How to train your sales crew to pitch, and make sales the first day!

14 years ago

John,

That's a cool story and a neat way to get people to pick up the phone and get down to calling.

I used to hang lottery tickets (scratch-offs) on the wall as an incentive to get my telemarketers to pick up the phone. If they got past the gate keeper and spoke with their target person they got a lottery ticket.

Since not every call yielded a sale, a little incentive to make the next phone call really helped.

Carrots...

~Bill

Thanks

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John Durham

14 years ago

Yup. Immediate gratification is the best trainer.

Funny thing is that when you say "I'll put a bonus on your paycheck at the end of the week" it doesnt work as well, but saying "I will give you this the moment you close the deal" gets things popping.

Thanks

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John Durham

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Victoria B

Immediate rewards work for a very short time, after which the sales person expect the same reward each time and when it's not coming then they don't sell... One of the biggest reason for assiduous telemarketers team restructuring.

Cheers!

Not sure I agree, but there maybe some validity there. This (above ) is for the purpose of proving to a whole room that they can sell, and that the pitch works, without having to get on and show them. After that they are accountable for knowing how to do it.

Thanks

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Lloyd Buchinski

14 years ago

I enjoyed the humor of that sales idea. It's always nice to get a little entertainment along with the info. Thanks

(Not sure if I'll ever be in a position to use it thought.)

Thanks

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John Durham

14 years ago

Wanted to add something here:

There is nothing like the feeling of watching some young 20 year old guy go out to the car after work with his young pregnant wife waiting for him... and he gets to excitedly say "Honey I did great my first day. I won $100 I cant believe it, Im gonna do great at this job"!! ...and he is proud.

Call center work is such a wonderful opportunity to influence young people and equip them with skills that will save them from ever having to be a slave in life.

As is this forum Allen created.

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Jacer

14 years ago

Awesome! Keep the idea's coming John

Thanks

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John Durham

14 years ago

Lovin the new Avatar Jacer!

Lends a perspective into how you are seeing yourself these days! You are staking your claim!!! Rock n Roll!

Stickin and movin, while everybody else is shuckin and jivin'...

Go ask one of your aunts or uncles from the 70's what that means... just dont go callin me a jive a$$ turkey when you find out!

Cool baby. Groovy

Sorry, just had a "ladies Man" moment. ...uh... as it were.

Yeah! Outta sight! (snapping the fingers in approval).

Too much time on the forum man!!!

Thanks

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Hamish Jones

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Victoria B

Immediate rewards work for a very short time, after which the sales person expect the same reward each time and when it's not coming then they don't sell... One of the biggest reason for assiduous telemarketers team restructuring.

Cheers!

I'd have to say I disagree with what you are saying here. The immediate gratification at the start can help a telemarketer keep in the game and then work out the patterns that give them regular sales.

Bonuses and KPI's are standard in the telemarketing game and good telemarketers make good money. The instant gratification is needed to get the new telemarketer starting out to lift their game and start making sales more quickly.

I do also like the idea of letting a telemarketer go home early if they meet KPI's and quota early on in the day.

Thanks

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thewealthywiseman

14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

Once I had a business partner...

And I had designed this sales system... and he kept on telling me

"On opening day you need to get on the phone and show these people how its done... and train them"

And I said "Why"?

"Well", he said "because thats how it works...".

And I said "No it doesnt".

So after a week of interviews I hired my first 4 telemarketers and had them start on the same day... I explained our company to them, and I explained how the pitch works...

Remember, these are all people who were looking for a job and hurting for a pay check.

So... I said "This is opening day. I am going to hand you this pitch , let you look it over for 30 minutes and then get on the phone. And BECAUSE it's opening day (I said as I taped like 2 or 3 $100 bills to the wall)... whoever is the first 3 people to get sales gets to take one of these bills off the wall".

Well... they were all so preoccupied with being the first to close a deal and get the 100 bucks CASH that was dangling in the breeze from the air conditioner... that they didn't even ask me any questions. They all put their nose down and just figured it out...

Within 45 minutes all the $100. bills were gone, people were smiling saying "Hey I can do this".

And that was training. From then on they trained each other.

I think we made something like $2600 our first day with those four people BTW.

Offer someone a $50 cash bonus to get their first sale within an hour...

Guest what? After that they are trained. You just trained a person for 50 bucks, and it didnt take alot of energy!

Another incentive (for post training maintenance) is to tell people they can go home early with pay if they hit a certain quota. You can get clock watchers to break records like that!:p

There's a training tip from Original Phone Gangsta for you today!

