For once I think I know what they mean when they say Thank God it's Friday. After spending the whole week doing telemarketing in both the morning and the evening-in the morning setting up appointments for people to see a home improvement demonstration and at night to look at their credit to see if they can get refinanced this 3 day weekend is really going to be therapy.
Trying to get people to do what you're trying to get them to do on the phone is tricky enough but what makes it even tougher is when problems with their spouse get into it. Yesterday was a case in point.
Early in the day I had homeowner on the phone who agreed to let the company come and look at his roof-he had some issue with a fiber optic thing hanging or something-I never claimed I'm an expert on home improvement-far from it-just that I set appointments for it. One rule that this company I work at in Melville has is the 'No one legger rule.' They refuse to meet with just one spouse-both have to be there.
So the guy quizzed me on this and I admitted I had just a vague idea what it was but that he should trust the filed guys as they're great-been doing this their whole life and know everything about fiber optic wires or whatever. I win him over and he says fine come over. However, when I get to the 'will you and your wife be there' he's like 'what do you need her there for-c'mon I'm the guy, you agree the guy makes the decisions right?
Now, as you know your Diary of a Republican host so well, of course I'm no chauvinist. But, on the phone I'm pretty much not going to argue with anyone about anything. I mean if I guy denies the Holocaust I got nothing to say if I can get an appointment-I know but it's catch fish or starve you know?
So I treat him with care. I'm like: 'Yeah, I understand. You're probably right-I doubt you need her there. Still, it's company policy my hands are tied. Listen, if she can just be there, she doesn't have to say anything, just be in the house.'
Me and this guy then have a 30 minute chat about how great Elvis Presley is-he's mostly saying this and I'm agreeing-Ok, I wouldn't actually agree if he told me there was no Holocaust though I might not protest real strenuously. In any case, I like Elvis well enough though I don't agree that Bon Jovi can't hold a candle to him-for some reason the guy felt compelled to offer up BJ as the foil of the King-'see they don't make them like the King no more'-this just shows he's an older guy. I actually quite like BJ-at least Bad Medicine-but he's hardly contemporary.
This music appreciation sessuib got started because I told the guy one of my phone riffs: I'm a struggling college students trying to pay tuition by doing this home improvement telemarketing thing. When he asked me what my major is-I always say I go to Hofstra; it 's not all lies but it's not all true either-I say what I always say-I started out as a music major but decided to transfer to economics-as though I love music it can't pay the bills. Again, you can see how I interlace truth and fiction-I haven't actually done much econ in college but I do have a major hard-on for econ-my actually degree is accounting and I am just a class or two away from a Master's in finance-though I did my graduate work online not anywhere near Hofstra; I would love to go there however as they have all these hot girls who are also real smart and all.
He urges me not to leave music. He asks me what I play-I say piano, which is the truth. I took lessons as a kid and have been playing lately and am happy to see that I haven't forgotten but am getting better all the time. He tells me to keep playing and says he wants to hear a CD of mine sometime. We set up the appointment.
Then comes confirmation. Now if you've done appointment setting or sales, confirmation should be short and sweet. You want to be real concise and say as little as possible. Now the manager Ray-who I have a good rapport with-usually does a good job confirming. However, on this day-Thursday August 29, he has to go to the Dr. In fact he leaves just after I finish with the guy. I tell him I got the lead. He says great but that I should hand it off to Frank. Now Frank is the oldest employee in the room-both in age and in his time with the company. He's quite a know it all. He likes t think he has special clout with the owner and actually got into it with Ray in the past because he thinks he's the boss.
So Frank finally gets his chance to be in the chair and what does he do? He basically does his usual 20 minute Frank pitch. Then when he gets to the 'Is there a Mrs.' question, the guy starts riffing again. Now, when he says he doesn't need his wife there, Frank lectures him that it's his wife's home too-not untrue but not helpful when I'm trying to put a lead on. So he bruises the guy's ego and he hangs up. It was absurd as the guy's wife was there but he was being stubborn. By lecturing him he did exactly the wrong thing, the approach was wrong. Again, the approach should have been to agree with him, take his side but say it's just company policy and I have no control of it-which is true anyway.
