Random Tidbits From Art

Not art as in artist, but Art Sobczak, whom I feature regularly for his sales tips on Collective Wisdom.


This is from a recent email:

This Week:
Observations, Humor, Maybe a Sales Tip

Greetings!

This week I'm dumping out my file of tidbits
that I always collect...and I see these aren't
necessarily all sales tips as much as rants,
humor, stories...oh well, here goes...

Life's Little Annoyances
There are many of life's little annoyances we
encounter daily. Opinion Research Corp. of
Princeton, NJ, surveyed people and asked about
21 common annoyances. Coming in second place
was "Not getting a human on the phone."

We all can relate as salespeople.

(Also, if you hear complaints about that
from your prospects and customers about your
company you might want to have someone who
can affect that fix it.)

Oh, the top annoyance? Hidden fees added to
bills. Again, do your invoices contain any
of those?


Learning Just a Bit From a Cheesy, Hard Sell
Sales Rep
Speaking of annoyances, the Do-Not-Call List has
thankfully almost eliminated what was typically
voted the top one: telemarketing calls at home.

However, hard-sell telephone pitchmen are still
out there, ignoring laws and trying to squeeze
money out of people.

While driving to a college football game last
Fall in Oxford, MS to see Ole Miss play, a buddy
and I were listening to a sports radio show that
predicted the point spreads of football games.
It was quite cheesy and was essentially a
commercial for various subscription services
that promised to pick the point-spread winners
of top games. By calling their 800 number you
could supposedly hear one of those picks for free.

Curious about their sales techniques, and looking
for some entertainment I called the number from my
cell. I put the recording on speakerphone as we heard the
screaming used-car-salesman-sounding guy pitch
his service. We got a good laugh.

Then the next day, my cell rings, showing the
call coming from an unidentified 800 number.

I answer, and immediately recognize the voice
from the betting service. He jumps into an
animated, yelling sales pitch. I am certain
it is a recording. That is, until after two
minutes or so he goes for the close. I remain
silent. Then the voice says, "So what credit
card do you want that on buddy?"

I said, "I don't."

Then, he/the recording pretty much ignored
my response, and continued pitching the service.
Then he closed again: "Let's start making you
money my friend. Which credit card?"

I continued, and so did he. Now, I'm wondering
if it is a recording, or the guy himself, live.
To test him, I threw out a nonsense response:
"I'll put it on my Costco card."

Without missing a beat he replied, "I know that
some people can see humor in losing but we take
winning seriously and that's why we will give
you the point spread winners..." Finally, he
wore me down and I just hung up, shaking my
head that this kind of approach was still
going on.

I thought that was the end of things. I was
wrong. He called again Monday, same approach.
I told the voice--or recording to take me off
of his list. He continued pitching as if I had
said nothing. I hung up.

He called again the next day. Same thing! I
still couldn't tell if it was a recording and
a voice recognition program that was trained
to give responses to certain replies. I was
so annoyed I began using rather colorful
language to describe him, his lineage, and
something to do with his mother. He replied,

"No need to use profanity my friend. So when
you get your picks from us each week..."
Unbelievable.

I thought it would never end. Calls came the
next two days. Finally, they stopped by the
weekend, when I imagine they generated a fresh
batch of leads.

So, any usable sales lessons here? Well, I
did observe that the recording--or guy--was
undaunted by resistance, essentially ignoring
it and continuing. Granted, he was over the
top with it, but too often legitimate salespeople
are too quick to give up when faced with the
slightest resistance. Instead, in many cases
we can reply with, "I understand," or "That's
OK," and continue questioning.


Be Careful About What You Habitually Say
We really need to be careful about the speaking
habits we possess and when they might pop up.

In the local Omaha daily paper an article on
holiday etiquette shared a humorous phone
mishap: a woman was wrapping up a an internal
phone conversation with her company's IT director.

Before hanging up she said, "I love you Larry."

She said she did it out of habit, "You know how
you tell your family you love them on the phone..."

He was not family. Doh! She immediately called
back and apologized. Luckily, he saw the humor
in it and nothing more.
____________________________________________________

Continue Having Your Best Week Ever!

Art

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
" If we all did the things we are capable of,
we would astound ourselves."
Thomas Edison

Contact: Art Sobczak, President, Business By Phone Inc. 13254 Stevens St.,
Omaha, NE 68137, (402) 895-9399. Or, email:arts@businessbyphone.com

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