As a professionally trained salesperson, I don't even know how to respond to that except to say -- you had order takers and NOT salespeople.
I'm sure many don't know what the difference is, so-- a professional, such as myself (now retired from that particular training aspect of my IM carreer), can take a person who is just looking and won't even give me their name -- and send them home in a $40,000.00 car a couple of hours later. That came from real training; like from the Joe Verde Group, Honda sales training, and working with the best closers in the game for a few years. Oh and countless books on sales like: Spin Selling, The Closers, Zig of course, etc., etc., etc...

Thanks
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John Durham

14 years ago

Originally Posted by thewealthywiseman

As a professionally trained salesperson, I don't even know how to respond to that except to say -- you had order takers and NOT salespeople.
I'm sure many don't know what the difference is, so-- a professional, such as myself (now retired from that particular training aspect of my IM carreer), can take a person who is just looking and won't even give me their name -- and send them home in a $40,000.00 car a couple of hours later. That came from real training; like from the Joe Verde Group, Honda sales training, and working with the best closers in the game for a few years. Oh and countless books on sales like: Spin Selling, The Closers, Zig of course, etc., etc., etc...

There are people who can testify here after participating in my training class on liquidation, and seeing receipts and signed invoices... that I have closed 20k deals via email while surfing the warrior forum and chatting with friend, and never phoned, met or had any contact other than email with the buyers OR sellers...

So no this is not ignorance or savagery, nor a lack of marketing culture...

Sorry.

I know some people would like to think that only an ignorant simpleton would think this way, and thus achieve a false sense of hierarchy... you underestimate.

Now as far as all the ole school training, we can get down with that too...

I dont care what the difference is between order takers and sellers (cuz Im from Arkansas), but the proof is in the pudding. Order takers are able to be order takers because someone designed a selling system for them that works. I'll put my money on whichever one closes more deals.

Being a car salesman though is pretty lofty ambition. You are right. That's a force to be reckoned with!:rolleyes:

By the way these people were closing $300 dollar credit card orders on a one call close. Hardly order takers.

It never ceases to amaze me how it shocks people that a telemarketer would have the AUDACITY to call themselves a sales person.

I can see why some types of salesman would want them to be perceived as the lowest on the food chain though... or somehow not legit.

Thanks
1 reply

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thewealthywiseman

14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

There are people who can testify here after participating in my training class on liquidation, and seeing receipts and signed invoices... that I have closed 20k deals via email while surfing the warrior forum and chatting with friend, and never phoned, met or had any contact other than email with the buyers OR sellers...

So no this is not ignorance or savagery, nor a lack of marketing culture...

Sorry.

I know some people would like to think that only an ignorant simpleton would think this way, and thus achieve a false sense of hierarchy... you underestimate.

Now as far as all the ole school training, we can get down with that too...

I dont care what the difference is between order takers and sellers (cuz Im from Arkansas), but the proof is in the pudding. Order takers are able to be order takers because someone designed a selling system for them that works. I'll put my money on whichever one closes more deals.

Being a car salesman though is pretty lofty ambition. You are right. That's a force to be reckoned with!:rolleyes:

By the way these people were closing $300 dollar credit card orders on a one call close. Hardly order takers.

It never ceases to amaze me how it shocks people that a telemarketer would have the AUDACITY to call themselves a sales person.

I can see why some types of salesman, would want them to be perceived as the lowest on the food chain though... or somehow not legit.

So basically you still believe that enthusiastically hyping a product with a low dollar amount -- $300 -- via a targeted list equates to sales ability. That's fine John -- my post was geared toward others who have a real interest in salesmanship like I do.
BTW a new car dealership pays $300.00 in advertising to get a prospect to walk in the door. If you can last a few years in a mid-sized store you are indeed a sales pro and Not just an order taker.
There is a real difference and no I don't look down my nose at anyone in sales.
Though it does seem like a crime to me when I walk into BestBuy and some poor ole guy or gal insists on asking me the Wrong questions. John as a sales trainer yourself -- you know what I mean by wrong questions, right?

Thanks
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BrianMcLeod

14 years ago

Originally Posted by thewealthywiseman

So basically you still believe that enthusiastically hyping a product with a low dollar amount -- $300 -- via a targeted list equates to sales ability. That's fine John -- my post was geared toward others who have a real interest in salesmanship like I do.

And a few lines later...

...and no I don't look down my nose at anyone in sales.

With all due respect, oh great Swami of the Sweet Ride, that's one heck of an ugly incongruence poking its head out...

And don't take this the wrong way... I have ZERO doubt that you are every inch the closer you hold yourself out to be.

It's evident in the holes you're looking for everywhere - even BestBuy.

