What happens when you give a team of "phone assassins" who parallel dial all day instant access to a lightweight, easy-to-use peer recognition tool? Well, if you're AJ Kissh, you mute the shout-out channel immediately.
"I was like, this is too much. I'm thrilled, but I can't handle dings every six seconds."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & ParakeetKissh is Head of Marketing for white-glove lead generation agency Outbound Sales Pro (OSP) and its product, the SaaS cold email platform Parakeet. There's no dedicated HR squad for the global team of 50–60, but company culture is still a top priority. How they've built a remote culture of recognition while on the sales grind is nothing short of remarkable.
Making the brutal bearable with integrated peer recognition
One could say that Kissh likes tacos. He keeps the term "taco sommelier" in his LinkedIn tagline. So naturally, when he came across a culture and recognition tool called HeyTaco, it piqued his interest.
It wasn't his personal bias toward tacos that won the phone assassins over, though. OSP and Parakeet are a majority Slack-first team.
"Anything that plugs into Slack makes our lives easier."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & ParakeetIntegration enabled the sales development representatives at OSP/Parakeet to rapidly adopt HeyTaco for peer-to-peer recognition for a much-needed purpose: higher morale. Rolling with the punches on the front lines of this sales team is no joke. It would be easy to assume it's antithetical to the sort of environment where a positive team culture and any sort of camaraderie thrive.
However, that's precisely what Parakeet's SDRs use it for as they celebrate the big rejections alongside the small wins. Team members congratulate one another on trying their best after a tough or unsuccessful call. Here, tacos can be a consolation or a celebration.
Avoiding disruptions is key to a high-performing sales team, even when it comes to recognition. It's essential to the phone assassins that newbies are in the know on this bit of tribal knowledge. "The team has gotten into the habit of assigning someone new every time a hire joins. 'Alright, who's teaching them about HeyTaco? Who's showing them how it works? Make sure they're set up right.'"
Hands-off culture-building: How OSP/Parakeet uses HeyTaco Deluxe
HeyTaco Deluxe's no-manual-admin is an ideal fit for the startup's structure and industry. Kissh gets control without more busywork.
"Setting it up, managing it, getting creative with collaborative tools and redemption options...it felt like something we could add in and expand on, versus something we'd set up and then regret."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & ParakeetMilestones
Their last birthday bot was unreliable and too easy to ignore. HeyTaco Deluxe's automated Milestones feature has transformed the way OSP/Parakeet recognizes birthdays and work anniversaries. Customizable well-wishes and tacos that scale to tenure have given them cause for celebration.
Gifting
HeyTaco accentuates the intrinsic. What matters just as much are recognition and rewards that align with a fast-paced culture. OSP/Parakeet also uses HeyTaco as an employee gifting service. The Deluxe plan offers thousands of gift card options available in 200 countries. Instant transmission reduces the number of actions Kissh needs to take to deliver a reward, so it's always right on time.
Sales incentives
Sales teams are simply more suited to the odd incentive. HeyTaco's gamification makes this more fun and engaging, softening some of the sharper edges of competitive roles. CSMs and leadership get a larger taco budget to gamify weekly sales incentives. For instance, booking your first meeting gets you five tacos. Hold the most meetings, and you get 20.
It's not the norm among HeyTaco users. But the team readily and steadily engages with authentic recognition. Thus, incentives aren't undermining appreciation's place in the culture. Plus, the Deluxe plan comes with a dedicated account manager who helps optimize and scale the service, keeping it fresh and effective.
Ritualizing recognition in a competitive sales environment
To further illustrate how appreciation and incentives can happily coexist in sales, Kissh shares the team's favorite Taco Shop redemption: giving to others.
"When you set up the initial Taco Shop, there's an option for charitable donations. I added that because I didn't want to deprive anybody of giving their hard-earned tacos to a well-deserving cause. And it turned out the team was extremely charitable. Nobody was redeeming for gift cards or swag. They were redeeming for charity."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & ParakeetThey also requested the ability to donate tacos to colleagues. Kissh found a way to do so by making this a custom reward. If a high-performing member of the team was moving on, or someone felt a peer was deserving of a larger portion of recognition, they could gift their tacos.
Like many other organizations, OSP and Parakeet ritualize HeyTaco's leaderboard feature. Kissh shares the ranking at the company's monthly all-hands to publicly spotlight top performers. "It's a damn good proxy for who really crushed it that month. It's always either a new performer hitting home runs or one of the tried-and-true veterans who are rock-steady. It resets every month, so you see variability."
They've also added HeyTaco to a prize-packed spin-the-wheel ritual. Among shout-outs, swag, and other goodies, employees can win extra tacos to redeem for charity or gift cards.
"It's been fun to see how we can weave it into other parts of how we work."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & ParakeetReshaping the way recognition is seen in every industry
As always, HeyTaco works because of the people using it. Sales reps commonly compared to sharks and wolves benefit from recognition, too. It helps prevent burnout, build community, and keep spirits high when rejection hits. A gift card is just the cherry on top.
We're happy Outbound Sales Pro and Parakeet are ahead of the curve in adopting a remote culture of appreciation in a competitive environment. From a love for charitable giving to ensuring new hires are included, they deserve every extra taco they can get.
"I care deeply about the company itself, but I also care deeply about the people we bring in. We have amazing talent. Understanding the asks we have for them, and what our clients expect — it can be a lot. So, making sure we're showing appreciation in a way that's fun, exciting, and creative, that's what I was looking for."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & Parakeet"I stumbled on HeyTaco, and I'm very glad I did. The team has loved it ever since."
AJ Kissh, Head of Marketing at Outbound Sales Pro & ParakeetCompare plans, get a free trial, and change what it means to be seen on your team.