Later that night at my second job at the mortgage place in Lindenhurst. I get a guy on the phone. From what he's saying it sounds like he and his wife have been denied refinancing before. Still, I argue he might as well try with us as there's nothing to lose-if we can't help him he's no worse off yet on the other hand maybe we can in which case he'll be better off. He says ok and we start. I get everything from him-his interest rate, principle, the cost of the house, it's current value, etc.
His income, everything. However, I save one question for the end as I've learned in two short weeks this one question is a doozy: asking for the Social Security number. A lot of people refuse to do it. Some do give it with no problem but a lot give you trouble. When I can't budge them I offer to let them fax their credit report and just cross out the SS#-which is what we need to see if we can actually give them a good deal-and often they'll say ok. Trouble is at the end of the day promises don't get you anything. Nobody is out there hustling to send you out papers especially via fax as who has a fax machine today? Most people have to go out and make a special trip and send that fax and it's not free either. Faxing is a pain in the neck. I found it a real pain when I was on Unemployment Insurance and had to fax my pay stubs.
So you want to get their SS then and there. Anyway this guy was cool. However, he then made a comment which I realized right away was going to be the kiss of death: his wife was in the room telling him that they needed to get more information about us first. I countered to him that we were almost finished doing this for him now and that we'd get the packet out to him real quick-within 3 days and then he'd have all our info at his finger tips. He seemed cool with this explanation and we continued. Then I asked him for his wife's birthday-again, she's in the room bitching.
He gives it to me but I know this next jump is going to be the widow-maker-and no way is the bike I'm riding high powered enough to make the jump. I ask for the SS. I love this guy. He's like "Uh oh." That's exactly what I'm thinking. He knows his wife is going to nix this and that's what happened. So spousal politics struck again. Still, I have gotten some loans my first two weeks and in a good sign, the owner-I hadn't even realized this guy was the owner until a couple of days ago, actually said goodbye to me as I left on Thursday night. Have a good weekend Mike. You're doing a great job.
I do have his email so I can email him some company info later. Maybe I can try calling him on my cell and trey to get his cell. If she had been out shopping it would be on.
So this has been my week. Any wonder I'm actually going around agreeing with that catchphrase 'Thank God it's Friday?'
Meanwhile, I see that Tom and Greg have been having some real good discussions with some great links to different skirmishes with Sumner, Cullen Roche, Krugman, Nick Rowe, etc. Thanks guys. This is really what I hope Diary will be in the long term. A place that will just be a great resource for people who want to learn and gain facts and knowledge.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/08/contributing-to-krugman-piece-major-eco.html?showComment=1377920862101#c7643209725980557151
I got to catch up with this whole great thread this weekend. It may well lead to future posts. Of course, the great thing about comments is that it encourages other readers to try commenting sometime-in the long term I hope to be able to routinely get 20, 40, or 50 comments. I do get this amount of comments on certain highly read posts but not generally. In any case, thanks guys. Only time will tell where this ends up exactly but I do have big ambitions of Diary and they will be met one way or the other. Thanks to all who read Diary. If you read everyday and don't comment I'm grateful to you too. of course. No matter what blog or website you're talking about the majority of readers don't leave comments and they're still very important.
Have a great Labor Day all Diary readers. I truly do love you all. Really.
P.S. Oh, yeah. The hot dog eating contest. I was asked to participate in one tonight. How could I say no? I kind of felt that my whole life had been working towards this moment. I didn't get first but I did get a solid second and got a trophy-and $10 dollar coupon to boot over at the Starry Night Cafe over in Hicksville.
Actually I might have won but I really like eating for pleasure rather than speed. Give me a contest that goes for total eaten over say 20 minutes and that I could win easily. I'm not so much a sprinter I guess. I could perhaps but don't really want to be. So we had 2 minutes to eat as many hot dogs as we could-we were given a total of 6 and we had 2 minutes.. I ate two dogs in 2 minutes. I actually thought I was winning as did the actual eventual winner. I thought I only had two dogs left, not seeing that I had another dog underneath the two at top. Next time I will have a better strategy. More water, maybe even smaller bites. The key is that when you finish one dog it's real hard to start the second if you haven't even entirely swallowed the first dog.
