How a Down and Out Sales Crew Rose from Ashes to Win at Sales

This story is 100% true. It is not fiction. You will learn how what seems to be magic can make you a super star salesperson.

I did not want to be a sales manager. I loved to sell using my system of "The Magic of Numbers and Statistics in Sales." Initially I didn't want to teach it to others because I knew they would have a hard time accepting my system.

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.

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.

Because my system had been successful everywhere, all I needed to change in Newark was the negative thoughts.

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 saleslady that had been employed at this office begged to stay. She claimed to enjoy her work.

But, I had to explain that I expected a lot more than the previous manager. Before she was expected to sell only five hundred dollars per week. I, however, would expect three times that as a minimum.

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.

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 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.

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.

So 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. And because 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.

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.

The next step: getting more sales from turning no's to yes's, by raising herconsistency and continually making her beliefs more positive. And the reward would be 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 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.

In the drawer of my desk lay the same sheets of numbers that had been used by the previous manager. These shame-filled pages still held bookmarks of the unfinished area and notes that detailed that sad results of the old way that did not lead to sales. One afternoon, I pulled those numbers out of my desk drawer and showed them to the sales staff.

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.

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

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.

We all worked for a very large company so it was quite an accomplishment for this sales team to have the top sales records in the company. So I looked each of them in the eye and said very firmly: "This time when you call those people, they will say yes!" All of you have nothing to fear from the old numbers, you have something new -- you have a new belief. All of you have a different attitude, you have new sales skills. Now you know you have something to offer that is good and you know that these people want it. They only told me they would "Try". I knew there was a problem, when they told me that.

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.

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. However, 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 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.

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.

You are the best crew I have ever had, and probably one of the best I will ever have. But today I am disappointed in all of you. I'm disappointed because I know you can do better. You have done better. You need to realize that you have let yourselves down. These numbers are not bad numbers -- but you are ruining them with your negativity and especially your negative self talk. It's you, not the numbers.

They knew I was angry when I asked them to give me the very worst sheet of numbers in the room. They agreed with little delay on a specific sheet on numbers. I took it, and I announced that we would make that $700 today if I had to do it all myself. I told them to get the drivers ready to deliver product and pick up checks. I warned them that we were going to be very busy in a short while.

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.

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.

Although my 5 people had to share 3 phones, and we were calling an area no one else wanted, but now they knew that success was up to them. That was just the beginning. My five person sales team outsold other offices with twelve, even fifteen people on sales staff. We were given what they considered the worst sales territory to try to bring us down, but we were undaunted. We made our highest sales figures ever in the "worst territory."

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.

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.rightbiz.com

Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. is still helping student learn how to become the best salesstudent. View the slideshow to see how Tim can help you be the best salesperson you can be.
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