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THE TELEMARKETING FIRM FROM HELL

It was located in a forty-year-old building on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica; just ten blocks from the world-famous Santa Monica Pier and beach, with breathtaking views of Palisades Park and the Pacific Ocean. It was brightly decorated with fluorescent lighting, light gray wall-to-wall carpeting, white Formica cubicles that were all lined up in straight row, and had central air conditioning. However, don't let this fool you because this was not your typical outbound telemarketing firm. This was the home of Lindsay Telephone Sales, Inc., the telemarketing firm from Hell.

The owner, Joan Lindsay, was a witchy, fiery, hot-tempered, single, and childless New York City native and former Marine drill sergeant in her late fifties with flaming red hair, who was very insensitive to the needs of her employees, especially the ones who had children and other commitments.

On this bright and sun-shiny Friday morning in late April, Joan was going over the call statistics from the Visa program, and boy, was she furious. She bolted from her office and shrieked out on to the call center floor, "Everybody who's on Visa, in my office right now Come on now; let's get movin I haven't got all day " Once the reps were in the office, she let out a fury that made Leona Helmsley look like a saint.

"Look at all of these call stats!" Joan fumed as she banged her fist on the desk. "These are just a total disgrace! I was monitoring some of these calls this morning, and nobody was following directions! Nobody was answering objections, nobody was negotiating, nobody was calling the reps back to demand why they didn't want the card, nobody was verifying the sale, and you were all giving up too easily! You are all professional telephone sales representatives; you are not customer service reps or order takers! It is your job to get me lots and lots of sales! You've got to be mean, pushy, and aggressive in this business; you can't be sweet and kind! If you wanna be like Florence Nightingale, then this isn't for you! Go join the Peace Corps, go get a job in customer service, go teach school, become a nurse, or something like that! But as long as you're working here, you're going to abide by my rules and get me a ton of money! I'm in this business to please my clients and make money; not cater to a bunch of sissies! If these numbers come up by the end of the day today, you're all going to be fired! And I don't care if you get the ACLU out after me! Nobody's

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