JADE FAIRBROTHER
CFM’s Telemarketing department has experienced tremendous change over the years. Once representing 50% of sales, the introduction of do not call registries, changes in technology and marketing etc has now seen it evolve, to a point where it still very successful in its own right at 12% of our total sales.
The one constant throughout the 15-year journey of the Australian Call Centre is the culture. Ambitious, fun loving University students are the staple of an energetic and happy Geelong Office.
And arguably there has never been a better time for Telemarketing at CFM. With the do not call registry now matured, our calls are more targeted to people who want to, or at least are happy to be called.
Jade is the 2018 current leading Telemarketing Top Producer, based in our Geelong Head Office. Jade is eloquent and has ambitions in writing and creating. She has shared with us her take on her telemarketing role, and we love it.
It's funny, now that I stop and think about it – what happens when somebody asks me what I do for a living. Because when I respond with something along the lines of ’I'm a telemarketer’, something just doesn't feel right. I feel as though I'm not telling the truth at all, and the varying levels of judgment in their reactions speak volumes about my reservations when it comes to being piled in the ‘I'm a telemarketer’ basket.
Unfortunately, the negative connotations that surround telemarketers are something of fact amongst almost every person who's ever been on the receiving end of their calls. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a telemarketer. We've all got to make a living somehow and it would be hypocritical of me to throw shade on the profession because, when it comes down to it – on paper that’s exactly what I am.
Or am I?
It's funny thinking back on how naive I was when I started working at Creative Fitness Marketing. I’d never worked in a call centre before, and the mere thought of speaking on the phone in general saw me plagued with anxiety. I thought that being a telemarketer at CFM would be nothing more or less than exactly that: everything I'd ever heard or read or assumed about cold calling strangers in a call centre environment.
It's funny thinking about it now – because I've never been so glad to be wrong.
How many people can say that they have the opportunity to quite literally change another person’s life for the better every single day? Aside from the bad numbers, those ‘slow’ days calling, the seemingly automated “not interested” responses, and the occasional hang up – that is exactly what I'm lucky enough to do. That's pretty incredible really. Every day, every hour, every time the phone rings. I have the chance to make a positive impact in the lives of others and start a chain reaction that otherwise may have never happened. A conversation that empowers a complete stranger to take the first and often hardest step towards becoming the healthier, happier version of themselves – the version that they already know exists within them, the one that they have genuinely convinced themselves is out of reach when in reality, all they've ever needed is someone to offer them a helping hand.
CFM is that helping hand, but it's so much more. There are countless people out there who truly want to change their lives, however many of them will never take that first step alone because they've got no idea where and how to start. They fear failure and leaving their comfort zone sees them push their goals further away and employ procrastination as a coping mechanism. Not because they don't want to achieve these goals, but because they simply don't know how to. It's these individuals – people who would never act on the idea of joining a gym or that find them intimidating, those suffering from chronic illnesses that can be significantly improved through physical activity – these people are the hardest to get into the gym, yet they're often the ones that stand to benefit the most from it. CFM and the philanthropic culture it upholds and promotes is what enables us to reach the untouchables when it comes to securing those outlying potential members.
Pretty inspiring, isn't it? The CFM culture and its purpose is far more altruistic and so much greater than simply pushing the sale of products and services on people who don't need them, for the sake of what might be gained personally and financially. I suppose that's why I find myself at odds with being labelled a telemarketer.
A quick Google search provided this simple definition of the term:
Telemarketing:
[tel-uh-mahr-ki-ting]
Noun
Selling or advertising by telephone.
It’s funny really. Although I cannot argue with a dictionary definition, I’m convinced that what we do in the CFM call centre goes so much further than ‘telemarketing’. Why? Because I've been lucky enough to make those life changing calls – the ones that spark a catalyst for transformation, not only for the individual but for communities as a whole. We have a real and positive impact where it counts for everybody – bettering the health and fitness of people on an individual level, while simultaneously improving the viability of local and independent gyms in the community,
I don't believe that what we do at CFM is simply just ‘telemarketing’ – telemarketing doesn't leave you feeling so fulfilled and driven at the end of an 8 hour day. I don't think there'd be many telemarketers out there who could truly claim they do what they do with the motive of helping people positively change their lives.
But we are, and that's the real difference.
“People will forget what you said and they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel”