How a Down and Out Sales Crew Rose from Ashes to Win at Sales

This story is 100% true. It is not fiction. You will learn how what seems to be magic can make you a super star salesperson.

I did not want to be a sales manager. I loved to sell using my system of "The Magic of Numbers and Statistics in Sales." Initially I didn't want to teach it to others because I knew they would have a hard time accepting my system.

I traveled to our Newark, Ohio office which had had a lot of problems and needed to be rebuilt. It had been declared by the current manager as a disaster. He said no one could make any sales in Newark, Ohio.

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.

The office's future hung by a thread. The salespeople had doubt firmly planted in their minds. This doubt would have to be dealt with or Newark would be doomed.

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.

Our system had been successful everywhere, all we needed to change in Newark was the attitude.

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 woman begged me to stay. She said she loved her work, and didn't want to find another job.

But, I had to explain that I expected a lot more than the previous manager. Before she was expected to sell only five hundred dollars per week. I, however, would expect three times that as a minimum.

With tears in her eyes, she said she would be willing, even excited to triple her sales, but she did not know how to do it.

I looked at her, and I could see through her eyes into her soul, that she was open to suggestions and willing to learn. I believed that she could do it if she was shown how.

I explained to her, "If you'll just follow my system I promise you'll hit your quota". So I showed her how to do it.

"Being a salesperson, " I emphasized, "is more than just being physically present at the your desk. There's real work you must do. You must believe while you're dialing that the people you are calling want what you have, this will come through perfectly on the phone. Be kind, be courteous and you will create feelings about the products and services that will influence your contacts positively."

By keeping track of her results by percentages, I showed her how to determine the number of sales she could count on per number of prospects contacted. . If for instance, if she started out making one sale for every 10 prospects she contacted that can be a number she can count on no matter what.

I showed her that to make her quota of 1500 dollars per week, that she would have to do a certain amount of presentations each week in order to get a certain amount sales.

It seemed amazing to her, but after her first week when she actually hit her goal, it started to become possible to her. The second, third, and fourth, week it became almost gospel. She believed that her certain amount presentations would create a certain amount of income.

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.

To say they really didn't want to call those numbers was an understatement. Hang ups, complaints, faithless sales that could not be collected.

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.

We all worked for a very large company so it was quite an accomplishment for this sales team to have the top sales records in the company. So I looked each of them in the eye and said very firmly: "This time when you call those people, they will say yes!" All of you have nothing to fear from the old numbers, you have something new -- you have a new belief. All of you have a different attitude, you have new sales skills. Now you know you have something to offer that is good and you know that these people want it. They only told me they would "Try". I knew there was a problem, when they told me that.

So we started dialing. I did everything I could keep the room cheery, I made a pot of gourmet coffee, the aroma would fill the room. I brought in some doughnuts, I tried to make a few jokes. However at five o'clock we did not even have 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 reminded them that their success came from the changes they made in their beliefs and attitudes. It was not about the numbers,a nd it wasn't about the management. I simply pointed out to them their own innate sales skills, and showed them ways to help them put that drive into action. Success had come from skills they had already demonstrated, they could still take these numbers, and numbers, and make sales. I knew that.

Calling resumed, but I knew I was losing them. They were whining and complaining. I was losing my cool. Half an hour left and 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.

You are the best crew I have ever had, and probably one of the best I will ever have. But today I am disappointed in all of you. I'm disappointed because I know you can do better. You have done better. You need to realize that you have let yourselves down. These numbers are not bad numbers -- but you are ruining them with your negativity and especially your negative self talk. It's you, not the numbers.

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.

From that day on, we made even more amazing accomplishments. My crew of 5 people outsold other offices with crews of 12-15 people. I was very proud of them. Later, when I was only allowed to have 3 telephones to work with, in a territory that was considered a disaster, and unwanted by the Columbus office, we had our highest sales 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.

The rest of the company averaged 5 sales out of each 100 contacts. But in our sales room, at least half of everyone we talked to became a sale. The sales team I had trained was doing better even than I had done as an individual sales person, and I had sold approximately one out of every three, which was a very respectable number and made me a top salesperson. The sales were unbelievably high. But my sales team knew it was true, because they were doing it.

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Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. is still helping people learn how to become the best salespeople. Visit our slideshow to see how Tim can teach you to be the greatest salesperson you can be.