You’re Rewarded With Performance, Not Promises
You’re Rewarded With Performance, Not Promises
Take this company selling encyclopedias as an example. With 12 new recruits, Tan is one of them. The sale manager began by explaining that the company was planning a major sale effort in the area within several months and the first phase of this campaign involved placing free sets of encyclopedias in a number of homes with children. All the families would need to do to receive the free books was sign up for a fantastic research program the company offered the owners of their encyclopedias and be willing to write a letter of recommendation that it could use in future sales drives.
Most of the morning was a discussion of how the research program worked and how fortunate it would be for a family with children to be able to subscribe to it without having to spend several hundred dollars to buy the encyclopedias first. The catch, if there was one, was that the subscription to the research program was several hundred dollars.
When the group broke for lunch, the new recruits went to a nearby fast food restaurant to eat, where they talked about the morning session. “That guy must think we’re stupid,” one said. “Yeah, what does he take us for, a bunch of fools?” another one said. “All he wants us to do is go out and sell encyclopedias and tell people they’re getting them for free if they will sign up for their big fancy research program.” “you guys can go back and listen to more of that bluff if you want,” the first one said. “but I didn’t take this job to be a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. I’m going home and look for a real job.” “yeah, me too,” the second one said. “I’m not going back either.”
“Don’t you think you should at least give it a try?” Tan asked. “We’ve only been here half a day, and even if it is selling encyclopedias, what’s wrong with that as long as we get paid?”
“Well it’s not for us, the first and second responded in unison. From this, Tan learned a lesson that served him well in future years. Losers always move in the direction of doing nothing. Winners always move in the direction of doing something and making things work.
When the group returned from lunch, there were only 10 of them, minus the two who decided to leave. When the sales manager entered the room, it was instantly apparent that something had happened. The level of enthusiasm that had been there during the morning session was gone. It felt more like a funeral wake than the first day of a new job.
“Okay, what’s up?”. the manager asked. Everyone just sat there with long faces until Tan spoke up. “We were talking at lunch,” he said, “and two of the guys said that this was nothing but a door-to-door encyclopedia sales job and it was not for them. They aren’t coming back.”
“Yeah, it looks that way to me too,” said one of the recruits. “I can understand your concerns,” the sales manager replied. “When I first came to work with the company, I felt the same way, but once I learned more about it, I had a better understanding of the company’s program. You see, hardly anyone wants to buy a set of encyclopedias but they will buy a research program that helps their children in school. So from that standpoint, yes, you will be selling, but it won’t be encyclopedias. When you make a placement, you will legitimately be giving families a new set of encyclopedias and asking them to purchase the research program.
“Now here’s the kicker — you aren’t stupid and neither was I. We all know the company can’t stay in business giving away its product. What we’re banking on is that children will be able to find so much of what they need in the encyclopedias that they won’t use the research program that much. And for every family that enjoys the books and sends us a nice testimonial letter, it gives us more credibility when we talk with new people.
“I didn’t mean to get into this so soon, but let me show you something,” and with that, he brought out a big notebook filled with letters from satisfied customers and passed them around to the groups.
“So our jobs will be to make as many placements as possible, correct?” Tan asked. He was determined that he wasn’t in the overall marketing strategy, he just wanted to get started making money.
“That's true,” the sales manager replied, “as long as you make at least one placement per week, we will pay you $100 per week. Eventually, when you learn our system better, you will be given an opportunity to earn even more based on your performance.”
“That sounds good to me,” Tan said. “I am ready to start learning.” The following day, two more of the recruits called in and quit, but this did not deter Tan. He threw himself wholeheartedly into learning the way the company operated and how they wanted him to present himself and their products to prospects. They were classes on how to dress, how to greet people when they came to the door, how to introduce himself, how to invite himself into their homes, how to build rapport, how to introduce the encyclopedias, how to present the research program, how children in school could use it, how parents could use it to help with homework and more.
By the end of the two weeks training program, two more of the recruits have left, but Tan had taken the training seriously. He worked at home memorizing the materials and practiced over and over what he would say and how he would act. Now he was eager to get out in the field and go to work. Most of the remaining recruits were enthusiastic too, cautiously hesitant at the same time.
