciate your honesty and transparency. They’ll trust you. And they’ll know that you’re a strong founder, CEO, or sales director. You’re a leader. You’re somebody who will protect them from salespeople who work against your team, your company, and your customers.
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