Trying to get people to do what you're trying to get them to do on the phone is tricky enough but what makes it even tougher is when problems with their spouse get into it. Yesterday was a case in point.
Early in the day I had homeowner on the phone who agreed to let the company come and look at his roof-he had some issue with a fiber optic thing hanging or something-I never claimed I'm an expert on home improvement-far from it-just that I set appointments for it. One rule that this company I work at in Melville has is the 'No one legger rule.' They refuse to meet with just one spouse-both have to be there.
So the guy quizzed me on this and I admitted I had just a vague idea what it was but that he should trust the filed guys as they're great-been doing this their whole life and know everything about fiber optic wires or whatever. I win him over and he says fine come over. However, when I get to the 'will you and your wife be there' he's like 'what do you need her there for-c'mon I'm the guy, you agree the guy makes the decisions right?
Now, as you know your Diary of a Republican host so well, of course I'm no chauvinist. But, on the phone I'm pretty much not going to argue with anyone about anything. I mean if I guy denies the Holocaust I got nothing to say if I can get an appointment-I know but it's catch fish or starve you know?
So I treat him with care. I'm like: 'Yeah, I understand. You're probably right-I doubt you need her there. Still, it's company policy my hands are tied. Listen, if she can just be there, she doesn't have to say anything, just be in the house.'
Me and this guy then have a 30 minute chat about how great Elvis Presley is-he's mostly saying this and I'm agreeing-Ok, I wouldn't actually agree if he told me there was no Holocaust though I might not protest real strenuously. In any case, I like Elvis well enough though I don't agree that Bon Jovi can't hold a candle to him-for some reason the guy felt compelled to offer up BJ as the foil of the King-'see they don't make them like the King no more'-this just shows he's an older guy. I actually quite like BJ-at least Bad Medicine-but he's hardly contemporary.
This music appreciation sessuib got started because I told the guy one of my phone riffs: I'm a struggling college students trying to pay tuition by doing this home improvement telemarketing thing. When he asked me what my major is-I always say I go to Hofstra; it 's not all lies but it's not all true either-I say what I always say-I started out as a music major but decided to transfer to economics-as though I love music it can't pay the bills. Again, you can see how I interlace truth and fiction-I haven't actually done much econ in college but I do have a major hard-on for econ-my actually degree is accounting and I am just a class or two away from a Master's in finance-though I did my graduate work online not anywhere near Hofstra; I would love to go there however as they have all these hot girls who are also real smart and all.
He urges me not to leave music. He asks me what I play-I say piano, which is the truth. I took lessons as a kid and have been playing lately and am happy to see that I haven't forgotten but am getting better all the time. He tells me to keep playing and says he wants to hear a CD of mine sometime. We set up the appointment.
Then comes confirmation. Now if you've done appointment setting or sales, confirmation should be short and sweet. You want to be real concise and say as little as possible. Now the manager Ray-who I have a good rapport with-usually does a good job confirming. However, on this day-Thursday August 29, he has to go to the Dr. In fact he leaves just after I finish with the guy. I tell him I got the lead. He says great but that I should hand it off to Frank. Now Frank is the oldest employee in the room-both in age and in his time with the company. He's quite a know it all. He likes t think he has special clout with the owner and actually got into it with Ray in the past because he thinks he's the boss.
So Frank finally gets his chance to be in the chair and what does he do? He basically does his usual 20 minute Frank pitch. Then when he gets to the 'Is there a Mrs.' question, the guy starts riffing again. Now, when he says he doesn't need his wife there, Frank lectures him that it's his wife's home too-not untrue but not helpful when I'm trying to put a lead on. So he bruises the guy's ego and he hangs up. It was absurd as the guy's wife was there but he was being stubborn. By lecturing him he did exactly the wrong thing, the approach was wrong. Again, the approach should have been to agree with him, take his side but say it's just company policy and I have no control of it-which is true anyway.