As you know, all too well, top closers are a VERY DIFFERENT BEAST than a FNG just learning to bang the phones for the first time.

Brian

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John Durham 14 years ago

[QUOTE=thewealthywiseman;2514284] So basically you still believe that enthusiastically hyping a product with a low dollar amount -- $300 -- via a targeted list equates to sales ability. That's fine John -- my post was geared toward others who have a real interest in salesmanship like I do... [QUOTE]

A salesman is interested in salesmanship. A business man is interested in "Sales".
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- 1 reply
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- 3MinuteVideos 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John Durham
  
  A salesman is interested in salesmanship. A business man is interested in "Sales".
  
  ... as beautiful poetry.
  
  Those '13' words say so very much...
  But it's true. At the end of the day, the week, or the month, doesn't it boil down to "How many Sales did you have"?
  ... and 'Sales' = 'Money' ... in every 'Country'.
  
  Wes ~
  
  Thanks
  
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Bruce NewMedia

14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

Another incentive (for post training maintenance) is to tell people they can go home early with pay if they hit a certain quota. You can get clock watchers to break records like that!:p

What a great idea!...I'm very familiar with the 'cash for deals today', type of incentive.

But it never occurred to me to make going home early an incentive.. that is absolutely creative AND plays to the non-cash motivation of many people today. They often value LIFESTYLE over cash. Thanks John.
_____
Bruce

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John Durham

14 years ago

Originally Posted by brucerby

What a great idea!...I'm very familiar with the 'cash for deals today', type of incentive.

But it never occurred to me to make going home early an incentive.. that is absolutely creative AND plays to the non-cash motivation of many people today. They often value LIFESTYLE over cash. Thanks John.
_____
Bruce

Absolutely...

I sat across from my boss and his wife one day, and they were asking me how I got the room to break the twenty year record... which was 21k in a day... , and I told them not only had I broken it but had done it in two hours less because I let everyone go home early with two hours pay!

They Gasped. I thought they were going to have heart attacks... lol

It took a minute or two to calm them down... but they finally understood the logic.

Yes people performed better for a lifestyle based incentive than a monetary one. I went on and used that trick about once every other week or so... and it continues to work.

You have to always be thinking of how to incentivize and motivate. Even if you run an "affiliate" crew with clickbank...

Thanks

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mr2monster

14 years ago

Haha... this post pretty much sums up my sales career.

I am a sucker for a spiff. It's cash, and it's visible... no matter what my % was on a sale, i could never SEE it as I was working.

I've sold Spanish yellow page ads without even knowing Spanish in order to get a spiff before.

It's amazing what people will do for little green sheets of paper.

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John Durham

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mr2monster

Haha... this post pretty much sums up my sales career.

I am a sucker for a spiff. It's cash, and it's visible... no matter what my % was on a sale, i could never SEE it as I was working.

I've sold Spanish yellow page ads without even knowing Spanish in order to get a spiff before.

It's amazing what people will do for little green sheets of paper.

We are all spiff suckers deep down... dont feel bad... there's help for it.... but it doesnt help much. I still will jump up for a hundred dollar bill!

"I've sold Spanish yellow page ads without even knowing Spanish in order to get a spiff before."

That's what I am talking about. A Good telemarketer has Ca hones. I've seen some do things that are mind blowing. Even been one..

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

The old $100 bill on the corkboard trick. It worked when I ran a telemarketing room of 30 people too LOL

Yup I like to call it the ole "proverbial" hundred dollar on a corkboard trick. Never fails!

People like mystical solutions ya know? Maybe we should try to focus more on the things that, while simple and obvious, "Never Fail". Like Obvious Adams, who made his mark by pointing out the obvious.

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dannyadams Banned 14 years ago

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iLifestyleClub

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mr2monster

Haha... this post pretty much sums up my sales career.

I've sold Spanish yellow page ads without even knowing Spanish in order to get a spiff before.

It's amazing what people will do for little green sheets of paper.

You are a braver person than me! I do not see myself selling items in a different language when I do not speak that language! LOL!

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DubDubDubDot

14 years ago

What you are essentially saying is that increasing motivation eliminates the need to train.

I await a more in-depth explanation of that concept since it seems like motivation and skills/methods are two completely different areas.

Thanks
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John Durham

14 years ago

Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot

What you are essentially saying is that increasing motivation eliminates the need to train. Also provided that they dont suffer from Adult failure to Thrive syndrome.

I await a more in-depth explanation of that concept since it seems like motivation and skills/methods are two completely different areas.

I am essentially saying that with very little training people can figure out how to succeed at most things, provided there is proper motivation.

