Mark L. was an aspiring TV actor
who just started getting good parts on daytime soap operas. Bob
H. was a solid student, serious, but I could make him laugh. And
when I prodded him to do more than his usual best, especially during
contests, he dug down deeper and came up with pure gold.
Randy T. spent a good deal of time under the hood
of his car, his face obscured by the rising smoke of a Krakatoa
cigarette. And Bunny, ah yes, Bunny, was a bunny, cozying her way
to one positive reception after the next.
All of these unique characters, and many, many
more were my top salespeople at Time-Life. Each had stories to tell,
each was totally colorful and big as life, and all were fiercely
independent and planned on staying that way.
Which, of course, starts to address the question
every sales manager, personnel executive, and call center director
asks, especially given the typically rampant employee turnover that
occurs in phone work:
“What kind of person makes the best telephone sales
agent?”
I gave away the answer if you refer to the adjectives
and adverbs I used, and could have used to describe them. Aspiring
actor, starving student, intoxicated mechanic, cute and cuddly fur-ball;
Is there a picture that’s coming to mind that melds these folks
into a single category?
I’ll give you a few that Careerbuilder and Monster.com
don’t recognize—yet. Individualist, Edgy, Iconoclastic, Marginal,
Just Passing Through & On My Way to Something Bigger & Better
in Life Thank You Very Much, and maybe Don’t Tread on Me! (Randy,
right?)
These aren’t your bread and butter corporate types,
geeks, or lumberjacks.They remind me of the constellation of characters
found in those gritty and puckish war films like “The Dirty Dozen”
or “The Great Escape.” Each one has a gift, which by itself won’t
get them very far, except into trouble. |
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But, if you can give each one
proper direction, acknowledge and even encourage their individuality,
and meld them into a team, you can reach your goals, and they, theirs.
Some companies get this and they prosper. Kelly-Springfield Tire
Company, one of my training and consulting clients, had a group
of telemarketers they called, “The Live Wires.” They were, well,
different than the rest of the organization, so different that management
built them their own structure, behind headquarters, near the woods.
They thrived, largely because management “got”
them, understood their special needs and swagger, and left them
alone, to sell, which of course was their chief responsibility.
Maybe, this article should have been titled: “What
Kind of Person Makes the Best Telephone Sales MANAGER.”
Hint: It’s someone who “gets” the significance
of what I’ve just said.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference
and convention speaker, and sales, service, and negotiation consultant.
A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling
author of 12 books, and several popular audio and video programs.
His seminars are sponsored internationally. He is a faculty member
at more than 40 universities and brings over two decades of sales,
management and consulting experience to the table. A Ph.D. from
the |