Hey folks,
This is the second blog about my interaction with the world of sales. The first one involved a recruitment agency that spoke out about I.T sales and then submerged it's candidates in the world of Red Letter Events. As if being an unemployed graduate wasn't a pain in the butt already without recruitment firms pulling stunts like that. Still one should never allow a single bad encounter as a means to judge an entire profession. Also I'll never name names while writing these. This blog focuses upon one of my trial days.
I was lucky to get an interview in February for a firm that do B2B sales. That means: Business to Business sales. Sounded better than cold calling and I would selling something...to a BUSINESS. I would be selling advertisement spaces to prospective clients on behalf of a newspaper. Sounds brilliant...sounded all official. I was on board for giving it a go. My trial day was in April and I went down...got quite lost in a town I've really been to but thankfully made it there. The staff were welcoming and helpful, they gave me some tips and I listened to them on the phone for a bit.
After a while the main man asked if we wanted some leads. The man got up, walked on over to a big pile of newspapers, he tore out the advertisements and instructed us to choose some numbers and just start calling. He said that it would be rare for us to make any sales. They did not expect that, they only wanted to hear how we sounded over the phone. I asked if anyone had made sales before, he said in another firm one new candidate did but you could tell they were a pro. I read through the paper looking at the advertisements. They all seemed to be small firms, probably ran from people's homes. A few places that I phoned confirmed this idea. Naturally the responses I received was the sort you'd expect to be given when dialling a business line selling a product they've already bought and they're waiting for some actual income...not another sales person. Apparently the firm I was trialling for phone them every week. Poor sods, as if the economy wasn't putting enough strain on people . About an hour or so later the office manager came up and gave me a sheet of paper and some advice. It was mixture of useful and unhelpful tidbits. What would have really helped are three key things:
1) Information about the newspaper I was working for.
They gave me nothing. I had the name but all in all I saw most of the other regional newspapers that day but not a single copy of the one they wanted me to sell. I felt like a prospector panning through a muddy river for a single nugget of gold.
One thing was all I needed and with that information I can believe in the product I am selling.
In sales belief is important (Or at least the projection of belief across the medium you're using to sell). When you believe in something you must then use that knowledge to convert your client. You must make them believe in your product too, they must see that you are selling a rainbow road. You must convince them that you're looking at the greatest opportunity known to man and you're offering them a way to get on board.
If you don't believe in what you're doing then you'll mutter "A job is a job is a job" which it is however I've seen folks in many different professions approaching their work half heartedly for they lost that faith in what they were doing. If you've gone through the British education system then you've no doubt met a few teachers during a moment of no faith and those lessons. I say "moment" because let's not judge others who are doing a job, especially as I am discussing a sensitive matter and have experienced these moments myself.
The main point is some calls went rough when they really didn't need to on account of questions being asked that I didn't have the answers too. I looked on-line for this newspaper and the closest result I found was a newspaper that shut down a few decades ago. I stayed for the entirety of the trial day. Phoning up prospective clients from golden leads. Needless to say though I felt incredibly unclean for I felt like my leads were made from Pyrite.
We are a nation of service providers and sales people. I felt disturbed that a company gathers it's leads from the work of another sales person. I've been informed that this is common place and such information is nothing short of disheartening.
Still third time is the charm. This time I'll make sure to see the product I am selling before I pick up the phone...and pray that the leads come from sources that haven't been borrowed from source.
Overall I'm awaiting for another trial day. This blog won't be publicised across any social networks for reasons I feel are obvious without mentioning. (FEAR, TREMENDOUS AMOUNTS OF FEAR)
I'm looking forward for all trials and I do consider visiting this firm again as they were all really kind and welcoming. I occasionally felt like I was about to nail a lead...and I came close but then handed the phone to manager as I didn't know the process of acquiring the details and he did. I probably won't go back though as I'm seeking other trials with firms I can acquire information on. As opposed to newspapers that don't seem to exist.
Cheers for reading. The next blog will be up on the 6th May 2013. This gives me two weeks to get up to something and hopefully nail that something to the wall.
P.S MAJOR HIGHLIGHT:
The kettle broke. I asked a friend to pick one up. The kettle that Argos gave him and that he gave to me...contained no plug! I'm going to hand in a CV when I also hand over the kettle. I could totally work there, I've got like two eyes, 8 fingers and two thumbs! I could be a really amazing Quality Assurance person. No plug-less kettles on my watch.
