She's the Boss Read Online Free PDF

gave me a silent salute. “Yes ma’am.”
    Exactly twenty minutes later, Jenn wandered over and hovered by my cubicle in an agitated manner.
    “Jenn! Have a seat.” I set aside my paperwork and turned to face her. “So tell me,” I said earnestly, “are you really unhappy working here?”
    She hesitated for a second, then asked, “Can I speak candidly?”
    “Of course.”
    “The work sucks and the pay sucks. I have student loans up the ying yang, a car loan, rent . . . I’m living from paycheck to paycheck, just barely surviving. And I want to thrive, Kars, not just survive.”
    “Well, what if I told you that you could thrive here.” I paused dramatically for effect. “In this call center.”
    “Here?” Jenn fixed me with a deeply skeptical eye.
    “Listen,” I said, “I know twelve dollars an hour isn’t much but what if I told you that you could be making over a hundred thousand dollars per year.”
    “Really?” Jenn’s eyes were sparkling with vitality under the fluorescent lighting. “A hundred thousand dollars?”
    “Yep, you got that right.”
    “A hundred thousand dollars?” she repeated.
    “A hundred thousand dollars,” I confirmed.
    “A hundred thousand dollars?” she asked once more.
    “YES!” I exclaimed, my patience fraying. “Which part of a hundred thousand dollars don’t you understand?”
    Jenn sank back against the chair and began to brighten like a flower given water. With exaggerated courtesy, she said, “Go onnnnnn. Tell me how I can make that kind of money.”
    “By embracing sales,” I said simply.
    Jenn’s shoulders immediately stiffened. “But I’m not good at sales.”
    “Then you learn to be good at it. And I can help you. Now tell me, why aren’t you pitching any products?”
    “Fear, I guess . . .” Jenn gave a short shrug. “Fear of rejection.”
    “Do you know that all the super stars on the sales team fail half the time? In selling, rejection, as they say, comes with the territory. And rejection is rarely ever personal so try not to take it personally.”
    “Yeah.” Jenn laughed harshly. “But knowing that does not make it any easier to take. I hate to fail.”
    “It’s OK to fail, Jenn. Failure is inevitable. If you care enough about success, you’re going to have to try, fail, and correct your mistakes.”
    “So . . .” There was a pause until she added, “How do you propose I get better at selling?”
    “Well, it helps if you know our products and services. Educate yourself on every facet of it. Make it the bane of your existence.”
    “All right.” Jenn nodded thoughtfully. “I guess I can work on that.”
    “And build rapport with your callers; learn something personal about them. Find out what they want to buy. It’s so much easier to sell someone what they want to buy than it is to convince them to buy what you are selling.”
    “Mmmmm.” Jenn seemed to be considering this for a bit.
    “Most importantly,” I carried on, “be a good listener. Take your cues from the callers.”
    “How?”
    “By asking the right questions.”
    “I don’t know . . .” Jenn trailed off unsteadily. “I don’t think I know how to sell.”
    “You do know,” I said, putting conviction into my voice. “Most of us are born salesmen. Take me for example. At school, I sold my peers on accepting me. At home, I sold my mom a ton of bullcrap.”
    Jenn started giggling. “What sort of bullcrap?”
    “When I was sixteen, I convinced my mom that I couldn’t survive without a car.”
    “I tried that.” Jenn smirked. “Didn’t work for me.”
    “Well,” I pressed, “did you ever convince your parents to let you stay out late at night?”
    “All the time.”
    “See!” I said with a satisfied air. “You were selling back then and you still do it today. Every day. You already employ the aspects of selling: the powers of persuasion, the art of negotiation, and the definitive teenager’s tactic—to never ever take no for an