This article is continued from Part 1.
In that very moment, standing in that church parking lot, I knew the job was mine, and I knew this would be what I would do for the rest of my life. After all, I had a premonition…a vision…I saw into the future.
The next day, I went in for an interview which turned out to be no interview at all. It was Jolene's (Jetta girl) brother-in-law Curtis, who was the President of the company, his business partner Jeff, and me standing in the doorway of their office just hanging out and talking. After a few minutes Curtis said, “I like you. If you want the job it’s yours.” I accepted, was hired on the spot and started the next day.
The company I went to work for sold “season passes” to seminars that were about every 8 weeks or so in Dallas. Speakers like Les Brown, Roger Dawson, Jim, Rohn, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and others would come into town every so often and anyone who had a season pass, could attend the seminar. Now looking back, I realize what a great idea it was. But at the time, it was just a job.
My job was inside sales. I sat in a tiny cubicle, cold calling car dealerships and any other company with sales people who needed motivating. I HATED MY JOB! I was miserable. I was so scared to pick up the phone. And worse yet, Curtis and Jeff were no more than 10 feet away from me all day. The office was tiny and they could hear every goof-ball word I said, which made me a total wreck.
And to add insult to injury, I don't recall any real training. I do however remember a script taped to the wall in front of me. It was a list of “come backs” or suggested ways to over come any concerns I may have gotten from a prospect. I can remember thinking to myself, Do people really say this stuff? And are there really people in the world dumb enough to play along?
For example, one of the things we heard often on the other end of the phone was something like this: “Sounds interesting. Could you send me some information.” My canned reply, which was taped to the wall and in black and white was: “You know, I could, but the last time I tried that I got stuck in the fax machine.” Yeah, I know, right? I could never make myself say it. So instead, I said something even lamer, but at least it wasn't a canned script. Perhaps if I read the script, I would have sold something. But I just couldn't do it.
I don’t know that I ever did make a sale. I don’t recall. I guess that's a NO. Had I, you'd think I would remember. I may have repressed all of those memories. But one day I had a bright idea about how I could motivate myself to get some sales. There was only one other inside sales person in the office. LaShonne Newsome sat right behind me in her little box. She was great on the phones. Totally fearless. But I wanted to go head to head with her anyway. So I walked over to the Presidents desk and told him about my brilliant idea.
“Curtis, I got an idea.” I said. He looked up at me curious, but remained quiet. You know I’m not doing so well on the phones, but I gotta good idea to help me out, and, it may help her out to (pointing to LaShonne who was busy on the phone…probably selling something). How about I go to the office supply store and pick up two bells…. you know those bells you see on the counter of cheap hotels, that you ring for service?” (He was looking at me like I was a total moron at this point.)
“Um hmm,” he said.
“Yeah, well, I’ll go get two of those bells,” I explained, “One for me and one for her, and every time we make a sale, we can ring the bell. It will be real motivating and exciting.” Good grief.
I stood there like a dog begging for a treat. He sat there completely emotionless with a blank stare on his face. I wanted to drop dead. Finally he said, “Well if you feel like it will help, do it. I don’t care. Feel free to go get your little bells during your lunch.”
As corny as I felt, I was still pretty excited about my bell idea. So, during lunch I made a trip to Staples, bought two bells (with my lunch money), drove back to work and placed the bells in their new homes; one on my desk, and one on LaShonne's.
That was perhaps one of the stupidest things I have ever done. RING! RING! RING! One of the bells rang all day long. Hers! I never got to ring my bell. Sometimes I would play with it, to see how far I could push down that little thing on top, without it ringing. All day long I kept hearing two things… her stupid bell, that I paid for, and me telling myself, You're an idiot. And that horror that I created, lasted for days, with me never ringing my bell (at least from making a sale. I did ring it after we closed a couple of times, just to see what it felt like, but never for the purpose for which it was purchased).
Every day felt like a year. I wasn’t making the company any money. I was a drain on their bottom line. I was just waiting to get the ax.
One day, Curtis came over to my desk and said, “Hey Chris, you gotta minute?”
“Yeah,” came my reply.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested.
Ok, here we go! I’m getting fired. I can’t believe this. I’ve never been fired before.
When we got outside the building he stopped, turned around and said, “Chris, I want to start training you for outside sales.” I was stunned. I expected him to fire me, not give me a raise and a different position. Come to think of it, perhaps he was trying to get me on commission and off the hourly drain. Anyway… I couldn’t help myself. I laughed out loud! “Outside sales!?” I blurted, “I can’t sell anything on the inside! What makes you think I could sell anything outside?” Then came the reply and the act of kindness that would indeed lead me to my professional purpose.
“Chris, you have everything that you need to succeed in life. You’re a good looking guy. You have great people skills, and you're easy to work with. You know what your problem is, though?” He asked. “This,” he said, pointing to my head. “You got software issues. Your hardware is great. But you need to reprogram your head.” Then he handed me something. “These are audio tapes from some of our past seminars. I want you to take them home with you. Listen to them in your car, and see if that doesn’t help you.”
Inside this little cassette holder were some of the greatest speeches they had ever had. But there were two tapes in that box that literally change my life forever. Read part 3 here.
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