How A Down And Out Sales Crew Rose From Ashes To Win At Sales

This story is completely true. It is not a fantasy. It will tell you how what seems to be magic can be used to create phenomenal sales.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a sales manager, because I loved to sell using my system of "The Magic of Numbers and Statistics in Sales." Teaching it to others would not be easy because other salespeople consider my system a fantasy.

I traveled to our Newark, Ohio office which had had a lot of problems and needed to be rebuilt. It had been declared by the current manager as a disaster. He said no one could make any sales in Newark, Ohio.

Because of his attitude, and belief, not only had the salespeople believed him so did the management that I was working for. Originally, I was to shut down the office but I asked for a chance to redeem it.

The office's future hung by a thread. The salespeople had doubt firmly planted in their minds. This doubt would have to be dealt with or Newark would be doomed.

I believed firmly, however, that people in Newark were not different than any other town we had successful offices thriving in. I knew Newark would make money.

Our system had been successful everywhere, all we needed to change in Newark was the attitude.

My first action as new manager was to tell everyone they were correct. Newark was an impossible place to sell. I told them they would need to find work elsewhere. I believed it would be easier to start with a new crew then to change the attitude and belief of the current.

One young lady begged me to stay, she told me she really enjoyed her work there and she wanted to keep her job.

I explained to her that I had higher quotas than her previous manager had. She had been expected before to write five hundred dollars per week, I expected one thousand five hundred dollars per week, three times her previous quota.

With tears in her eyes, she said she would be willing, even excited to triple her sales, but she did not know how to do it.

Standing before me was a woman who was clearly open to learning a new way. I had no doubt she could do it with the methods I could provide.

I showed her exactly how she needed to follow the system step by step and how that would lead to making her quota. I revealed to her every single thing that needed to be done to make sales.

I explained to her that sales was more than just coming to work. You have to actually work while you're at work. You have to believe while your dialing that the people want what you have. You have to be kind, you have to be sincere, you have to transmute the feeling you have about the products and services to the prospect on the phone. Without this, nothing will ever happened.

By keeping track of her results by percentages, I showed her how to determine the number of sales she could count on per number of prospects contacted. . If for instance, if she started out making one sale for every 10 prospects she contacted that can be a number she can count on no matter what.

She would know how many presentations she had to do per sale, she would know how many presentations she had to make each day to make a certain number of sales in a week. If she wanted to make a certain amount of money in sales per week, that she would have to do a certain amount of presentations each week in order to get a certain amount of sales.

She was amazed the first week when she actually hit her goal. And she had done it herself! The truth of my system became more real and more true to he as week after week she made that quota. Finally she understood that it was all up to her to do a certain amount of presentations, and that would lead to a certain number of sales, that would create an amount of income she could count on.

And then I introduced her to the next step: increasing her ratio of sales from yes's to nos, by raising her belief level, and her consistency. And of course that would lead to even more increases in income.

I hired more salespeople, and trained them side by side with the young woman who was aliving example of the things I was teaching them. Slowly I built up a group of five top salespeople, including the young woman. Everyone was making quota with the system.

Over time two salespeople from the old crew had come back to me and I allowed them to come back one at a time, and I taught them the new way. At this point I had a blended crew, some new members, and some members from the old sales team. Everyone used the new system, everyone was successful with it. But the greatest challenge was yet to come.

We were able to convert them to the thinking that Newark was a great place to work and makes sales, and that people wanted our products.

One afternoon I pulled the same sheets of numbers that had been used by the previous manager out of the drawer of my desk. These shame-filled pages still held bookmarks of the unfinished area and notes that detailed that sad results of the old method of calling.

When the old crew saw me pull out the numbers, a chill shot across their face. They asked, we're not going to dial those are we? I said yes we are. These are wonderful numbers we are going to do great with them.

They told me, we have dialed those before, and they did not work. Those are the meanest people we ever called, they slam the phone on us, they will not talk twelve even fifteen to us. If we make a sale they are never home when we try to deliver.

"You know" I explained "that you have been setting records over every other office in the company. You are now a powerful crew. You are some of the best salespeople in this company.