Millions of sales people that have come before you and me, and hundreds of companies that have made MILLIONS of dollars... make their ENTIRE, and I mean ENTIRE existence out of handing people a canned 2 paragraph pitch, and sending them out with little to no training to walk door to door, or to call people on the phone and simply say the pitch -VERBATIM!

Once again, I know this will make anyone who has never been outside of the box GASP... but the truth is telemarketing rooms every single day of the year make millions of dollar by

A: Bring a person into a side room to fill out their new employee paperwork.
B: Sitting them down at a table by themselves to read over the script for a half hour.
C: Taking 5 minutes to say "Do you have any questions"?
D: Go sit them next to someone else successful for 20 minutes and let them monitor and hear a few lives calls.
E: Show them to their cubicle and say "Good luck".

Bamm! That was training. Now you either sink or swim. Now you either have the sales instinct or not. Within an hour after you arrive your first day, you are set in a cubicle with a machine spitting out 100 people an hour at you saying "Hello" Hello" Hello""....

You get thrown out in the race at 100 MPH!!! I love it!

If your instincts dont kick in, you got about 3 days to sit there and milk the clock then yer gone.

That's how we roll.

You should read Og Mandino's take on the "Value of Experience vs Instinct" sometime.

Thanks
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Greg guitar 14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

I am essentially saying that with very little training people can figure out how to succeed at most things, provided there is proper motivation.

This reminds me a lot of something I read in a Tony Robbins book that really rings true-something like (paraphrasing): "People spend too much energy on the "how" and not enough on the "why". The greatest expert in the world on "how" to do something, but who has little or no drive will always lose to the person who has a burning reason "why" they're doing it, but has to figure out the "how" as they go along."

He said it more elegantly, and I believe with fewer words, but I think I got the gist of it, and your thread is a great example of that insight in action!

I might just have to pony up for your telemarketing WSO.
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Brad Gosse

14 years ago

The old $100 bill on the corkboard trick. It worked when I ran a telemarketing room of 30 people too LOL

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MichaelHiles

14 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

Once I had a business partner...

And I had designed this sales system... and he kept on telling me

"On opening day you need to get on the phone and show these people how its done... and train them"

And I said "Why"?

"Well", he said "because thats how it works...".

And I said "No it doesnt".

So after a week of interviews I hired my first 4 telemarketers and had them start on the same day... I explained our company to them, and I explained how the pitch works...

Remember, these are all people who were looking for a job and hurting for a pay check.

So... I said "This is opening day. I am going to hand you this pitch , let you look it over for 30 minutes and then get on the phone. And BECAUSE it's opening day (I said as I taped like 2 or 3 $100 bills to the wall)... whoever is the first 3 people to get sales gets to take one of these bills off the wall".

Well... they were all so preoccupied with being the first to close a deal and get the 100 bucks CASH that was dangling in the breeze from the air conditioner... that they didn't even ask me any questions. They all put their nose down and just figured it out...

Within 45 minutes all the $100. bills were gone, people were smiling saying "Hey I can do this".

And that was training. From then on they trained each other.

I think we made something like $2600 our first day with those four people BTW.

Offer someone a $50 cash bonus to get their first sale within an hour...

Guest what? After that they are trained. You just trained a person for 50 bucks, and it didnt take alot of energy!

Another incentive (for post training maintenance) is to tell people they can go home early with pay if they hit a certain quota. You can get clock watchers to break records like that!:p

There's a training tip from Original Phone Gangsta for you today!

There's no incentive quite like cash money.

Tinkerbell pixie dust I tell ya'.

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Gary Pettit

14 years ago

Rewarding achievement, instantly, is a great motivator for performance, for sure.
Another brilliant reward system--this one for actual "creativity"--is to reward your team for "ideas tried." Whether they're successful or not, whether the ideas work or not, is not the point. Some ideas will work, even though they come out of nowhere. But in order to strike upon those brilliant ideas, you have to reward the process of trying ideas (rather than success of an idea). Otherwise you hinder creativity by letting people think if they come up with a bad idea, they will be punished. So reward them instead. This strategy has worked for Microsoft; clearly, with amazing success.

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Scott Voss

14 years ago

Thanks John, that is some great advice!!

That is a GREAT way to motivate and cut training time. I think you are my hero!

Thanks
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John Durham 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Scott Voss

Thanks John, that is some great advice!!

That is a GREAT way to motivate and cut training time. I think you are my hero!

Much love brother scott, much love.
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howardwasp

14 years ago

Nice Story, good motivator!

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bryce84

14 years ago

Ha, I love this idea. I am going to try it on my team.

Thanks

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How to train your sales crew to pitch, and make sales the first day!

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