How Not To Sell

Oh boy I've had so many like this. My local Verizon is full of complete idiots with absolutely no customer service skills. The kind of people who really dont give a phuk that youve been with them 8 years and give them $300 a month. Back in Britain we call them jobsworths. The type of people who will never go out of their way to help you have a good experience if it means they get nothing out of it.

Two weeks ago I was due for a smartphone upgrade. Went in with an online coupon code for a FREE rezound phone that also comes with a $100 pair of Beats Headphones. They hate the word free in store, he had to "check it out" came back and said "uh yes, i think this will be ok". He then asked "why exactly do you want THIS phone?". I explained I had researched it, it was a good phone and free...plus a great pair of headphones"...then he kept trying to upsell me on another phone for 5 more minutes, didnt update the software and charged me a $30 fee of which if you look up the details of, is nothing short of nickel and diming at its finest.

I see the problem is actually at the company, even if not all their employees/support and sales reps does that it is still the companies job to check and monitor who does this and who does not.

I'm shopping for cable, phone and internet services for the hotel I manage.
Currently we pay about $1000/mo for all three. The Century Link rep cold called me
today and tried to rush on to his next call when I answered his question about when our contract expires. It expires in October. He said he would call back at a later date.

The thing is, we are shopping now because our current provider has offered a lower price if we renew now for another three year term. Also, I've heard it wise to decide and notify our current provider well ahead of time so we don't get auto renewed.

Dan

PS - if anybody has input for me to make an informed decision for the hotel, I'd welcome a PM. Thanks.

She may have been new, and forgetting her rebuttals. Im sure her supervisor would comment if he caught that.

Sometimes they start getting loose after awhile and need tightened back up. she may also have been writing notes to her friends while talking, not even really pitching you and only half paying attention to go through the motions and get you off the phone... so she could get back to talking to her friend or whatever.

After so many calls, you can get to where its so non personal that its almost like there isnt even a human on the other end half the time,and it doesnt matter what you say..., especially when you are tired, distracted, and just milking the clock, going through the motions because maybe break time is in five minutes and you are really more interested in talking to your friend..., or passing notes about having them meet you somewhere for lunch, at the time when a call comes in.

There are usually a percentage of clock milkers that dont even work all day properly, they just stay under the radar as much as possible and talk more to their friends than they do the customers. A call from a customer is an interruption of their conversation, and they disposition two or three calls in a row, without responding, before answering one...., all kinds of stuff. If they get busted they are just told "Quit redialing the leads", and they straighten up for a few calls.

Sometimes telemarketers get lazy and it doesnt matter to them, they arent even really talking to you, just going through the motions.

When you take 700 calls per day, it gets like that...on about ten to twenty percent of them you may not even be present on some days.

Its sad, but its true, no matter what your job is, there are certain times of day or week when your mind is far away, even though your reflex is still taking a call, or absentmindedly doing the job, whatever it is.

I use to sit in a booth and talk while thinking about my own business half the day, drawing logo's for "quantum leap concepts", and I was just in la la land half the time, not even really present with the customer, and just talking out of subconscious reflex; howbeit , better than this girl did... still closing sales. But it was like a selfish lover sometimes, it didnt even register that the other person was THERE.

In was on the ball more often than not, but it even happened to myself sometimes.

100's of calls per day will do that to you.

Im sure her training didnt teach her to do that. Telemarketers in call centers get tighter training than most anywhere else, on a daily basis, and constant reminders... Doubtful that she wasnt trained on a proper rebuttal. she just didnt use it.

In another sense, some people would do WELL, to make so many calls per day that it becomes that non personal... Then they wouldnt be so worried about 'self" and they would rack up a score...you still hit quota (or else you would be fired) , you just arent always optimal, but being able to disassociate to that degree takes alot of calling, and even at your worse you could still out perform most homeworkers just based on reflex and number of dials alone... when you dont hang your whole world on any given call, and you think you have time to spare.... in a sense thats a good thing.

Of course I believe you were calling IN for customer service, a highly valuable lead ..., so that would be firing material if I caught her more than twice doing that and she wasnt a trainee, or at least I would clock her out for the day and only let her come back when she could tell me she appreciated her job and our customers, or I might put her on some kind of probation till she sharpened up.

-John

If you ask me, I don't think it's just a selling problem. I think your correspondent dug herself into a hole the moment she did not consider what her offer was contending with (such as your laptop). It's hard to expect success when you don't seem to notice your competition.

I guess it just goes to show that there are still bad sellers out there who don't consider the buyer's perspective on their own needs.

What David said. If your phone service went down and you called one of those people to complain, they'd tell you, "hey, I just work here." There is no higher purpose for them than to punch the clock, put in their time, and get a regular paycheck at the end of the week.

Besides, let them do a terrible job at saving accounts and hawking contests. Makes people like us look even smarter than we are.