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How Newark Ohio Down and Out Sales Crew Peformed Sales Miracles

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 was assigned to our Newark, Ohio office, a terrible, poor performing office that was being completely overhauled. Even the current sales manager thought it was a disaster., and he was convinced no one could make any sales in Newark, Ohio.

The Newark manager's belief was so strong that the salespeople and senior management believed also that the town was incapable of profit. I was slated to shut down the office but instead I convinced senior management to let me try to salvage it.

This was the last chance for that office. The place was riddled with the doubts of the sales people and especially the sales manager. This was the toxin that was killing sales in Newark, and if I couldn't get it out of there, the game would be over.

But I absolutely knew that people in Newark were not different than in any other town we had successfully sold. I knew the Newark office could make sales.

Everywhere we had gone our system had been successful, and I knew all we had to do was repeat it in Newark with a positive 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 woman begged me to stay. She said she loved her work, and didn't want to find another 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.

Teary eyed, she told me she would do whatever it took to make the new quota, she said she would be excited to triple her sales, if only she knew how.

I could truly feel this woman's sincerity. She was clearly open to learning a new way. And I knew that if she could accept it, I could show her the way to make those sales.

I explained to her, "If you'll just follow my system I promise you'll hit your quota". So I showed her how to do it.

"Sales, " I told her, "is more than just being physically present at the workplace. You must work while you're at work. If you believe while you're dialing that the people you are calling want what you have, if you are kind, if you are sincere, this will come through perfectly on the phone and the feeling you have about the products and services will influence your contacts positively."

I also explained to her that you can keep track of your results by percentages. If for instance, you start out making one sale for every 10 prospects you talk to, that can be a number you 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.

It was amazing to her the first week when she actually hit her goal. What seemed impossible had become possible! The second, third, and fourth, week it became more real and more true to her. Until finally she knew that it depended on her to do a certain amount of presentations, and that would lead to a certain number of sales, that would create a certain amount of income.

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.

As I mentored that determined young lady, I hired more salespeople, and I taught them all the same system. Eventually we had a core crew of five people plus myself, and it was a very good crew. Quotas were not a problem, everyone was making quota with the system, it was a very productive, profitable team.

Then we came back to an area that had been called by the previous manager. Now, at this time three of my five salespersons were from the old crew. Over time two others had come back to me and since I had a positive crew going I allowed them to come back one at a time.

We had been able to turn the sales people from the old crew around, because we showed them that Newark was a great place to work. They could see it for themselves, they made sales, and now they could see that people really 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.

The team members from the old sales crew did not want to see the old sheets. They said they were bad sheets, they thought the numbers were just bad numbers. But I insisted. "There's nothing wrong with the numbers" I told them, "They are fine. We will make our sales with them."

To say they really didn't want to call those numbers was an understatement. Hang ups, complaints, faithless sales that could not be collected.

But this, this was now a powerful crew. These were the best salespeople in this company. This was the team that had been setting records over every other office in the 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.

To keep spirits up, I created a positive party-like atmosphere in our office. I made coffee, and brought in refreshments, and tried to keep the tone light with humor. But near the day's end, 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.

Two hours left now. I told everyone to stop. The room was gloomy with fear and negative thoughts that had been part of their office life from the old manager. These old thoughts had taken control of them again. It was almost as if the negative thoughts had been imprinted in the number sheets and was rubbing off on all my sales crew.

I reminded them that their success came from the changes they made in their beliefs and attitudes. It was not about the numbers,a nd it wasn't about the management. I simply pointed out to them their own innate sales skills, and showed them ways to help them put that drive into action. Success had come from skills they had already demonstrated, they could still take these numbers, and numbers, and make sales. I knew that.

We tried on again. They started to whine, they started to talk negatively. I knew I was losing my crew. By 8:30 I had had enough. We only had 30 minutes left and we had no sales.

I asked everyone to stop. I told them that I had made a promise never to turn in less than 700 dollars for one days sales to my supervisor and I am going to keep that promise even if we have less than half an hour left today. I have listened to your concerns, even your complaints and whining all day.

I know that you are the best crew I have ever had, and probably one of the best I will ever have. But you have let me down.Now that is fine, because I have let people down also. But mostly I am concerned that you have let yourselves down. You have let this poison of negative thought infect you, and I have to show you that it is only yourself stopping you. It is not the people we are dialing.

With that, and in an angry voice, I demanded that they hand me the very worst sheet of numbers in the room. They quickly decided which was the worst, and I grabbed that one. I told them that I was going to have to do 700 dollars in sale myself.These sales had to also be delivered by our drivers before 9:30pm, and the checks picked up. So I told my drivers to wake up because they were going to get very busy.

I pointed to my number one and number 2 sales writers, "you and you, I will not have time to write down these sales, so you will need to fill out the order forms as you hear me repeat the customer's name".Our average sale was $35.00, so I was going to have to make 20 sales in about 20 minutes. I knew I had no time to take a no. Everyone had to say yes to me. I knew, that if I believed, no one could say no to me, if I was sincere, if I believed I was doing the right thing, If I believed I was doing something good for someone, and I did.

So I sold the first call. Then I sold second person I talked to, and I sold the third person I talked to. I was doing it! Every call was a yes! I was truly at the top of my game! I was showing them they could control it. I was proving to my people that they could choose not to allow any negative beliefs in their minds to stop their sales.

When the day was over I was down to what my people told me were the "worst of the worst" numbers. Yet I was still making sales and Imade the seven hundred dollars of quota just as I told them I would. The products were delivered and the and the checks were collected. My sales team was speechless. Now they knew I would never, ever accept "bad numbers" as an excuse for lack of sales. I had done it right before their eyes.

From that day on, we made even more amazing accomplishments. My crew of 5 people outsold other offices with crews of 12-15 people. I was very proud of them. Later, when I was only allowed to have 3 telephones to work with, in a territory that was considered a disaster, and unwanted by the Columbus office, we had our highest sales ever.

They knew they could do it, and we still outsold many of the offices with 12-15 phones and 20-25 salespersons.Although my 5 people had to share 3 phones, and we were calling an area no one else wanted, my people knew that did not matter.

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.uberarticles.com/articles

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