Later that night at my second job at the mortgage place in Lindenhurst. I get a guy on the phone. From what he's saying it sounds like he and his wife have been denied refinancing before. Still, I argue he might as well try with us as there's nothing to lose-if we can't help him he's no worse off yet on the other hand maybe we can in which case he'll be better off. He says ok and we start. I get everything from him-his interest rate, principle, the cost of the house, it's current value, etc.
His income, everything. However, I save one question for the end as I've learned in two short weeks this one question is a doozy: asking for the Social Security number. A lot of people refuse to do it. Some do give it with no problem but a lot give you trouble. When I can't budge them I offer to let them fax their credit report and just cross out the SS#-which is what we need to see if we can actually give them a good deal-and often they'll say ok. Trouble is at the end of the day promises don't get you anything. Nobody is out there hustling to send you out papers especially via fax as who has a fax machine today? Most people have to go out and make a special trip and send that fax and it's not free either. Faxing is a pain in the neck. I found it a real pain when I was on Unemployment Insurance and had to fax my pay stubs.
So you want to get their SS then and there. Anyway this guy was cool. However, he then made a comment which I realized right away was going to be the kiss of death: his wife was in the room telling him that they needed to get more information about us first. I countered to him that we were almost finished doing this for him now and that we'd get the packet out to him real quick-within 3 days and then he'd have all our info at his finger tips. He seemed cool with this explanation and we continued. Then I asked him for his wife's birthday-again, she's in the room bitching.
He gives it to me but I know this next jump is going to be the widow-maker-and no way is the bike I'm riding high powered enough to make the jump. I ask for the SS. I love this guy. He's like "Uh oh." That's exactly what I'm thinking. He knows his wife is going to nix this and that's what happened. So spousal politics struck again. Still, I have gotten some loans my first two weeks and in a good sign, the owner-I hadn't even realized this guy was the owner until a couple of days ago, actually said goodbye to me as I left on Thursday night. Have a good weekend Mike. You're doing a great job.
I do have his email so I can email him some company info later. Maybe I can try calling him on my cell and trey to get his cell. If she had been out shopping it would be on.
So this has been my week. Any wonder I'm actually going around agreeing with that catchphrase 'Thank God it's Friday?'
Meanwhile, I see that Tom and Greg have been having some real good discussions with some great links to different skirmishes with Sumner, Cullen Roche, Krugman, Nick Rowe, etc. Thanks guys. This is really what I hope Diary will be in the long term. A place that will just be a great resource for people who want to learn and gain facts and knowledge.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/08/contributing-to-krugman-piece-major-eco.html?showComment=1377920862101#c7643209725980557151
I got to catch up with this whole great thread this weekend. It may well lead to future posts. Of course, the great thing about comments is that it encourages other readers to try commenting sometime-in the long term I hope to be able to routinely get 20, 40, or 50 comments. I do get this amount of comments on certain highly read posts but not generally. In any case, thanks guys. Only time will tell where this ends up exactly but I do have big ambitions of Diary and they will be met one way or the other. Thanks to all who read Diary. If you read everyday and don't comment I'm grateful to you too. of course. No matter what blog or website you're talking about the majority of readers don't leave comments and they're still very important.
Have a great Labor Day all Diary readers. I truly do love you all. Really.
P.S. Oh, yeah. The hot dog eating contest. I was asked to participate in one tonight. How could I say no? I kind of felt that my whole life had been working towards this moment. I didn't get first but I did get a solid second and got a trophy-and $10 dollar coupon to boot over at the Starry Night Cafe over in Hicksville.
Actually I might have won but I really like eating for pleasure rather than speed. Give me a contest that goes for total eaten over say 20 minutes and that I could win easily. I'm not so much a sprinter I guess. I could perhaps but don't really want to be. So we had 2 minutes to eat as many hot dogs as we could-we were given a total of 6 and we had 2 minutes.. I ate two dogs in 2 minutes. I actually thought I was winning as did the actual eventual winner. I thought I only had two dogs left, not seeing that I had another dog underneath the two at top. Next time I will have a better strategy. More water, maybe even smaller bites. The key is that when you finish one dog it's real hard to start the second if you haven't even entirely swallowed the first dog.
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