When one is hired as a new sales rep for a company, they may be required to attend a sales training course as part of the onboarding process. Recently some coworkers and I were discussing the various companies we have worked for over the years and how these training sessions differed from one employer to the next.
My first job in sales had a required two week sales class. As I have mentioned in previous posts, this company was so shady that we were in the third day of the training when one of our classmates finally realized that we were hired for door-to-door sales. "When were you going to tell us?" the angry young man screamed at the instructor.
It had been previously suggested to us that we would have clients ready to see and that referrals and leads would be served up on a silver platter. None of these things were true, as were most of the other things they told us while hiring us. This was my first experience dealing with a company being less than truthful with me, but certainly wouldn't be my last.
Over the next two weeks we had two main items drilled into our heads. The first was the sales presentation, which was to be memorized and recited word for word. "We have succeeded with this presentation for years and if you change it you will fail," is what we were told. Apparently, everyone altered it because there was a lot of turnover with this company, and it was indicative by the fact that they were training 75 new people a month.
The second, more ethereal lesson, was that we were to have a "positive mental attitude" or PMA, as they liked to call it. When we were going over the sales pitch (they hated us calling it a "pitch" so we did it to spite them) we were to have what my father would have called "rah rah sessions". According to our instructors, a PMA would trump anything negative, and therefore it was not only suggested, but required, that we think of only positive things, especially when no one wants to buy their crappy accident plan.
Our class was a very diverse group of people. There was one older lady I remember vividly who never said a word unless asked. Later I heard she informed her manager that due to her religious beliefs working on Saturdays was out of the question. Her days were numbered from that point on.
There was also a guy who had been self-employed for years and had taken this job under the false assumption that the recruiter has been truthful and forthcoming about everything from working conditions to the pay. He was in his late 30's and was clearly depressed that he had put his family in such a precarious financial situation by believing what he heard during the hiring process. "If they lie to us, they definitely lie to the people they are selling this stuff to," were his exact words. He had a good point.
There were a lot of middle aged people who were also starting over, but there were also many new college graduates like myself, who thought that this was a good place to start a career. Within a few days, we more or less broke into small social groups, and I began to hang around with the guys my age.
Needless to say, the PMA wasn't as effective on us, and if anything, fell on deaf ears. Perhaps if it was presented differently, rather than crammed down our throats like a cult initiation, we would have welcomed it. However, forcing grown people to stand in front of their chairs and cheer was neither productive nor effective.
A few weeks later when we went out to work in the field, reality hit us like a ton of bricks. And within a few months, half of our crew was gone because they weren't making any money. (Perhaps they broke the rule about not sticking to the script.) I would be gone a few months later, tired of driving all over creation to find a customer and seeing a revolving door of new hires. It was depressing to say the least.
The sales training was horrible. However, I did gain the confidence to cold call, even though I hated to do it. Knocking on someone's door and trying to get inside their home to sell them something was brutal for everyone involved. But I did use that in my next sales job, when I was calling on businesses instead of individuals.
In the next post, I'll share another sales training story that was completely different. In the meantime, please get out there and work on your PMA!
Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.
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