MY 1ST DISC PROFILE WAS DONE OVER 30 YEARS AGO WHILST TELESALES ACCOUNT MANAGER BACK WHEN YOU HAD A PAPER TEST AND HAD TO WAIT WEEKS FOR THE RESULTS.
I was part of a large team, all ladies which I don’t think was coincidence, who were all excited to take the test.
The opportunity was sold to us as a way to ‘prove’ our promotion possibilities.
Little did we realise the depth these psychometric tests were do delve.
We made a pact to read them out loud as a group to offer support and the odd sarcastic or encouraging comment.
I recall there were many moments of “Ooh!” “No!” “Really?!” “That can’t be true” and “What have I been saying?!”
Long lost now, I regret throwing mine out on one desk tidy exercise, it did leave me with a lasting memory.
One memory that has followed me through all other DISC profiles I have done throughout my career.
At the end of the report there was a list of job roles numbered 1 – 100.
Number 1 was the best matching position for your personality and skill set.
As you can imagine number 100 was still a matched role but no necessarily the position that would stretch the person.
Interestingly, I was a senior telesales account manager at the tender age of 19, responsible for National Accounts. I was effectively the team’s managers number two. In an office full of ladies much older than me with families and responsibilities.
As a team, we each had an area of specialty in product knowledge. We needed to, there were 1000’s of products spanning a huge range. From ingredients for catering, disposable goods for hospitality and just about everything in between. I still recall codes for the bottled ingredient range and the best black bags that held the rubbish!
You see, I was part of the whole. We each had our strengths and weaknesses. We played to our strengths but we all had a shared goal.
Our focus was on customer service. We identified that when we had no challenges, complaints, late deliveries, prolonged out of stock months it resulted in one thing.
We would always hit target and earn commission. There was always a side promotion running too where we’d earn a decent wedge of M&S vouchers.
The team were unstoppable. They put the targets up. We hit them.
We’d always wrap up in the office at 4pm on a Friday and share a bottle of white wine in the 7oz plastic cups we sold by the gabillion!
My point?
We worked together, we were rewarded and we were recognised. We worked flipping hard. We laughed a lot!
This was the recipe for success.
I recognise it now as a recipe I’ve been drawn to be part of and in later times created.
Is this how you experience the customer service culture? Is something missing? I’d love to help if you’re missing something.
My DISC profile results? Oh I got side tracked.
Well, at Number 97 was the telesales role I was doing at the age of 19.
What? You want to know what Number 1 was?
Let me tell you, it was Entrepreneur!!
I had never heard that term before simply because I didn’t have anyone in my periphery to recognise it.
I did set up a business of my own in 1997 with a business partner, I left it carried on.
I tried again in 2004 but it didn’t have the “recipe” BUT it did lead me to be exactly where I am today.
WAG was born in 2005 out of those experiences and let me tell you:
Some called it failure however I feel like I was just failing until I got the recipe right.
Fast forward over 15 years and I am so proud of my journey to help people find the right way of Making Conversations Count through my training programmes for teams and owner managed businesses.
Read more about my training packages here –
TRAINING BOOK NOW AVAILABLE
I also now offer a Training Guide in the form of a book titled “Making Conversations Count – How to sell over the phone” that can be bought on Amazon here – www.makingconversationscount.studio/book
Here’s to continuing to fulfil my DISC Destiny!
