Jack & Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water.

Have you ever wondered why Jack fell down and broke his crown?

His pail was full of holes, so most of the water he fetched was gone by the time he reached his destination.

Despairing over this, he resolved to retrieve more water but the only way to do so, he thought, was to rush back and forth, and that continuous cycle of desperation caused his mishap.

Telemarketing companies, and companies that telemarket are modern-day Jacks.

Theyre trying to find and retain quality people to staff their phones, but their pails have holes in them, as well. Instead of repairing their pails, they rush about, wasting energy and resources in an exorbitantly costly battle.

They need to take a long, hard look at the holes in their recruiting systems, if they wish to keep more of their people and reduce attrition.

One of these holes is defining who WILL DEFINITELY NOT ACHIEVE AS TELEMARKETERS.

Lets assume that todays typical telemarketing unit loses, at minimum, twenty percent of its staff each month. How much of that turnover is attributable to people that should never have been hired?

Id say 80-90%. These are folks who should have been screened out before being put on the phones.

Some of them are shy.

According to Stanford research, 80% of Americans are shy to one extent or another, and in one venue or another.

A big and burly outside salesman may be exuberant face-to-face, but a meek and retiring type on the phone.

One of my trainees that fit this description said: Im great face to face, but I hate the phone because I cant see how someone is reacting to me!

That is a signature characteristic of a phone-shy person. He or she is so preoccupied with how theyre doing, second to second, and whether theyre going to be rejected, or negatively judged, that they monitor their performances instead of being in real-time and in synch with buyers.

When distracted by inner signals and thoughts the shy persons listening becomes distorted, and theyre slow to react to customer feedback, which they distort, erroneously believing it is filled with rejection.

Customers dont have to beat them up; shy people do it to themselves.

There are ways to screen applicants for phone shyness and for other problems that will limit their success or simply doom them to failure.

Identifying and then not hiring these folks is one of the kindest and most cost effective things you can do!