The last thing I wanted to do was to be a sales manager, because I loved to sell using my system of "The Magic of Numbers and Statistics in Sales." Teaching it to others would not be easy because other salespeople consider my system a fantasy.

I was assigned to our Newark, Ohio office, a terrible, poor performing office that was being completely overhauled. Even the current sales manager thought it was a disaster., and he was convinced no one could make any sales in Newark, Ohio.

The Newark sales manager's negative thoughts were so strong that everyone in the office believed there was no way to make sales in the city. I had been told to shut down the office but I persuaded senior management to let me try to rehabilitate the office, rather than shutting it down.

I knew this was a last ditch effort, and all the salespeople had been infected with negative ideas. I knew I had to correct that or Newark wouldn't produce any sales.

But I absolutely knew that people in Newark were not different than in any other town we had successfully sold. I knew the Newark office could make sales.

Our system had been successful everywhere, all we needed to change in Newark was the attitude.

Immediately I let everyone go. I told them that they were correct, this city would not produce sales, and they might as well go find work elsewhere. I knew that in their frame of mind it was an uphill battle and I was better off starting with a new crew.

One young woman begged me to stay. She said she loved her work, and didn't want to find another job.

I explained to her that I had higher quotas than her previous manager had. She had been expected before to write five hundred dollars per week, I expected one thousand five hundred dollars per week, three times her previous quota.

Teary eyed, she told me she would do whatever it took to make the new quota, she said she would be excited to triple her sales, if only she knew how.

I could truly feel this woman's sincerity. She was clearly open to learning a new way. And I knew that if she could accept it, I could show her the way to make those sales.

I explained exactly how she needed to follow the system step by step and I showed her how that would lead to making her quota. I showed her every single thing that needed to be done to succeed.

I explained to her that sales was more than just coming to work. You have to actually work while you're at work. You have to believe while your dialing that the people want what you have. You have to be kind, you have to be sincere, you have to transmute the feeling you have about the products and services to the prospect on the phone. Without this, nothing will ever happened.

By keeping track of her results by percentages, I showed her how to determine the number of sales she could count on per number of prospects contacted. . If for instance, if she started out making one sale for every 10 prospects she contacted that can be a number she can count on no matter what.

She would know how many presentations she had to do per sale, she would know how many presentations she had to make each day to make a certain number of sales in a week. If she wanted to make a certain amount of money in sales per week, that she would have to do a certain amount of presentations each week in order to get a certain amount of sales.

It was amazing to her the first week when she actually hit her goal. What seemed impossible had become possible! The second, third, and fourth, week it became more real and more true to her. Until finally she knew that it depended on her to do a certain amount of presentations, and that would lead to a certain number of sales, that would create a certain amount of income.

The next step: getting more sales from turning no's to yes's, by raising herconsistency and continually making her beliefs more positive. And the reward would be even more increases in income.

I hired more salespeople, and trained them side by side with the young woman who was aliving example of the things I was teaching them. Slowly I built up a group of five top salespeople, including the young woman. Everyone was making quota with the system.

Over time two salespeople from the old crew had come back to me and I allowed them to come back one at a time, and I taught them the new way. At this point I had a blended crew, some new members, and some members from the old sales team. Everyone used the new system, everyone was successful with it. But the greatest challenge was yet to come.

We were able to convert them to the thinking that Newark was a great place to work and makes sales, and that people wanted our products.

It was afternoon and I pulled out of the drawer the same sheets of numbers that had been used by the previous manager. They still held bookmarks of the unfinished area and notes about who had said no, who was not home, etc..

When the old crew saw me pull out the numbers, a chill shot across their face. They asked, we're not going to dial those are we? I said yes we are. These are wonderful numbers we are going to do great with them.

They really didn't want to call those numbers. They told me the numbers did not work. They told me those numbers led to the meanest people they ever called, people who slammed the phone down, wouldn't even talk... and even if they made a sale those people were never home when they tried to deliver.

But this, this was now a powerful crew. These were the best salespeople in this company. This was the team that had been setting records over every other office in the company.

