WalbridgEnterprises

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Thank you.

Is amazing. It blows my mind to see how quickly stuff evolves. It’s a new way to market, a new way to get your news. Twitter alone comes up with fun offshoots of the name to describe different things. Things like “tweetdeck” and “twestivals” are the cutest thing to me. And things are happening daily! New media sites, new words changing the way we talk even. Like YouTube is addicting, I’m starting to find surfing on social sites equally so. So many conversations to have out there, so many interests! My personal favorite is Facebook and I know of a couple people who love to surf just that site to play, talk to people.

 Video is also involved. I myself haven’t gotten my mind around it yet but many videos I’ve seen are fantastic, superb quality. It’s another way of putting a human face on what might otherwise be a static webpage.

 Both Twitter and Facebook I’ve found operate a bit like a chat room too. I can be on there surfing through people, comments, just general stuff and it updates while I’m working it.

 It was through a social site that I got a free listing of the social sites out there, and this was last year’s so the total has likely doubled, tripled. I can imagine updating all those sites if you market this way to be pretty time consuming so I’m doing research on sites where you can keep track of all those social sites. I’ve come up with two so far and there will probably be more: www.ping.fm and http://www.gizapage.com/. With the staggering growth we’ll probably need websites to keep track of those sites too! I’d love to market this way, it fascinates me. It’s just a matter of finding the right niche, the right job. Just Googling the phrase “how many social…” to check how many there are – goodness, is there a way to get a definitive answer with new ones popping up daily?! – one result from www.g4tv.com says 4,700! The giant Google wants a stake in Facebook. That alliance will be exciting.

 And last, g4tv.com mentioned about social sites that don’t make it. If you don’t have a very specified niche site, you might not make it and social sites are starting to fall off. You can’t maintain them all! A gal was talking about a backlash. There may just be one within a couple months.

Because He has brought me to more places, got me out of more scrapes than I could do on my own. I accepted Jesus when I was 18. On one hand, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was following the man who wound up being my husband, we’re still married. For a long time I didn’t understand, went my own way. He just hadn’t started working in me yet. I went to college but you might say Satan had a healthy hold of me then. I was making passing grades but I was really partying pretty hard. Then one day a college friend said something, I don’t remember what, but I snapped. Something inside me said it was time to leave. I did the opposite of what my parents told me to do once I got home and gave them their first granddaughter. I was really confused for probably 7 years til I left for the southwest. I had a goal to work with horses so I went to where one of the major international shows was held, Scottsdale, AZ. It took most everything I had to complete that AAS degree. As far as getting a job out there for that, again God may have been speaking. People would get their education in the desert and go back to the state they came from. That was really common. I couldn’t do that, didn’t want to. I wanted to stay in the desert so I didn’t find any work in that field. I wound up doing what I still do – phone marketing until one day He hit me with a 2 x 4. WHAM! My life was turned upside down by my brother in law passing away in a tragic accident. He put me in shock for a year while He guided my steps. We bought a used Winnebago and again without His hand we wouldn’t have made it back to the northeast. It was time for my family to increase. He has something in mind for the two new kids He gave me. I’ve held onto Him for dear life since then because I know I couldn’t have done this on my own.

 There’s times I need to just “stop the world” and listen to Him. Sometimes I can. In a number of ways I’ve given up much of myself to follow Him. Many moms say they “lose themselves” in their kids, eventually gaining that back as the kids reach teenage. I can relate to that. The mom’s interests are “put on hold” or go dormant until such time as they can resurface. And the couple time for my husband and I is rarely there anymore as we work toward the common goal of providing, raising these last two kids.

 God will do amazing things – if you’ll let Him.

Are there still boiler rooms out there I wonder. It’s been many years since I’ve been in one and I won’t set foot into another one again. The technology is there, among other things, to not only hire independent contractors that can flex but the phone, marketing systems have evolved as well.

 You dial fast, you’re willing to go through the phone system a business has, you market to them in a way they’ll listen or you’re banging your head against a wall, you leave messages, you listen to the person and frankly you don’t care if the person calls you back or not. Shut the emotions off. I’m often happy to reach voicemails depending on the job. As for fast dialing, many phone systems will allow you to cut and paste numbers into a field and a click sends you on your way. Some businesses have mazes for phone systems that leave you with your head swimming after so many hours. You might not know who to ask for, the contact person might have changed etc, just two reasons I’ll hunt for an operator. If you get a voicemail for that person, you might write down to try back another day. You should really only attempt a business 2-3 times. Beyond that and you’re becoming a rude telemarketer. I’ve been under instructions to contact a business more than 3 times. It’s not uncommon for a person to finally pick up in irritation: “Thanks, I got your message”. It’s a “don’t call us, we’ll call you”, i.e. not interested.

 “Market to them in a way they’ll listen”. The phone takes up enormous amounts of time, that’s why people are hired to do that. A business’ channels for listening range from a call is best to voicemail to only communicating via email to filling out a particular form online or US Mail. On the US Mail, that’s actually usually a sign the person isn’t interested since when people want information they want it as soon as possible or ASAP so email, fax, phone and contact name is happily provided. Usually. I’ve run into situations where email was down or no computer, fax was broken and the person on the other end is pleading to have you send something via the mail, it’s the only way they’ll get it! That’s one of the instances where listening is necessary. One of many.

