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Education

Eliminate baggage calls or become like Jacob Marley's chains if you ignore the
impact and plug along. It won't go away soon unless you
after rejection stop and unpack before your next call.

Take the following steps to empty that bag so it doesn't
By Jeff Fortney affect your future success:
TouchSuite LLC • Acknowledge the baggage exists. Recognize the im-
pact the situation has on you. If you don't recognize
eople buy for personal, compelling and emo- the impact, how do you address it?
tional reasons. The key to successful sales is • Ascertain what emotion you are feeling right now.
identifying that emotion – that pain – and Are you feeling defensive or hurt?
P addressing it. This makes price less of a concern • Perform a postmortem. Did you say or do anything
and builds long-term relationships. that set the merchant off? Was it purely a response
to your profession? Once the merchant reacted, did
This philosophy has served me well. However, when I you do or say something that amplified the situation
explain this approach to a group of salespeople, invariably instead of appeasing it? Did you respond emotional-
someone will mention a situation that has happened to all ly? If you did react in a detrimental way, how could
of us. you have diffused the situation instead?

A merchant level salesperson (MLS) walks into a potential • Take aggressive steps to empty that bag. They don't
merchant customer, introduces himself and, before the include the platitudes mentioned earlier. Eliminate
MLS can say more, the merchant unleashes a wave of the negative emotions – by letting them out.
verbal abuse. Dealing with feelings
The merchant rants about the unethical approach of "you If you're doing in-person sales, recognize how you feel
guys" selling payment services, how you all are crooks, and what you want to do. If you are angry, yell. If you are
and the merchant never wants to talk to another one of defensive, tell yourself the merchant just lost a potential
"you thieves" again. The merchant typically attaches customer, and mean it. Take five or 10 minutes to vent. But
adjectives I cannot repeat here, then orders the agent out. always finish with, "Nothing the merchant said is about
Harmful fallout me. He (or she) does not control my success. I do." Next,
take five slow, deep breaths; repeat that line; and prepare
For the telemarketer, it's primarily the same – except the for your next sale.
exchange is entirely verbal and ends with the merchant
slamming down the phone. For reps doing telesales, this is much harder. In a typical
telemarketing environment, it's not possible to vent or
The result is you leave with a packed bag that (if not release emotions orally. Therefore, breathing is the first
addressed) you carry the rest of the day. For face-to-face step – five deep breaths at minimum. Remind yourself
salespeople, this baggage either leads them to become the merchant has never seen you and likely won't. Take a
defensive, just waiting for the merchant to blow up so minute to mentally replay a recent call that was successful
they can leave, or they become aggressive, looking for an and concentrate on the emotions you felt after that call.
opportunity to argue. In either case, they have no chance Relish those emotions. Let them replace the negative. Pick
in gaining the account. up the phone and make your next call with those thoughts
fresh in your mind.
Carrying this bag is worse for the telesales rep. No matter
how great the script, the agent's tone of voice will change, Once you complete these steps, you are ready to leave
and negativity will infuse the call and subsequent calls, that baggage behind and make your next call. Remember,
making the chance of success close to zero. whenever you encounter verbally abusive merchants in
the future, repeat these steps, and leave that bag at the
In both instances, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to door. Then "climb back up on that horse."
concentrate on the emotions of the merchant, because the
MLS's emotions are in the way. Everyone voices platitudes, Jeff Fortney is senior vice president of business development and part-
such as: nerships for TouchSuite LLC, a fintech company providing POS systems,
• You have to get back on your horse. payment processing, SEO solutions, working capital and marketing
• Just kick the dust off your shoes and move on. services to small and midsize businesses. A long-time payments industry
professional and mentor, Jeff focuses on strengthening and developing
• It's their problem, not yours. corporate partnerships and evaluating new business to drive strategic
growth. He can be reached at jfortney@touchsuite.com. Self-ordering
Such comments do not address the key issue: baggage that kiosks – a game-changing technology
results from these situations. It can affect your next few

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