Orange is the New Red: Gap Selling Goes to Prison

Two weeks ago, I walked into Perrysville Prison just outside of Phoenix, AZ. Five hours later, I walked out with a completely new perspective on grit, talent, and second chances. I wasn’t there to serve time. I was there to visit Televerde—a company that has spent 30 years transforming inmates into high-performing sales professionals (wait - WHAT - yes, read that again).

Spoiler alert: they’re outperforming teams on the outside, and they’ve got the results to prove it. I posted a little teaser last week that client's they work with are seeing a 20% increase in pipeline creation....and I've yet to meet a sales leader who hasn't said that they want more pipeline.

For those unfamiliar, Televerde operates a model where medium and minimum-security inmates make up the majority of their workforce. They focus on lead generation, top-of-funnel creation, pipeline development, inside sales, enablement, and customer success just to hit on a few or their services. But this article isn’t just about what they do—it’s about breaking the stigma of how they do it and why sales leadership needs to LISTEN UP about this hidden gem of a resource.

If you are thinking - WOW - we spend a ton on recruiting, turnover, open positions, lost productivity, costly TOF and CAC, sellers not working MQL's....keep reading.

Five Hours Inside: What I Saw, Heard, and Learned

Walking through those prison doors was a jarring experience. The sound of them locking behind me still echoes in my head. But once inside, I wasn’t met with the hopelessness you might expect. Instead, I found hope, discipline, and focus.

I spent time hearing stories from women just entering the program and from those who’ve been part of it for over a decade and beyond. These women aren’t just sitting through another day in prison—they’re in cubicles just like you and me, with double screens displaying Salesforce, LinkedIn, and email tools. The only difference is - they are all in Orange, where you and I get to choose the clothing we wear.

These team members are building pipelines, setting meetings, and crushing quotas. One BDR told me she hit her $800K pipeline quota 10 out of the last 11 months and was determined to make up for it before the end of the year. Another CX (Customer Success) leader manages a $3M campaign with team members that report to her.

And don’t think for a second this is “cheap labor.” This is the highest-paid position in the prison system, but it’s not just handed out. The interview process is rigorous. The onboarding is intense. The program is built for individuals ready to put in the work, learn new skills, and prepare for life beyond incarceration.

*Did you know that the average recidivism rate is 82-83%? Televerde's is less than 2%. YEP.

I bet your turnover rate of your BDR/SDR team is higher than 2%...

Every single person I met had a copy of Gap Selling at their desk, highlighted, or tucked under their arm for a signature. They peppered us (Keenan and myself) with thoughtful, tactical questions about cold calling, LinkedIn prospecting, and uncovering unique business problems to help them better understand how to serve their customers. While some of the team sells for Televerde directly, many sellers are on client teams - so they are working directly on client's campaigns to build TOF, to perform inside sales and also in customer success roles.

One stop on the tour introduced us to a self-taught Tableau savant. Watching her whip up dashboards for clients and internal teams was like watching the Matrix in real life. These women are taking ownership of their careers—both now and for their futures.

No Distractions, Just Results

Here’s what makes Televerde unique:

• Zero distractions. These BDRs are at their desks for seven solid hours of outbound activity. No doom-scrolling, no self phones, no makeup, no selfies, no chit chat, no long lunches or working from home. Just focused work.
• Zero turnover. Many of the BDR's I chatted with are averaging 3-5 YEARS in the seat before they move up, or into another role (or out of the system and interview for roles on the outside). Compare that to the constant churn we see in most sales teams! Why don't more people know about this? Oh, that stigma....
• Pipeline machines. These women are building TOF and driving results at a level many outside teams can only dream of. You know how Marketing hands over MQL's and perhaps those are never touched? Not this team - they dive in. They have to produce....or else they will not work there.

Let’s face it—sales teams today are in crisis. Pipeline creation is harder than ever. Retention of SDRs and BDRs is abysmal. Turnover is crushing budgets. Televerde solves for all of it, and they do it while giving women a shot at redemption and purpose.

What Sales Leadership Needs to Hear

When I walked out of those prison doors, my life had changed. I choked up three times during my visit with the Televerde sales team (they day prior at their HQ in Phoenix) and a few times at the prison when I heard what some of these women had overcome. These women showed me that time in the seat, a degree, or a rolodex matters far less than the will to excel and a company’s investment in coaching and onboarding.

It was truly an honor to spend time getting to know these women. Knowing the work that we will do together will not only help to upskill many of their team members, but that their customer's will be on the receiving end of having A+ sellers running campaigns on their behalf.

So if your team is struggling to fill roles, align with marketing, and you can't build pipeline that actually converts, why continue to do what you have always done? Maybe it’s time to rethink your approach and no one is doing it quite like Televerde (there are some but non that can come close). 10 Global Offices, $14B in revenue generated and a whole lot of lives changed.

With the right discipline, training, and coaching, talent can come from unexpected places—and deliver unmatched results.

Those five hours I spent behind bars has forever changed me. I get chills thinking of the future CRO's in that group that I can say - I remember meeting them when.....

Hi. I'm Celeste - a Certified Gap Selling Training Partner. I help teams win more by changing the way that they sell to align with how buyers actually buy. This isn't death by lecture - we get in, assess your team, get gritty and you come out with a plan, process and cadence to support your team and help them win MORE.

I had the honor of taking part in step one of training the Televerde sales team and was so moved by my experience at the prison that I had to share. The views and thoughts are my own. To do your own research on Televerde, visit their site here - or I'm happy to make an intro to Alicia Rasta