How far would you go?
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If success at your job required folding your 6’6” frame into a coach-class seat on a full flight, followed by a long drive crammed into a compact rental car, with a stop at the McDonald’s drive-thru on the way to spending the night at the Red Roof Inn, would you do it?
Would you do it 50 weeks a year, if that was what you thought you had to do to be successful?
If the fate of your company depended on you getting out of that Red Roof Inn bed the next morning, climbing back into that compact rental car, and hitting the same McDonald’s drive-thru for breakfast, then attempting to convince a room full of 40 strangers (in just 30 minutes) that the software product you’re pitching to them is so amazing, so life-changing, that they each had to purchase it today?
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How would you treat your job if quitting was not an option and you had no choice but to find a way to succeed?
Even though the software is specifically designed for laptop computers and only 5 of the 40attendees even own laptops?
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But just committing to purchase the software would not be enough — they would actually have to slap down their credit card before leaving the room.
You’d have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Would you endure that daily predicament even if you knew in your heart that, despite your best efforts, there was a good chance you and your company would fail?
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What I found out from my experience is that the question is not if you would do it, but rather, how far you would be willing to go?
When it’s your family’s business, you’d go pretty damned far.
That was my life for many years: traveling 100,000+ miles per year, alone, trying to convince total strangers that they had a need and I had the solution—and they had to act on my solution now.
So when I was in that room full of strangers, why was it so important for all of them to buy our software, and why did they have to buy today?
Because payroll at our family business, Envision, was in just a few days, and if we didn’t make at least $14,000 in sales that day, our loyal employees weren’t getting paid. Our underfunded family business had run out of borrowing power, and we were doing all we could to keep our heads above water until we could find an exit.
By the way, we finally did find an exit. We sold our business to the fifth largest bank in the world for millions. Our victory was that we survived long enough to cross the finish line, and we did so one sale at a time.
This wildly terrifying and exhilarating adventure and all the lessons I learned from it have become the foundation of my approach to life and business. Everything I have learned about sales comes from things I’ve acquired on the road in actual sales situations. Big wins, as well as devastating losses. I went on thousands of sales calls over those years, and no two were ever exactly the same. I learned to prospect, persuade, present, persevere, and follow up forever.
Sales can be the easiest, hardest, loneliest job in the world. It is also one of the noblest. A salesperson wakes up every day unemployed and must go it alone to find the next sale and, with that, continued employment.
I believe anyone, and I mean anyone, can be wildly successful in sales. Despite that, anyone can also fail in sales — in fact, most people do.
That’s why there are so many sales trainers, thousands of sales books, and an entire industry devoted to motivating salespeople.
Because sales is hard and most people fail.
But if that’s true, why do people keep applying for sales jobs? Because people are enamored by the glow of unlimited income and autonomy. Everything starts when someone makes a sale, and practically every company in existence is selling something to someone. As such, people who can sell are worth their weight in gold.
I have been fortunate to tell my story and help sales organizations from Fortune 500 companies such as Motorola and Citigroup, to small businesses across the country. I am here now to share it all with you: compelling sales stories, simple yet often underutilized ideas, and powerful lessons learned. You’ll find them here on my website, within my newsletter, and at my seminars.
I help salespeople produce and maintain peace of mind in the face of uncertainty and change by focusing on what we all control.
If you are out there trying to make it happen and feeling lost and alone, I am here for you.
Anyone selling anything to anyone is welcome here. Share your sales war stories and best practices with me and I will post them here. Laugh, learn, and share with your friends. Together, we can make each other better, and have some fun along the way.
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