Misco sales heads urged to spend 150 minutes a day on phone

Spoof video circulated to staff shows sales head warning employees to 'do your talktime'

A tongue-in-cheek video in which a senior Misco executive tells the reseller's sales staff to ensure they spend two and a half hours a day on the phone is doing the rounds in the channel.

Dubbed "Talktime", the clip is just over a minute long and is a spoof of the Liam Neeson film Taken. It begins with a series of slogans flashing up on screen as atmospheric music plays.

"If you aren't calling your customers...your competitors are...we expect a minimum of two and a half hours' talktime every day...if you can't achieve this...he will find you!"

The video then cuts to a shot of Richard Logan – the former HP executive who joined the VAR last year as UK sales director – talking into a mobile phone.

He utters the following: "You think you know who I am, but I have skills and forces at my disposal, and unless you do your Talktime, I shall hunt you down, find you, and PIP you. Goodbye."

PIP is understood to be a play on words, referring to Misco's Personal Improvement Plan, a performance-monitoring programme for staff at the reseller.

The video closes with the caption "Richard Logan, Talktime", written in the style of the movie poster for Taken.

The link at which CRN viewed the video no longer works, but a screengrab of the clip can be seen at the top of this article.

Sources indicate that a number of sales staff at the reseller are uncomfortable with the Talktime directive.

CRN had contacted Misco for comment and was awaiting a response at time of publication.