University Daily Kansan / Tuesday. March 24, 1987
7
'Hello! My name is...'
EARN $50
If you encourage (drag finagle, cheerlead, bribe coerce, or otherwise induce) one of your friends or relatives to join the fun earn money & become A Senior TSR at Entertel You get $50!!!
So let's go. OKAY?
ENTERTEL
Signs on sales-floor walls encourage self-motivation at Entertel, 619 Massachusetts St.
Lynn Bogle, Leawood sophomore and Entertel supervisor, takes a break from the sales floor and chats with a quality assurance supervisor.
Just try to get a word in edgewise at Enterer.
A room inhabited by about 80 people who are paid to talk - loudly - is no place for the tongue-tied.
"It is a shock to walk back out into silence," said Carol Champagne, Baldwin freshman. The tools of her trade, and the rest of the Lawrence telephone marketing company's 170 sales representatives, are an assertive tone of voice and a phone glued to the ear.
Encouraged by signs with such slogans as "Make a friend, make a sale," and by enthusiastic supervisors and hopes for cash bonuses to supplement their $6-an hour average wage. Entertel sales rep.
resentatives keep the volume cranked.
About 150 of the 200 employees of Entertel, 619 Massachusetts St., are KU students.
Sales representatives use typed calligraphy to direct their sales pitches. The phones they use are equipped with microphones that eliminate background noise.
Whether the task is selling subscriptions to Newsweek magazine or insurance or requesting donations for Special Events, it's always done with lots of energy.
"Sometimes you feel like a robot," said Matt Jones. Great Bend junior.
a great atmosphere. It's positive city here.
Ellen likes to talk loud, you feel more motivated. It gets you into the spirit.
The spirit at Entertel is perpetual optimism. It has to be. Because in the phone sales business, failures are expected to outnumber successes.
Chris Nixon, Chicago senior, said that on a typical night, he made sales on about 10 of 100 calls.
Karin Feltman, Bay Village, Ohio, freshman, said,
"You get every excuse in the entire world."
Julie Roemmeil, Leawood junior, said. "When people get upset with you, you have to remember that it's not going to make any difference in your life tomorrow. You just blow those things off."
To keep sales representatives operating at peak efficiency, Entertel has daily performance contests. Supervisors offer about $50 in cash each evening for various sales accomplishments.
Sales representatives also receive bonuses of 25 cents to $2 for each sale, depending on the difficulty of the sale.
"This is the best part-time job I've ever had." Roemmele said.
Michael Boyer, vice president of operations, also likes what he sees at Entertel.
The company is medium-sized and making a solid profit with more business than it can handle. Boyer said. He said that he hoped to increase the number of phones from 104 to 200 and to increase the number of employees to 400 by fall. Another goal is to open a branch office, ir
Lawrence or within 50 miles of it, by fall.
Lenticular within 50 miles by 7am.
Earned has the highest rate of actual
enquiries to commissioned sales of any telephone
marketing company in the country.
Boyer said.
Most of the estimated 100 telephone marketing companies in the United States are in the Midwest, Boyer said. Many employees' neutral accent is one reason
"People here have a Midwestern twang," Boyer said. "They have a universal voice that is accepted across the country. They sound American."
Midwestern students make ideal employees, Boyer said.
also people in the Midwest have a very high work ethic. They are good employees compared to some areas of the country.
"Students are outgoing, assertive and energetic. They have a willingness to learn, they have high self-esteem and set high standards for their performance." But the Midwest's location, equidistant from both coasts, is perhaps the most important reason why telephone marketing companies operate in the region.
Being in the Central time zone not only holds down long-distance bills, but it also enables calls to work from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and always to contact people during the prime early evening sales. Sales representatives begin their shift by calling East Coast numbers for an hour and work their way west throughout the evening.
Odd situations sometimes arise when the people on the other end do not realize they have been called upon to disguise.
"I can not realize they're being called long distance.
"I've been asked out to dinner a lot of times."
Champagne said. "I tell them, 'If you'd like to send me an airplane ticket, then I might.'"
Donna Hovey, Lawrence resident and Entertel manager, leads a group of potential telemarketing sales representatives through a training session.
Diane Chambers, Lawrence resident and Entertainer supervisor, listens as to a customer. Supervisors plug in additional telephone receivers and advise Tayron VanBider, Lawrence resident, reads her sales pitch over the phone sales representatives during calls.
Michael Boyer, left, vice president of Entertel, and Thomas Olson president of Entertel, discuss possible improvements to increase sales
Photos by Alan Hagman
Story by Paul Schrag