On the afternoon of the final training day, the sales manager asked, “How many of you are sure you will be able to make at least one placement a week?”
All hands went up. He continued, “As you can recall, I have said you would have an opportunity to be rewarded for performance if you wanted it. You’ve completed your training and are now ready to go to work. You’ve all raised your hand indicating that you are sure you will be able to make at least one placement per week. As you know, that’s the minimum requirement for the company to be able to guarantee your $100 a week salary.
“If you would like to be rewarded for performance, not promises, here’s the deal I am going to offer you. You can choose to accept the $100 per week salary and have it paid to you regularly with the understanding that each six-week period you will be evaluated to see if you have made an average of one placement per week, or you can forgo this guaranteed salary and we will pay $100 for each placement you make with no guaranteed salary.
In other words, if you make two placements per week, you will make $200, but if you don’t make any, you won’t get paid that week. This is totally your choice, so I’m going to leave the room for a few minutes and let you think about it before you make your decision. Whichever choice you make, you will be able to change it later, but not until your six-week review comes up.”
“I‘m going to take the fixed salary option for the first six weeks,” one said, “Me too,” another said. “This all sounds good but I want to wait and see how hard it is before running the risk of not getting paid some weeks.”
“Well, I’m sure I can do it, so I am going for the performance-based plan,” Tan said. “If I can’t make at least one placement a week, I don’t need to be working here.”
The sales manager then passed the form to each recruit to indicate their choice of pay plan. Tan was the only one who choose performance over promise.
The following Tuesday would be their first day in the field. That weekend, Tan spent every available hour practicing and rehearsing what he would say and do when he started making calls. Out of the 12 new hires, only 6 remain to take the field.
Come Tuesday, the sales manager held a meeting prior to going into the field. One of the requirements is, at the end of the day, everyone should be at their pick-up point no later than 9.30 pm.
Tan was the first one to be dropped off, and as it turned out, he ended up being the last to be picked up. He didn’t make it back to the pick-up point until almost 10 pm and the sales manager was angry. “I told you to be here by 9.30 pm,” he said, “you’ve kept everyone waiting for half hour.”
“What do you want me to do, walk out on someone who wanted the program without getting their order, just so I could get back here on time,” Tan replied.
“You mean you make a placement?” one of the new recruits asked. “Yes,” Tan replied, “didn’t you?”
“No,” the recruit replied, “I must have knocked on 50 doors and I didn’t ever get to talk with anyone, not one presentation.”
“Same here,” the other recruit said. “Tan, let me see the contract you got for your placement,” the sale manager ask. “Which one,” Tan replied. “you mean you made more than one?” “yes, I only got to call on seven houses, but I made a placement in three of them.”
“What!” the sales manager exclaimed. “Let me see.” Tan pulled out the contracts from his bag and handed them to him. “How did you do it?” the new recruit asked. “It is simple,” Tan said. “I just did exactly what we were trained to do.”
“Tan, this is unbelievable,” the sales manager said. “ I don’t think I have ever heard anyone making three placements on their first day in the field. But Tan wasn’t impressed with the fact that he might have pulled off a first, what impressed him was that he had earned $300 in a single day. That was as much as four-week work if he compare this to his previous job.
The next day he learned that of the five other new recruits, only one had made a placement. The other four talked about how many doors they knocked on and how difficult it had been to get to talk with anyone.
On the second day, Tan only make one placement. On his third day, he made two. By the end of the week, he had made eight and earned $800. Three of the remaining recruits who started the same day as he did had quit, two of them, without making a single placement.
Tan was ecstatic. He had never made so much money, yet during the whole week, he noticed that all of the other recruits did was complain and make excuses. Tan continues to practice and rehearse in his spare time. Whenever he made a call that was not successful, he would make notes and try to determine where he had gone wrong. His delivery and success rate continue to improve and there was talk of promotion when the 6-week review period is due.
So, always stay committed to a project. You may hear 1,000 excuses for why other people aren’t successful, but if you stay committed and look for ways to make it work, you won’t have to make excuses.
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That’s all for now, my friends. See you all in my next article.
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