It was quite an accomplishment for this sales team to have the top sales records in our very large multi-statecompany. I looked each of them in the eye and said, "TIt's different this time, and when you call those people, they will say yes!" There is nothing to fear from the old numbers, as long as you have a different attitude, you have new sales skills. You have sold Newark before. My dejected group told me it would would "Try". That was the warning.

I did everything I could to keep the environment positive. I created a bright, friendly atmosphere in our office. I offered them gourmet coffee, and sweet treats, and joked with every one all day long. As the sun set we had not made even one sale.

I had never left at the end of the work day without having made at least $700 in sales. .I had made a promise to my supervisor to never leave at the end of the day without at least $700 in sales. But all day my team had been calling, and the day was winding down. Normally we did $1200 or more per day in sales. I wasn't worried yet, even though we had made no progress.Certainly my people together could sell at least $700 in sales in only one hour if they put their skills to work.

I asked everyone to stop calling for a moment. The room was dark with fear and negative thoughts, the legacy that had been part of their office life from the old manager. These non productive negativities had taken them hostage again. I knew that the miasma was not coming from the numbers, they weren't bad luck. But it seemed very much like the bad stuff was attached to those numbers. Everything had been fine before we started on those sheets.

I explained to them that their success came from themselves and their frame of mind. It had nothing to do with management. All I had simply done was point out what was inside themselves, and what their own abilities were. If they could look inside themselves now, they would see that they still had the ability, and they could still make this a very successful day.

I made them resume calling, but I knew I was losing my crew. I heard whining and complaining -- things I never heard when the sales were flowing. I was getting near the end of my patience. We only had half an hour left and we had no sales.

STOP! I told them. I shared with them that I had made a promise never to turn in less than 700 dollars for one days sales to my supervisor and I vehemently insisted to keep that promise with whatever time we had left. I listened to all the bad talk all day long, now they had to listen to me.

I told them, "You are the best crew I have ever had, and probably one of the best I will ever have. But today was terrible. I'm disappointed because I know you can do better. You have let yourselves down, but you are ruining yourselves with your negativity. It's you, not the numbers."

I asked them to give me the very worst sheet of numbers and they knew I was angry. A sheet of the very worst numbers was proffered. I took it, and I affirmed that we would make that $700 today even if I had to do it all myself. I told them to ready the drivers to deliver product and pick up checks. I warned them how busy it was going to be.

I chose two of my sales people to listen to me on the phone and write down orders as they heard me make them, because I knew I would not have time to write down these sales, so they would have to listen closely because I would not repeat myself. In order to make my quota in less than half an hour I'd have to make 20 sales in about 20 minutes.There was only time for yes's. For my plan to work, everyone had to say yes. And I knew, with my belief, that no one could say no to me. If I was sincere, if I believed I was doing the right thing and doing something good for someone, I could do it. No one would say no.

So I made that first call and I sold the first person I talked to, and I sold second person I talked to, and I sold the third person I talked to.It was true! Not one of them could say no to me. I was truly at the top of my game! And I was proving to my people that they could choose not to allow the negativity in their minds to stop their sales. I was showing them they could control it.

When the time clock told us the working day was over and I was down to what my people told me were the "worst of the worst" numbers, I made the seven hundred dollars of quota I told them I would make. The drivers who had been made ready successfull delivered product and collected the checks. My sales team was floored. They had seen it with their own eyes.Now they knew I would never, ever accept "bad numbers" as an excuse for lack of sales.

That was just the beginning. Now they knew that success was up to them. My sales team outsold other offices with 3 to 4 times the numbers of sales staff. The local district gave us what they considered the worst sales territory, and we turned that around to have our highest sales figures ever.

The rest of the company was satisfied with 5 sales out of each 100 contacts. But in our office at least half of everyone we talked to became a sale. That's one out of two.

The sales team I had trained was doing better even than I had done as an individual sales person, and I had sold approximately one out of every three, which was a very respectable number and made me a top salesperson. The sales were unbelievably high. But my sales team had proven that it could be done, because, they were doing it.

Article Source: http://www.articlemonk.com

Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. is still helping student learn how to become the best salesstudent. Visit our slideshow to see how Tim can teach you to be the greatest salesperson you can be.
Don't reprint this article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated