One summer night I had what probably most telemarketers dread most: a bad head cold.
It was a choice between going in and risk putting up a goose egg, or not going in and losing pay (salary + comm. type of job). I decided to go in.
That night was a struggle for me, but amazingly the more I struggled, the more I sold. I wound up with double my usual sales so a simple head cold turned out to be a fluke.
Thinking about it, I remembered a sales tip a trainer gave his students. This led me to adjust my presentation where my sales went up about 80% on a consistent basis (later on I discovered I didn't follow his advice to the letter which is standard advice - this was my second fluke).
Later, at a different company, I went onto the internet after I got my home computer. I checked out the sales tip. One of them said you should announce the name of the company ahead of your own to let the caller know she reached the right place (I did it backwards at the time).
I tried the tip and witnessed my sales moving up 48% by the second month (I already was almost 4 times quota). I thought about it and I had strong doubts about the underlying explanation for the sales tip (when I found out that callers were met with an electronic greeting giving the name of the company, then I had a mystery to solve - my third fluke).
I then thought about what had happened at my other workplaces
and I came up with a hypothesis that would explain what happened. So I tried an experiment which I ran for six months. This resulted in my sales moving up another 76% (on top of the 48%) putting me at 10X quota.
I haven't formally named my 3-step system (I'm considering calling it the Sales Paradise System - what do you think people?). I regard it as a true foundation for oral selling.
Due to experience plus reading many stories of accomplishments, I feel there is plenty of room to improve further.
I hope I have I have inspired you.
