THE COLD CALL CONUNDRUM

1. THE COLD CALL CONUNDRUM Research Deck by Jennifer Jost

2. Research questions • How does the sales representatives personality outside of the classroom affects their selling techniques? • How do the sales representatives respond to rejections? • How does rejection affect sellers future calls? • What do the students believe the hardest part of selling is? • What is the preferred method of selling? Why?

3. Methodology • I studied this phenomenon during the office hours of the students in the Advertisement Workshop class. I did my office hours while they are doing their so I can be a participant in the study. To protect their identity, I used a suffix then added a random letter to it. I used this mixture as their name.

4. Personality & Sales

5. Observations 5/6 Students preferred go-sees over cold calling *1 was indifferent 4/7 Students don’t feel like they are good at sales 3/7 Students were negatively affected by rejection from clients 2/7 Students tend to avoid making calls entirely *Do research majority of office hours

6. 5/6 Students preferred go-sees over cold calling *1 was indifferent What do we do about this? I believe that this information should be incorporated to remake the foundation of the Advertising Workshop class. Currently, no formal instruction on how to actually conduct a go-see, how to put together a presentation or how to sell in person is in place. I propose that over two weeks, students learn go-see selling techniques (among other important lessons) instead of immediately starting to make calls.

7. 4/7 Students don’t feel like they are good at sales What do we do about this? This feeling of not being good at sales stems from this being most of the students first time making any sort of sales. From my observations, they are just not confident in their sales techniques. I believe that this can be helped if the two week informational classes are put in place.

8. 3/7 Students were negatively affected by rejection from clients What do we do about this? Getting rejected from anyone is hard but it is a common situation for a sales person to be in. Again training the students for these types of situations may better help deal with it. Also, I’ve noticed that the staff, myself included, rarely encourages the students on their work. Everyone gets really excited when a sale is made but the day to day calls and small wins go unnoticed.

9. 2/7 Students tend to avoid making calls entirely *Do research majority of office hours What do we do about this? Obviously some students are more motivated learners than others but students that don’t make their calls are denying themselves the opportunity to get better. I believe that one student (Lady G) is reluctant to call because she does not like being rejected. The other student (Monsieur F) extremely dislikes talking to clients on the phone and prefers to sell on go-sees instead. I believe that both of these problems could be solved with more training. Practice may be their issue. During the two-week training period, student can practice playing both the role of sales person and client.