"Would you like to save a child for only one dollar a day?" Part 2

The day of observation came. I bussed over, this time, dressed in a less extreme fashion: wearing only a shirt and tie. I was prepared for a very tiring day. Being curious as to what type of job this could be, and honestly, being quite anxious, I almost missed my bus stop. When I arrived at the office, this time a little later, there were still many people waiting in the green room. It seems their interviews continue throughout the day. I was given another form to fill, just an agreement that I am not being paid on my day of observation, again handed to me by that very attractive and tall receptionist.

I finished my form, again, waited silently and awkwardly with a few other people. I recognized some of them from the day before. The attractive French lady, the man with the leather boots.

Suddenly - "(Loud indiscernible ruckus)" followed by repeating "(Loud indiscernible ruckus)."

"Sales... serious business" one man in the waiting room exclaimed. Everyone chuckled, but I chuckled because I have a strong suspicion this man is from 4chan.

After what seemed to be 15 minutes of this, the ruckus stopped, and the team broke out of the room in a very excited manner. As they walked by, I got a good look at this strange group assembled before me. A couple of what looked like, gang-bangers, some guy wearing an emo hairstyle, some very attractive girls, and some normal looking people (but I found out later, none of these people were, to the true definition of the word - it will be explained). The boss (Rocket Richard), came up to each person in the waiting room and assigned a partner, a mentor, a buddy. I was assigned to Pistol Pete (I changed the interviewer's name to machine gun max - 'cause it fit his nature better). I was told that Pete was one of the newest, yet most consistent leaders. He had just come back from PEI, on road trip, and he will be teaching me the ropes today. We shook hands, became good ol' pals, and he got down to business.

He asked whether if I brought a notepad with me. I didn't. In fact, I didn't bring anything, since I had no idea of what to expect. Thankfully someone else had a notepad and he wrote down a few quick pointers. We jumped into what looked like very, very second hand van. The outside looked like it suffered an extreme amount of wear and tear. The inside burnt my nostrils of putrid smelling smoke. Even though, as I learned almost immediately after, that they were not allowed to smoke in the van, the van remains tainted of foul tobacco smoke. How could it not? Everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone there, were smoking. It seems the only things driving these people to live everyday is to sell sponsorships, and smoke.

A few others got into the van with us, their names are not important so I won't waste the time to assign names to each. We were a team, and we traveled down the highway in this van to some part of Ottawa unknown.

Pete, took the time to teach a few basics to me... hopefully I can still remember them.

The first thing he wrote down: SEX. Real mature acronym :P

But it made sense - Smile, Eye Contact, and Excitement. He taught me that this was the most important weapon in his arsenal of tools. Without SEX, don't expect to impregnate anybody with your product. What is our product? We are saving children. This is also important to understand, but I had a tough time accepting this.

Then he wrote down a quick way of breaking down a sale

1) open 2) introduction 3) short-presentation 4) close 5) rehash

Following that, the correct way to work

1) maintain postive attitude

2) be on time

3) be prepared

4) work your turf correctly

5) work your whole turf

and 3 others that I can't quite remember. These were not too important.

I was told that I would have a test on this when I go back so I better memorize them throughout the day.

We were dropped off in a corner of a small community, it seems each had a special area to cover. Pete and I got out of the car, he came out first, and I climbed out second. By the time I got out, he was already in the middle of lighting a cigarette. He showed me a black and white photocopy of a section of the map of Ottawa. There were other black lines on various roads, and we were dropped off in a section marked off with highlighter. Our "turf" for the day is the section within the highlighted box.

We were dropped off at around 1AM, when hardly anyone was home. But our goal was to talk to at least 50 people by lunch which is around 5PM. He asked me what kind of people would be home at this time, I used my implicating skills learned from business class and deduced that we would be talking to old people, housewives, and unemployeds. He asked me how I would be able to sell to these people considering they either don't want to, or they can't really afford to sponsor a child even if they wanted to (which they didn't). I didn't know how to answer this.

Then he told me, it doesn't really matter whether if we sell to these people or not. Using the law of average, the more "no's" talk to should mean that we come closer to a "yes." Some bullshit statistics, but I think it's more about keeping morale high than anything. And anyone not familiar with statistics would have gobbled this up like a chicken gobbles up corn. But I went along with it, and I'm glad I did.

We talked to various kinds of people. The ones who shut their doors on our faces (the quick no's); the ones who listen to every word, then quickly rejects us (time vampires); the sympathetic people who already donated recently, be that donation legitimate or not. And every time a cute girl came to the door, Pete would work his charms, and I was amazed at how easily the girls were charmed by his words (while also quickly taking mental note for myself in the future :P).

