Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

Motivation and Ethics: Why we won’t give up on anyone

  

  

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This week and next, many of my customers are in "shut down" mode as people take vacations. So instead of giving my usual sales techniques tips, I'll share a couple of stories from my training world that you might find motivating. If you're at work, they're short, so you can give them a quick read and get back to work.

I've trained and coached hundreds and hundreds of inside sales reps, and there's not one person I've ever given up on, regardless of the perceived lack of sales techniques on the part of the rep. Everyone can be a star, and I'll tell you why I know this. Years ago, I taught school in a Special Ed program. My students ranged from aphasic to dyslexic, and my kids came from east side San Jose, where many of the families were living conditions could be rough. One week, I substituted in another teacher's class. This particular teacher didn't communicate well with the students. She was very set in her ways and inflexible. When I walked into the class, since they knew a substitute teacher would be coming in, the kids were jumping all over the desks, and a bunch of swear words, in English and Spanish, had been written on the chalkboard. Most of them were misspelled. So I stood in front of the class, got their attention, and asked the ringleader to close the door, stand by it, and let me know if anyone was coming down the hall. "Those are some very interesting words you've written on the board," I said, "but they aren't spelled correctly. Let's have a spelling lesson." So I picked the first one, and said "Is this the right way to spell F***?" One girl raised her hand, said no, and spelled it correctly. "Great, I said, let's move on to the next one." And I really had their attention. So we worked through all the words, and got them spelled correctly. Then I erased the words, and said "When you misspell words, it's a sign of ignorance, and I'm not gonna let anyone tell me my class is ignorant." And then I told them something really important. "This lesson is just between us, because if you tell anyone what we just did, I'll be fired, and you'll have Mrs. So and So back here tomorrow, and for the rest of the year. No one ratted me out, and I ended up having them for a whole month. They learned a lot, were attentive, and did their school work extremely well.

The ringleader really had a tough life. Hid dad and two of his brothers were in prison, and he spent a lot of his time beating up on the other kids. But we teachers did everything we could to keep him in school, although privately, many thought he'd eventually end up in prison, too.  A few months later, I left teaching school, got into high tech sales, then a few years later started my training company. Ten years after the classroom experience I told you about, I was in a bar in downtown San Jose when I got tapped on the shoulder. Guess who? It was the Ringleader, nicely dressed, and with a cute girl on his arm. I asked him what he was doing now. "I'm a programmer for Sun Microsystems," he told me. I asked him how much he was making, and it was $60,000 a year, par for what engineers were making in those days. He'd made it!

And that's why I know that everyone can make it, and it's what ethics in teaching is all about. When I teach a telesales training course, occasionally someone will hear a concept and tell me it's too tough, that he or she just can't do it. And I remember the Ringleader, and work extra hard to make sure I take a little extra patience in coaching that person. Some inside sales reps I teach are already high level performers. Others are scared, shy, or lack confidence. What they share, along with the Ringleader, is a wish to succeed, even though they may not know how to do it just yet. There is nothing easy about telesales. But the hardest part is getting the job itself. Next hardest is honing the skills it takes to excel. And yes, anyone can do it, you just need the motivation to succeed. Just ask the Ringleader.