This is the second blog about my interaction with the world of sales. The first one involved a recruitment agency that spoke out about I.T sales and then submerged it's candidates in the world of Red Letter Events. As if being an unemployed graduate wasn't a pain in the butt already without recruitment firms pulling stunts like that. Still one should never allow a single bad encounter as a means to judge an entire profession. Also I'll never name names while writing these. This blog focuses upon one of my trial days.
I was lucky to get an interview in February for a firm that do B2B sales. That means: Business to Business sales. Sounded better than cold calling and I would selling something...to a BUSINESS. I would be selling advertisement spaces to prospective clients on behalf of a newspaper. Sounds brilliant...sounded all official. I was on board for giving it a go. My trial day was in April and I went down...got quite lost in a town I've really been to but thankfully made it there. The staff were welcoming and helpful, they gave me some tips and I listened to them on the phone for a bit.
After a while the main man asked if we wanted some leads. The man got up, walked on over to a big pile of newspapers, he tore out the advertisements and instructed us to choose some numbers and just start calling. He said that it would be rare for us to make any sales. They did not expect that, they only wanted to hear how we sounded over the phone. I asked if anyone had made sales before, he said in another firm one new candidate did but you could tell they were a pro. I read through the paper looking at the advertisements. They all seemed to be small firms, probably ran from people's homes. A few places that I phoned confirmed this idea. Naturally the responses I received was the sort you'd expect to be given when dialling a business line selling a product they've already bought and they're waiting for some actual income...not another sales person. Apparently the firm I was trialling for phone them every week. Poor sods, as if the economy wasn't putting enough strain on people . About an hour or so later the office manager came up and gave me a sheet of paper and some advice. It was mixture of useful and unhelpful tidbits. What would have really helped are three key things:
1) Information about the newspaper I was working for.
They gave me nothing. I had the name but all in all I saw most of the other regional newspapers that day but not a single copy of the one they wanted me to sell. I felt like a prospector panning through a muddy river for a single nugget of gold.
One thing was all I needed and with that information I can believe in the product I am selling.
In sales belief is important (Or at least the projection of belief across the medium you're using to sell). When you believe in something you must then use that knowledge to convert your client. You must make them believe in your product too, they must see that you are selling a rainbow road. You must convince them that you're looking at the greatest opportunity known to man and you're offering them a way to get on board.
If you don't believe in what you're doing then you'll mutter "A job is a job is a job" which it is however I've seen folks in many different professions approaching their work half heartedly for they lost that faith in what they were doing. If you've gone through the British education system then you've no doubt met a few teachers during a moment of no faith and those lessons. I say "moment" because let's not judge others who are doing a job, especially as I am discussing a sensitive matter and have experienced these moments myself.
The main point is some calls went rough when they really didn't need to on account of questions being asked that I didn't have the answers too. I looked on-line for this newspaper and the closest result I found was a newspaper that shut down a few decades ago. I stayed for the entirety of the trial day. Phoning up prospective clients from golden leads. Needless to say though I felt incredibly unclean for I felt like my leads were made from Pyrite.
We are a nation of service providers and sales people. I felt disturbed that a company gathers it's leads from the work of another sales person. I've been informed that this is common place and such information is nothing short of disheartening.
Still third time is the charm. This time I'll make sure to see the product I am selling before I pick up the phone...and pray that the leads come from sources that haven't been borrowed from source.
Overall I'm awaiting for another trial day. This blog won't be publicised across any social networks for reasons I feel are obvious without mentioning. (FEAR, TREMENDOUS AMOUNTS OF FEAR)
I'm looking forward for all trials and I do consider visiting this firm again as they were all really kind and welcoming. I occasionally felt like I was about to nail a lead...and I came close but then handed the phone to manager as I didn't know the process of acquiring the details and he did. I probably won't go back though as I'm seeking other trials with firms I can acquire information on. As opposed to newspapers that don't seem to exist.
Cheers for reading. The next blog will be up on the 6th May 2013. This gives me two weeks to get up to something and hopefully nail that something to the wall.
P.S MAJOR HIGHLIGHT:
The kettle broke. I asked a friend to pick one up. The kettle that Argos gave him and that he gave to me...contained no plug! I'm going to hand in a CV when I also hand over the kettle. I could totally work there, I've got like two eyes, 8 fingers and two thumbs! I could be a really amazing Quality Assurance person. No plug-less kettles on my watch.
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