Here's what a typical pitch would sound like:

"Hey! How are you? Don't worry! I'm not a salesperson (and if there was a dog - 'you don't need to sick the dogs on me!), I'm not asking for donations. I'm actually hear doing something I'm very proud of doing." *Quickly opening the Port containing the laminate of information and suggestively handing it to the homeowner.*

"My name is Pete, and this is my bodyguard" *points at me* (this usually gets a few chuckles, considering how nonthreatening I look... damn).

"We here on an emergency campaign today, due to all the natural disasters happening in the world lately, and we have been given a few children that have been waiting the longest for a quality sponsor such as yourself to provide food, water, shelter, basic necessities."

"Do you know how much it costs to save the life of a child? Only 1 dollar a day, do you think you can afford to save a child for only 1 dollar a day? I mean, to us a dollar is pocket change, but to these kids. To these kids, it means another day of living."

I won't retell the entire pitch, but it generally revolves around that. The rest is about customizing, getting the home owner to talk about themselves.

I was later taught that I should ask questions like "where do you work? do you have any kids?" as hooker questions. They prod the person to talk and usually they give much more valuable information of which you can easily use to your advantage.

A few impulses I learned later - urgency, nonchalance, emotional, Jone's, (and a few others I can't quite remember). And it was always important to sell yourself, to sell your enthusiasm for the program so that people sponsor a child not because they're saving a child, but because you showed them how much it means to you so they do it for you.

Urgency - "we're only in the neighbourhood for the day"

Nonchalance - "oh, that's okay, well, I'll just move on to the next door then"

Emotional - "saving lives, and communities"

Jone's effect - this is where other people are doing something, and you feel compelled to act that way too "your neighbourhood has been very good to us today, we started out the day with 6 kids, but we're left with 4"

That's usually a lie, we start the days with only 4 people.

Also, something else I learned, the less number of options you present to the client, and the later it is in the day, the easier it is to sell. It's easier to sell your enthusiasm this way, and when you end the day with only 1 kid left in your portfolio, they are compelled to help you make a perfect day.

Our goal was not to sell anything, our goal was to make a 4 second friend, then convince him that this was a good idea. So it's usually important to get out the "my name is... oh, what's yours?" "How's your day? ya? I'm fine thanks, most people don't ask me!" "Oh, like your shirt, where did you buy it?"

Anything to connect with the person and show him/her you are human, and not to hide behind the mask that is World Vision, or Planned Canada.

The day went smoothly. We talked to 50 households before 5PM, and by that time, we haven't had one bite. Some nibbles, but no bites. But it's okay, we were about to make a second trip around the neighbourhood after lunch. This way, we already crossed off the people who were absolutely "no's" and all that are left are people who expressed interest before hand, or people who had jobs.

By 9 o'clock, we had 3 deals. One of which was to a schoolteacher who was going to get the entire class involved. The idea was suggested by us. We were playing a bit of daylight inception, step out of the way Di Caprio and Nolan!

3 deals in one day is a lot. If someone carries out 3 deals in all 5 days of the week, they would have 15 deals in that week, earning them not only a high hourly wage for the week, but also an Ace of Spades. You get your picture taken and have you face and accomplishment forever plastered to the wall.

The van picked us up at the same street corner and we drove silently back, exhausted. 8 hours of solid walking and knocking on doors will wear you down. But to be honest, I hadn't felt how tired I was until I sat down in that van. Pete went through what he had taught me early in the day, and asked me whether if I was prepared to work very hard. 'Cause this job is not forgiving, and if I wasn't willing to work hard, I'd better just leave now and not waste both of our times. I agreed to try my hardest... and in the week that followed, I proved my worth.

I wrote a short quiz in the office, and Pete had talked to Rocket Richard who then called into his office alone and asked me why I wanted to work here. I told him that I want to work here because it was something that I figured would get me out of my shell (I was very right), and to be honest I was between jobs. But I would be committed to work my hardest for him.

I went home that night with an acknowledgement, and a job. Rocket Richard asked me to come in on Monday and start working officially. I shook hands with Pete, said goodbye, and went home, dog tired, and just waiting to pass out at home.

Now understanding what the job is about, I was prepared to come back in and prove my worth on Monday. Monday would be my first official day -- on Monday, I get to do the selling. But what happened thereafter was not exactly according to plan.

-Wayne