Complaint Review: George S. May - International Company - Park Ridge Illinois

The Opening Call script handwritten by the GSMIC Analyst (absolutely required that it is in your own handwriting), four or five pages in length, is a pre-prepared "letter" to the council that the Analyst will read verbatim to the SENEX on the first call to Council.

This thing is written out in pencil on George S. May stationary and basically filled in (hence the pencil, it erases) with the customer specific information (# of employees, client's and spouse's name, children's names and ages, WHAT THE CLIENT WANTS (!!!), employee productivity as estimated by client, and whether they know basic financial information about their business or not).

Basically it summarizes the information you have obtained from your standardized opening questionnaire (which incidentally can be customized to about five or six different types of operations so that you sound like you are technically adept in the clients specific industry, i.e. restaurant, auto sales, etc...).

The same handwritten letter is used over and over again so that the basic business information can be presented to the SENEX at headquarters in a formatted fashion; no matter what analyst is calling in to Council. It's written in a very critical fashion to adhere to GSMIC's psychological conditioning policies (see previous Rip Off Reports for explanation).

This is the exact opening call script that takes place in front of you, the business owner, within the first 2 hours of the first day during an Analyst's survey:

In regards to employee's productivity, when I asked Mr/Mrs ________ to give me a rating on a scale of 1-100, he/she thinks it's about ______. Now bear in mind we have no formal system for measuring employees productivity so this is strictly, as we say, gut feel or the eye-ball method. While we're on the subject of employees, we do not have any: (written policies), (procedures), (job descriptions), or (performance guidelines to assist management with an employee accountability system). The lack of this information really indicates we have an organizational weakness.

The major problems as stated by Mr/Mrs ________ are as follows: ______, ________, ________. Although I AGREE THAT THESE ARE IMPORTANT issues, what I really see is a complete lack of: (good management controls), (written procedures), or (statistical information) to assist Mr/Mrs _______ in making operational decisions.

I will have _____ year's financial statements at the close of this conference. Mr/Mrs ______ seems very cooperative and sincere and really wants this business to be the best it can be. I have taken the liberty of reviewing our working Agreement (form 56) and Mr/Mrs ______ have indicated a complete understanding. I have informed Mr/Mrs ______ that should Council and I be able to qualify them as Management Services clients, they too will give us an intelligent decision and have agreed to do so.

As soon as I have received the statistical report and complete the other reports, I will call you with the information. In the meantime, I want you to pull files on comparable companies and research: (controlled costs on materials and labor), (selling and distribution costs), (administrative expenses), and (potential profits through a controlled operation). At this point, would you please hold a Project Director strong in: (____, _____, _____), a Staff Executive strong in: (_____, _____, _____) and a Staff Executive strong in (____, ____, ____) you may release the others.

Please note that I have scheduled a Company Plan session for ____ this afternoon and a Preliminary Findings meeting for _____ tomorrow morning. Now, what questions do you have for Mr/Mrs _____)?

At this point, the customer is impressed, confused, and embarrassed all at the same time. The psychological conditioning continues when the SENEX starts asking berating questions through the Analyst over the phone line. A puppet-puppeteer show begins to unfold before your eyes. If you know this is coming, watch how the Analyst (especially if he/she is new) fumbles his words and sighs heavily with each question asked. More than likely, the Analyst is saying the words simultaneously as the Senex is spoon feeding them questions and sarcastic comments like:

SENEX to ANALYST: Ask MR/MRS_____ what their Gross Margin was from last year's financials.

ANALYST to CLIENT: COUNCIL is asking what your Gross Margin was for last year?

Most business owners do not know what this percentage is off-hand without looking at their financial reports. Therefore, most if not all will say:

CLIENT to ANALYST: I'm not sure without looking.

ANALYST to CLIENT (knowing what to expect): You don't know?

The SENEX, listening to this exchange over the phone will say:

SENEX to ANALYST: Ask Mr/Mrs _____ if they think Gross Margin is one of the most important numbers a successful business owner keeps track of on a quarterly basis.

ANALYST to CLIENT: Don't you think that this is important enough to know on a quarterly basis?

The client lowers his head and says:

CLIENT to ANALYST: Well... uh, yea.

ANALYST to CLIENT (knowing what to expect) and in a VERY sarcastic tone: Do you think we have a problem here?

CLIENT: no response because he is too embarrassed!

Denigrating conditioning session one is over. As if this wasn't enough, this process is repeated at least three or for more times with other financial variables like net profit, net profit margin, operating expenses, costs of goods sold, etc... . An exhausting and endless abyss of variables can and will be thrown at the client within a short amount of time. This process is totally deceptive and unethical at the core.

This script is supposedly the first example of how industrious a GSMIC employee can be. Think about it; wouldn't you be impressed if someone who just walked in your building an hour and a half ago could summarize your business position with a four to five page handwritten report? It also sets the tone for the conditioning calls to follow by letting Council know "that I've got a lot' of work to do here so I'll be calling with information as it develops..."

The Analyst also shows his/her compassion by reporting that Mr. Client has a sincere desire to see his business be all that he wants it to be and will cooperate with the Analyst. The script is intended to show the client how ignorant he is about his business and establish the credibility and entitlement of the analyst.

AN X-Analyst recently wrote in the Consultants Yahoo Group: I used my script over and over again and the customer never questioned how I was able to so quickly write it out or why it looked so dog-eared (they are a pain to create...you have to copy the text verbatim out of the GSMIC manual).

There is very little humor in my time with GSMIC but I did have a couple of incidents where I didn't erase the previous client's information and mistakenly read the wrong figures, or kids' names to the SENEX in front of the client. It really didn't matter though, as we were taught in training, "it's the questions that are important, not the answers.

By the way you will use the same technique (a pre written, fill in

the blank, report to the client, only this time in ink, you utilize

xerox copies of this thing) that will be used on your "preliminary

findings meeting" which is the start of the hard close process.

If you are a potential client of GSMIC, I hope this puts things in perspective for you. George S. May's business plan is based on scripts, theatrics, denigration, and deception. Don't fall for it!

For more information on George S. May, search for GSMICo in the Groups section of Yahoo's main website.

Additional writing credit to: spaniard1960

Date written: Sat Aug 7, 2004 3:26 pm

Subject: Re: [consultantinfo] Opening call script found in Messages section

Andrea

El Paso, Texas
U.S.A.