How does a salesperson become a chump? Here is a story from my sales past when I was a Memorial Counselor for a cemetery property selling corporation in Southern Oregon USA.
The plaque to the right of the doorway read: Memorial Counselor. The two story yellow house found on the same property as the mortuary and cemetery was a cover for our sales organization to train and set up appointments. We never 'counseled' in that building, in fact we never counseled at all! We just sold cemetery property before one needed it.
Every morning our sales group gathered around a conference table to watch or listen to motivational material. For 45 minutes to an hour we would get motivated with Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Denis Waitley, Tom Hopkins, Napoleon Hill to get riled up and go out to convince the living of their need to buy cemetery property today! This is where I learned most of my sales skills.
Is it a good idea to buy cemetery property before one needs it? Here is where I had to be sold on the idea. Our sales manager had to do a convincing job for our team to achieve his sales goals.
'Hey, buying now stops inflation, a loved one will not have to take care of, it makes one feel good to take responsibility for their own affairs, and so on!'
You did notice that our sales manager had sales goals? He did! He had a boss to answer to just like we did.
One week our team was under achieving. Nothing was working! The motivational meetings were not motivating, the contests were not delivering, the appointments were a bust, and the numbers were falling 6 feet under. So what did the sales manager do? He sold us on the need to purchase cemetery property ourselves. It was a very convincing, conniving sales job that forced most of us to go into debt just so we could honestly use our own example to convince our perspective buyers to buy theirs.
Well, when we realized that the sales manager had used a sales ploy on us to achieve his sales goals, we definitely felt like chumps! Did it help close some sales we would have not otherwise gotten? Probably!
What being duped and played like a chump really did for me that day was made me a little wiser. Now that's something of great value I can use for a lifetime!
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The definition of a chump:
a gullible person, a sucker; someone easily taken advantage of, the target of a scam.
Learn from a former salesperson and trainer how salespeople drive sales. Learn how to keep more money in your pocket where it belongs! There are two ends of every sales stick! One end cries 'chump.' The other end boasts 'champ.' I know which end of the stick I want to be. How about you?
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