My duties with the company are actually quite varied. I am the official web designer, webmaster, and internet marketer. I am also the designated ‘writer’ for when things need to be written in English for the company. I am the sales manager, which means that I am supposed to generate baby shoe sales as much as possible. I am also the stand-in factory manager and shipping manager, when Jeff or Lee are out of town.
Today, I am going to talk about my least favorite of these activities: telemarketing. Now, to begin, I want to say that I am not one of those people who call your house at random and drive you absolutely bananas. I call baby stores and try to speak with the manager or owner of the store about carrying our baby shoes as one of their products. Doesn’t sound that bad, does it?
To be honest, I am not sure why telemarketing is so hard for me. As a young teenager, I spent literally thousands of hours selling Daily Oklahoman newspaper subscriptions door to door; and I was good at it! I once made $1,500 in 2 weeks, as a 14 year old! The most money I have ever made in one day was when I was just 14 or 15. I sold 31 subscriptions in about 5 hours one evening in Oklahoma City and made $290. If only I could make that kind of money now, when I really need it!
Back to the woes of telemarketing. I just can’t get myself excited about calling a baby store and trying to sell a bulk order of 25 pair to the manager. Maybe I would be more enthusiastic if there was an occasional success story thrown in the mix. So far, things have been very slow. More often than not, people just don’t take the time to listen. One guy, when I casually said “Hello, my name is ——— and I am calling today from the foothills of Tibet”, responded with a smirk, “Yeah, right”. It sounded like he wanted to say something like, “Yeah, and I’m answering today from the Sahara Desert”. What he didn’t realize was that I was not joking. I can see the Tibetan Plateau out my kitchen window.
Personally, I would much rather talk to someone face to face, than over the phone. (Does this sound like another blog I read somewhere once?) As a kid, I could sell a lot of newspaper subscriptions, precisely because I could make friends with a person after chatting with them for a few moments. We use to joke around about how amazing our job was. We would be out on the street one moment, baking at 5 p.m. in 95 degree September heat, then the next minute we were sitting in someone’s entryway, drinking a cold Dr Pepper and watching the owner of the home write us a $35 check. It was amazing!
Over the phone, there are a lot more obstacles in the way of really getting to know someone. You can’t see facial or body expressions. You can’t even see what type of person you are talking to. Most people you can see more or less the kind of person they are by the clothes they wear, the way they do their hair, or the way the decorate their home or office. Over the phone, it is a complete blank. You could be talking to anyone! And you have to talk in such a general way that it is hard to really ‘hit it off’ with anyone.
So, to bring this post to a close, my plea to each of you is that you pray for me! I might not like telemarketing, but it is a necessary part of what I am doing. Plateau Baby Shoes must sell more shoes to stay in business. If Plateau Baby Shoes goes out of business, then I lose my visa to live in this country. So, in a roundabout way, telemarketing is helping to provide my entryway into Asia’s Highlands. So please pray that I would be consistent and that we would sell some baby shoes.
If there is anyone who would like to help us sell more shoes, or if you would like to buy some baby shoes for people (children) you know, please either write me at my business e-mail address (
[email protected]) or visit our website:
www.plateauproducts.com
Blessings,
Eugene
