Morning Thoughts

This morning as usual I lay in my bed contemplating the day, waiting for the clock to reach 6 AM giving me the time I need to get myself ready before my staff gets here to shower me and give me ready for the day. First I got to thinking about the blog I wrote last week about having a gig. Then I remembered that one of the first gigs I had when I moved to Salt Lake was a stint as a telemarketer for an outfit called the Nice Corporation. Always thought that was a bit of an irony for a telemarketing firm to be called the Nice Corporation. Space is not sure how I got this job but it was part-time, I worked about five nights a week usually from six until 10 PM and then Saturday's from 8 AM until 1 PM.

Like I said, I don't remember how I got the positions are how I even found out about the position but the job was telemarketing, you know, calling somebody up, somebody I don't know then trying to browbeat them into purchasing something over the phone. Nice Corporation was an outfit that took on contracts and sold the products. When I started we were selling magazine subscriptions to this document called the Financial Freedom Report, conservative Republican rag. Leads are generated from large “tent shows”posted by this guy named Haroldson. Attendees would fill out tickets in hopes of getting a free subscription to the magazine if the names were picked at random at some point in time during the night. Of course that was all a ruse. After each event all the tickets, with the names and addresses and phone numbers were dropped off at the Nice Corporation, and then little data entry drones to transcribe the raw data into computer files which would then be fed into headsets telemarketers. We would call and tell 10 PM. We would work from a script which informed the individual that the name is been selected from their attendance the previous weekend and wanted to offer them the Financial Freedom Report magazine at a special attendee price. Then we offer them a special price if they wanted to subscribe to the magazine for two years rather than one. I was totally surprised at how much or how many people were more than overjoyed to purchase the two-year deal. I make good money doing this. It was kind of hard work especially after eight hours of a regular job but is also kind of fun at least at the beginning.

Salt Lake was an ideal place for national telemarketing. For example when I came online we would be calling East Coast we would call for an hour then it seven switch to central time zone then from 8 to 9 we would call Mountain and finish off the night 9 to 10 PM calling the Pacific TimeZone. We sold contracts for the big motor companies for people to renew their warranties on their new vehicles as well as timeshares in Europe. I was totally blown away at people who would put down thousands of dollars on on scene timeshare on a European property 6 to 18 months before they would even get a chance to use it. People had money and want to spend. Needless to say, I became a convert to telemarketing.

So as I lay there this morning I got to thinking why not do some telemarketing? Could this be your gig? I'm wondering if there are any small shops are phone rooms in this general neighborhood. Maybe some insurance guy, or vacuum salesman wants someone to generate appointments from leads.I don't know if I could do it now. People are different now, people are smart people have technology that screens phone calls long before they ever get a chance to make their pitch, to interrupt their evening and perhaps ruin their night. When I was doing my telemarketing I believed in what I was selling, I believe those offering them an option for a good deal. I can't do that now not that I don't have a good deal I just can't get through electronic guard on the telephone. I haven't completely given up on the idea of a telemarketing gig but there's got to be a gig out there somewhere something designed just for me…