It was quite an accomplishment for this sales team to have the top sales records in our very large multi-statecompany. I looked each of them in the eye and said, "TIt's different this time, and when you call those people, they will say yes!" There is nothing to fear from the old numbers, as long as you have a different attitude, you have new sales skills. You have sold Newark before. My dejected group told me it would would "Try". That was the warning.

To keep spirits up, I created a positive party-like atmosphere in our office. I made coffee, and brought in refreshments, and tried to keep the tone light with humor. But near the day's end, we had not made even one sale.

I had never left at the end of the work day without having made at least $700 in sales. .I had made a promise to my supervisor to never leave at the end of the day without at least $700 in sales. But all day my team had been calling, and the day was winding down. Normally we did $1200 or more per day in sales. I wasn't worried yet, even though we had made no progress.Certainly my people together could sell at least $700 in sales in only one hour if they put their skills to work.

I asked everyone to stop calling for a moment. The room was dark with fear and negative thoughts, the legacy that had been part of their office life from the old manager. These non productive negativities had taken them hostage again. I knew that the miasma was not coming from the numbers, they weren't bad luck. But it seemed very much like the bad stuff was attached to those numbers. Everything had been fine before we started on those sheets.

I reminded them that their success came from the changes they made in their beliefs and attitudes. It was not about the numbers,a nd it wasn't about the management. I simply pointed out to them their own innate sales skills, and showed them ways to help them put that drive into action. Success had come from skills they had already demonstrated, they could still take these numbers, and numbers, and make sales. I knew that.

Calling resumed, but I knew I was losing them. They were whining and complaining. I was losing my cool. Half an hour left and no sales.

I asked everyone to stop. I told them that I had made a promise never to turn in less than 700 dollars for one days sales to my supervisor and I am going to keep that promise even if we have less than half an hour left today. I have listened to your concerns, even your complaints and whining all day.

I know that you are the best crew I have ever had, and probably one of the best I will ever have. But you have let me down.Now that is fine, because I have let people down also. But mostly I am concerned that you have let yourselves down. You have let this poison of negative thought infect you, and I have to show you that it is only yourself stopping you. It is not the people we are dialing.

They knew I was angry when I asked them to give me the very worst sheet of numbers in the room. They agreed with little delay on a specific sheet on numbers. I took it, and I announced that we would make that $700 today if I had to do it all myself. I told them to get the drivers ready to deliver product and pick up checks. I warned them that we were going to be very busy in a short while.

I pointed to my number one and number 2 sales writers, "you and you, I will not have time to write down these sales, so you will need to fill out the order forms as you hear me repeat the customer's name".Our average sale was $35.00, so I was going to have to make 20 sales in about 20 minutes. I knew I had no time to take a no. Everyone had to say yes to me. I knew, that if I believed, no one could say no to me, if I was sincere, if I believed I was doing the right thing, If I believed I was doing something good for someone, and I did.

So I made that first call and I sold the first person I talked to, and I sold second person I talked to, and I sold the third person I talked to.It was true! Not one of them could say no to me. I was truly at the top of my game! And I was proving to my people that they could choose not to allow the negativity in their minds to stop their sales. I was showing them they could control it.

When the time clock told us the working day was over and I was down to what my people told me were the "worst of the worst" numbers, I made the seven hundred dollars of quota I told them I would make. The drivers who had been made ready successfull delivered product and collected the checks. My sales team was floored. They had seen it with their own eyes.Now they knew I would never, ever accept "bad numbers" as an excuse for lack of sales.

Although my 5 people had to share 3 phones, and we were calling an area no one else wanted, but now they knew that success was up to them. That was just the beginning. My five person sales team outsold other offices with twelve, even fifteen people on sales staff. We were given what they considered the worst sales territory to try to bring us down, but we were undaunted. We made our highest sales figures ever in the "worst territory."

The rest of the company was satisfied with 5 sales out of each 100 contacts. But in our office at least half of everyone we talked to became a sale. That's one out of two.

The rest of the company averaged 5 sales out of each 100 contacts. But in our sales room, at least half of everyone we talked to became a sale. The sales team I had trained was doing better even than I had done as an individual sales person, and I had sold approximately one out of every three, which was a very respectable number and made me a top salesperson. The sales were unbelievably high. But my sales team knew it was true, because they were doing it.