 Leave messages. I can just see the looks on my old phone room managers’ faces at that little phrase. Their brains fall out of their heads – leave messages?! Are you nuts?! That’s a huge time waster! To that I say, “Is it?”

 Remember the human factor.

Why would anybody want to do phone work for 20 years? Phone work is high burnout, high turnover. There’s a lot of rejection. Many people can’t deal with it. But it’s been a very effective sales and marketing tool for many years. I’ve stuck with it because I’ve learned to listen which is a rare quality today so when somebody does it, results often happen.

We’re all aware of your “standard” telemarketer: very aggressive, tries to get you to stay on the phone, objects you clean off it in irritation, frustration. What is accomplished by that?! Absolutely nothing. Both people get off that phone with headaches and a bad taste in their mouth. Phone workers are the scourge of the marketing world to the point of where businesses now commonly either have recordings they’re zipped off to or outright messages on their websites: If you call us, you will NOT be listened to! You will do business with us OUR way or we WON’T do business! Only the wording sometimes isn’t quite so strong.

Enter a consultant. I already know going in I’m intruding. The phone is a very intrusive marketing tool with a lot of unpleasant social stigma attached. A receptionist picks up. I’m already in trouble within 10 

seconds because I announce my name & who I’m calling for/from & it’s a business she doesn’t recognize so I’m screened heavily. “What is this regarding?” Going around her will do me no good so I’m on the level with her, allowing an intelligent receptionist so judge whether this service is even needed.

When was the last time a receptionist was treated with the dignity s/he’s earned?

That right there will either get you an immediate “in” or s/he will zip you off into a sometimes anonymous answering machine which may or may not be answered, meaning the answer is “no” and s/he may not have the time to deal with this. A definite yes or no answer. Isn’t that what we’re shooting for here, the process of elimination? Find out where your market isn’t? Because although your product, your service may be great, everybody should want it: not everybody will buy it.

The PR or public relations factor now needs to be considered. It takes a lot more time & $ to find new customers than it does to keep the current ones happy. Consider a possible exchange between me and a phone room manager:

S/he listens to a conversation in which I appear to let a prospect go.

“Why did you do that?”

“There’s no interest”

“But you didn’t even try to offer a rebuttal!”

Under the right conditions, I will attempt one. But if the person’s tone of voice is flat, it does neither them nor me any good. If they seem to waver, seem to have said something just as a reaction rather than thinking about it, I’ll try. On the off chance, should this person remember the company name, do you want it to be associated with the negative stigma of telemarketing? Or would you rather it be somebody who listened when they said no?

Another uncommon thing I do is leave messages on answering machines. Telemarketers are told to never do that because you’re wasting your time talking to a machine that may never return the call. This is a different world now. People have learned telemarketers ignore machines so it’s common that machines are set up as a defense. On your travels, dialings, leave a 2 line msg with a contact name & phone. I’d also suggest leaving an email if I’d seen evidence people would respond to it, but i’ve not seen it. Depending on the product/svc/market, I get return calls, sometimes even messages are left on my machine. If I’m able to pick up that phone, it’s often a lead. People are busy. Respect their time. If there’s interest, they’ll often respect your time in return.

Knowing and respecting human behavior is necessary to succeed in sales. What motivates somebody to do something? A very important set of initials to remember: “WIIFM”, or “What’s In It For Me”. Why should I buy what you have? Why should I bother listening to you? If you’re able to answer those questions to their satisfaction and provide info either via email or fax, you’ll likely have that appointment/sale and likely even a loyal customer. People don’t feel they’re being listened to over the phone. When you prove that you ARE listening, they become all ears, listening to YOU. When I ask 

about follow up once I’ve sent information, I’ll say something like, “I’ll put the ball in your court. You know your schedule better than I do. I want to give you the time to look this information over, to make an informed decision. When should I follow up?” You’re calling their bluff here. If it turns out there’s actual interest, you’ll either contact them or their voicemail and you’ll wind up talking via email or phone 1 way or another. If they were just throwing a fax or email out to you and you never talk to them again, they weren’t interested to begin with. You can cut your losses, mark them off your list. I can turn my phone skills on and off like a switch. It’s not personal, I’m looking to direct the response on the other end, to judge interest. I try to err on the side of providing a lead that might not be qualified because maybe I misjudged their tone of voice, behavior. Maybe they had a fight at home that morning. Maybe they just had a major event happen in their life. Death, birth, marriage, divorce, job changes, moving etc. are all stressful events and people will react. Give people the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. I love building relationships. I can relate to frustration very well. All phone work needs to be brief always. People don’t have much time to talk. If they do, they’ll let you know. Follow up is often crucial to success.

Another negative about phone work is insisting that a deal, appointment be solidified without seeing information faxed or emailed. There’s been SO much fraud done that way so I expect people to want to see information before making a decision.

You’ve reached a sales and marketing consultant since 1989.  I’ve done things unconventionally for 20 years with startling results.  I’ve always loved helping people, I’m considering roles as a coach, testing blogging waters.