BIO: Wendy Harris is an outbound telephone sales trainer who gives businesses the confidence to talk to strangers and never cold call again.
STORY: Wendy invested in a franchise that was doing quite well until the head office forced her to use scare tactics to get other people to join the franchise. She refused to go against her business ethics, which tired down her chances of making money with the franchise.
LEARNING: Do thorough due diligence and ask lots of questions, especially when you badly want something to work out. Always remember that you have an ethical obligation to your customers above making a profit.
“Always get a second opinion from a professional that you trust. Someone that will give you unbiased and God’s honest feedback.”
Wendy Harris
Guest profile
Wendy Harris is making conversations count! She is an outbound telephone sales trainer who gives businesses the confidence to talk to strangers and never cold call again. She is the author of the Bestselling book Making Conversations Count: How To Sell Over The Phone and podcast host of the Making Conversations Count podcast.
Worst investment ever
In 2004 Wendy led a team of ladies calling out, booking appointments, and doing quotes in the telecommunications industry. She’d been headhunted to this company, and when she got there, she found that the staff was talking to precisely the same people as she was in her old position. Deals were being closed, but commissions were not being paid to the people making the appointments. Her trust went entirely out of the window.
Breaking out to her own thing
The broken trust made Wendy want to consider quitting employment and do something else. So she persuaded her husband to give her a good few thousand pounds to invest in a franchise. So she set off on this path to run her own business with head office support and the other people’s experience doing the same thing in their area.
Wendy got invited by the head office to go into the office and do some paid work to support her income. The work involved talking to other people about how good it is to be a franchisee.
Being forced to go against her business ethics
Everything was working out well until Wendy was told the only way she would be paid is if she got people to sign up for these franchises and get them to pay for it on their credit card. These sales tactics did not amuse wendy because they were based on selling on fear. She then got slapped with a brand new franchise agreement that went from a four or five-page document to a 50-page document. The new deal gave all the control to head office, so the franchise was no longer Wendy’s business.
Lessons learned
There are two things that Wendy failed to do which led her to make her worst investment ever:
- Not asking questions and instead took everything at face value
- Not doing her homework by researching other franchises or talking to other people that had bought franchises
Andrew’s takeaways
Fear sells, but it’s an unethical tactic
Yes, fear sells, but you have an ethical obligation to your customers when selling your products and services not to use it as a tactic.
Due diligence is most important when you want something to work
When we really want something to work, we tend to be less vigilant and want to push it through to the end. We forget to do our due diligence and give people the benefit of the doubt. However, this is the time that we need to be the most vigilant because that’s when we’re most vulnerable.
Actionable advice
Get a second opinion from somebody that you trust. Not a family member or a friend in the industry because they may be your biggest fans, but they’re not necessarily always going to give you unbiased and honest feedback. Seek help from professionals such as getting an accountant to look over the figures, a solicitor to look over the contract, etc.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Wendy’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to do a TEDx talk.
Parting words
“Just keep making conversations count.”
Wendy Harris
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