Conversation
 
Add:  How’d the interview go today?
 

And:  Great! I think I got the job.

 

Add:  What kind of job is it?

 

And:  It’s selling life insurance.  They said the top guys earn over a quarter million dollars per year [bad word] 

 

Add:  Ya, that’s how they hook you.  Did they happen to mention the industry average?  Also, how are you supposed to find business?

 

And:  They have a list of people and you are supposed to phone them.

 

Add:  Oh, cold calling?  That’s horrible.  I did that before.  It’s really easy to get discouraged.  I couldn’t handle all the rejections.  You are always [bad word] people while they are at work and stuff.  They often get angry and it’s just a really difficult way to do business.

 

And:  I spoke with a few guys who did it and they said it was tough at first, but later on you get a lot of business from referrals so you don’t have to rely on cold calling.

 

Add: that’s not too bad I guess.  Do they pay you a salary as well?

 

And:  They do for the first 6 months and then after that its [bad word] based.  I’m going to try it out.  I’ve got a feeling I can be pretty persuasive.

 

Add:  It’s a lot harder than you think, but good luck, I don’t want to discourage you.  I’m sure it will be a good experience at the very least.

 

Key vocabulary and phrases that are discussed in the [bad word] – It’s a type of payment where you get a % of what you sell.  [bad word] means that you would get 5% of the cost of something if you sold it.  Many sales jobs pay this way.  Sometimes the deal is some salary, [bad word]  

Hook – Try to make you do something.  In this dialogue, the boss talked about the most successful salespeople to make the person think it’s a great job. 

Industry average – The average amount of money that all the people in one industry earn.  In this case, it’s the average earnings of the people at [bad word] who sell life insurance. 

Cold calling – Some sales people use this method of sales to reach their potential clients.  It’s when you simply phone someone from a list of paper.  These are often just random people you are trying to sell to.  It’s a very difficult form of selling.

Rejections – When people refuse to buy your product.

Referrals – When someone you have done business in the past, tells someone else about your business and you sell to that new person.  For example, if you sold me a house and then later I told my friend that you are really good and they should go to you.  Then I referred you and you got your new business from my referral.

Persuasive – The ability to use your own reasoning and arguing abilities to make other people do what you want them to. For example, if you want your friend to go to the bar, but he doesn’t want to go at first, maybe you can persuade him to go if you tell him it’s cheap drink night or it’s ladies night.  It’s obviously an important quality to have in sales.