|
Timothy L. Drobnick Sr.
SALES SUCCESS MAGAZINE
©2001,2002,2003
Published 7/20/2003
I was put into sales management much against my wishes.
Teaching my system of "The Magic of Numbers and Statistics in Sales" was no easy
task, because people considered my stories of guaranteed
sales to be a fantasy.
I went out to Newark, Ohio to rebuild a small office.
The office had never really taken off as there had been
a lot of problems there. The previous sales manager had
deemed that Newark was uncapable of making any sales.
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.
I knew this was a last ditch effort, and all the
salespeople had been infected with negative ideas. I
knew I had to correct that or Newark wouldn't produce
any sales.
But in my heart I knew that the people in Newark were
the same as people in Columbus as the people in Dayton
as the people in Cincinnati and everywhere else we had
opened up offices. I knew that Newark would produce 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.
Immediately I let everyone go. I told them that they
were correct, this city would not produce sales, and they
might as well go find work elsewhere. I knew that in
their frame of mind it was an uphill battle and I was
better off starting with a new crew.
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.
She told me she was willing to do that, but with
tears in her eyes she told me she didn't know how to do
it. I looked at her, and I could see through her eyes
into her soul, that she was open to suggestions and
willing to learn. I believed that she could do it if
she was shown how.
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. 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.
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.
I showed her that to make her quota of 1500 dollars
per week, that she would have to do a certain amount
of presentations each week in order to get a certain
amount sales.
It seemed amazing to her, but after her first week
when she actually hit her goal, it started to become
possible to her. The second, third, and fourth,
week it became almost gospel. She believed that
her certain amount presentations
would create a certain
amount of income.
And then I showed her how to increase her income by
increasing her ratio of sales from yes's to nos, and
to increase her belief level, and her consistency.
During this time we developed a very good crew.
Everyone was hitting their quotas, everything was
going fine. We had a core crew of five people plus
myself.
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 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.
It was afternoon and I pulled out of the drawer
the same sheets of numbers that had been used by
the previous manager. They still held bookmarks
of the unfinished area and notes about who had said
no, who was not home, etc..
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
to us. If we make a sale they are never home when we
try to deliver.
I explained to them, you are now a powerful crew. You
are some of the finest people in this company. We have
been setting records over every other office in the company.
At this time the company was covering three states, so
it was quite an accomplishment for this crew. I looked
at them and I told them you have the ability to call the
same people on this list that told you no before, but
this time they will say yes.
The reason you'll do this this time, is that now you
believe, now you have a different attitude, now you have
new sales skills, now you know you have something to
offer that is good and that these people want it.
They said "we will try." But I knew I had a problem.
So we started dialing. I did everything I could keep
the room cheery, I made a pot of gourmet coffee, the
aroma would fill the room. I brought in some doughnuts,
I tried to make a few jokes. However at five o'clock we
did not even have one sale.
Now I had promised my boss, that I would never walk out
of my office without at least seven hundred dollars in
sales for the day. We had zero.
I was not worried, I knew my crew had the ability to
pull off a minimum day in only one hour if they decided
to. We normally turned in twelve hundred dollars or more
per day in sales.
7 o'clock rolled around and we only had two hours
of dialing time left. I stopped my crew. They were
very despondent. The fear and negative thoughts that
had been part of their life from the old manager had
taken control of them again. It was almost as if
the negative thoughts magically left the paper into
their hands and went up to their brains.
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.
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 stopped my crew. I told them, "I have made a
promise never to turn in less than 700 dollars for
one days sales to my boss". We have 30 minutes left
to keep this promise. I have listened to your
complaints and negative comments 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.
I picked up the phone and I started dialing, I sold
the first person I talked to, I sold the second person
I talked to, I sold the third person I talked to. No
one could say no to me. My concentration was higher
than it had ever been.
I had to prove to my crew, that this poison in their
mind was at their control. That they could get rid
of it if they chose to do so.
By the time 9 o clock rolled around, dialing the very
worst numbers that crew had to offer me, I hit my
700 dollar quota. My drivers had the products delivered
and the checks picked up by 9:30.
The crew was amazed. They could not believe what they
had just seen. I then handed back the sheet of numbers
and told my crew that I would never accept "bad numbers"
as an excuse in that office again.
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.
Although my 5 people had to share 3 phones, and we were
calling an area called a disaster, my crew knew that
did not matter. They believed they could do it, and
we still outsold many of the offices with 12-15 phones
and 20-25 salespersons.
50% of everyone we talked to said yes. The company
average was 5%. My best average as a saleperson
before I started managing was 33%. But now my crew
was doing better than I had done.
These numbers were so fantastic that no one else would
believe us. But my crew believed because they were doing it.
|
