When we think of employment, we think in one of three terms: Trade, Career, or Calling.
My “Calling” is public speaking. But do you know what my “Trade” is? My “Trade” is: Legal Secretary!
I was really good at something I really hated. Ever been there? Really good at something you really hate? Since I was a kid at 15 clerking in my dad’s law office, that’s where I’d been. For 20 years, I sat on some wobbly, rink-a-dink chair with one to three lawyers leaning over my shoulders breathing fire down my back. Did you know legal secretaries have the highest risk of heart attack, more than any other industry? It’s true. Last law office I worked in, a secretary fell dead in the hallway, her files in her hand.
Then came the day of rescue. A Career. A career in Lawgic Publishing. Lawgic Publishing is a legal software company who came by my law office selling a special software to Family Law practitioners like me. (By the way, I don’t know why they call it “Family Law” when all we do is break up families, but that’s for another speech!!). I asked, “Are you hiring these days?” They answered, “As a matter of fact we are! We are looking for legal professionals who are looking to make a career move into sales. We found our regular sales folk can’t pitch to lawyers. Lawyers only come to the phone for other lawyers or other legal professionals.” “Are you interested in joining us?”
Of course, I would join! Who wouldn’t want to walk into a lawyer’s office, take a chunk of his money and be able to walk back out again; free from that wobbly, rink-a-dink chair?
When I applied later, I was hired on the spot.
The sales training I received from Lawgic was telephone sales. Selling on the telephone is very different than any other kind of sales. Yet, the principles and techniques behind sales can be used at any time - in any relationship. You remember the Bob Dylan song, “Ya gotta serve somebody!” Well, we gotta serve somebody all the time, don’t we? Sales is service.
Once you get the knack of sales, you can sell just about anything.
And ladies, this pitch is for you. Sales is one of the few industries where the sky is the limit on how much money we can make. With every other trade, most times we are chained to the chair. With sales as your career, there is no ceiling to how much we can earn.
I. It All Begins In Our Mind
A) Visualize: Success, Loved Ones, Things you like to do
B) Telephone: Call a friend/Bookend to call back
C) Photo of someone or something you love
D) Mirror – Smile! Ears Have Eyes
II. Work With The Gatekeeper
A) Ask for person on first name basis
B) “Referred to me regarding a project I’m working on.”
III. When You Call In
A) One voicemail only
B) Call hourly
C) Call before or after hours
IV. What To Say – How To Begin
A) “I was thinking of you”
B) “I have a client in the same field who suggested I call you…”
C) Have a grabber 30-second script requiring “Yes” questions only
D) “How does that sound?”
V. The Objection
A) Feel
B) Felt
C) Found
VI. The Close
A)
Once closed, have the courage to be quiet.
VII. Rejection
A) Not personal to you
B) 1 step closer to a “Yes!”
C) Edison experience. 3,000 theories for the electric light bulb before finding bamboo filament.
Edison did not see this as 2999 failures but 2999 steps closer to a solution.
Edison was asked: “Isn't it a shame, that with the tremendous amount of work you have done, you haven't been able to get any results?”
Edison turned in a flash and with a smile replied: 'Results! Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! I know several thousand things that won't work!'"