How Sad Sacks In Newark Ohio Became The World's Best Salespeople

How Sad Sacks In Newark Ohio Became The World's Best Salespeople

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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 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.

I believed firmly, however, that people in Newark were not different than any other town we had successful offices thriving in. I knew Newark would make money.

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

I believed it would be easier to start with a new crew then to change the deeply negative thoughts of the current group. I told everyone they were absolutely right, and that Newark was an too hard to sell. I advised them to find work elsewhere.

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

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.

Standing before me was a woman who was clearly open to learning a new way. I had no doubt she could do it with the methods I could provide.

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.

"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 showed her how to determine the number of sales she could count on per number of prospects contacted by keeping track of her results by percentages,. . After keeping track for a while, she would see that, say if she started out making one sale for every 10 prospects she contacted that she now will know she needs to make ten presentations to count on one sale.

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.

She was amazed the first week when she actually hit her goal. And she had done it herself! The truth of my system became more real and more true to he as week after week she made that quota. Finally she understood that it was all up to her to do a certain amount of presentations, and that would lead to a certain number of sales, that would create an amount of income she could count on.

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.

At this point I had a blended crew, some new members, and some members from the old sales team. Over time two others had come back to me and I allowed them to come back one at a time, and I taught them the new way. Everyone used the new system, quotas were being made. And then it was time for a test of my great team.

We had only been able to turn the sales people from the old crew around by changing their thoughts, because we showed them that Newark was a place you could make sales. They could see it, and when they believed it, they made sales.

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 twelve even fifteen 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 insisted that their success came from the changes they made in their beliefs about sales possibilities. It was not about the old manager, or the old numbers, or even the new manager or the new numbers. My role had simply been to point out to them their own innate sales skills, and to help them put those into action. Since their success had come from skills they had already demonstrated, they could still take these numbers and make sales.

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 selected two of my sales people to 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 as I worked on the phone. In order to make $700 in less than half an hour I'd have to make 20 sales in about 20 minutes.There was no time for a no. For my plan to work, veryone had to say yes. But I knew, that if I had the belief, no one could say no to me. I knew that if I was sincere, if I believed I was doing the right thing, If I believed I was doing something good for someone, it would work, and 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.

When the time clock told us the working day was over and I was down to what my people told me were the "worst of the worst" numbers, I made the seven hundred dollars of quota I told them I would make. The drivers who had been made ready successfull delivered product and collected the checks. My sales team was floored. They had seen it with their own eyes.Now they knew I would never, ever accept "bad numbers" as an excuse for lack of sales.

That was just the beginning. Now they knew that success was up to them. My sales team outsold other offices with 3 to 4 times the numbers of sales staff. The local district gave us what they considered the worst sales territory, and we turned that around to have our highest sales figures ever.

The rest of the company was satisfied with 5 sales out of each 100 contacts. But in our office at least half of everyone we talked to became a sale. That's one out of two.

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.

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