Before I go in to detail about the events that have taken place
recently, I think it would be best to go over what's led me to where I
am now. I moved to Las Vegas in June 2007 excited to start a new life.
I didn't get a job initialy because I'd come with a decent bankroll
and my plan was to support myself by playing poker. I now know that
the first rule of professional poker is you don't play with your rent
money. You make decisions based on elimination of risk rather than
maximizing reward. Several bad beats later, I was in need of a job.
But what? Remember that at this time Vegas had a very low unemployment
rate. So I had my pick of jobs. I'd made a decision about 10 years ago
that if the opportunity ever presented itself, I wanted to try my hand
at sales. The reason why is that I realized that if I'm to be
successful, I needed to learn how to sell. Also I knew that sales
floors tend to be open to training new employees much more than the
rest of the job market. I went to the next job fair in town and got my
sales job. Throughout the 2 years I worked there I had ups, and I had
downs. But I always seemed to make a good paycheck right when it
counted. My problem was that I could never seem to get ahead. So on
the 2 year anniversary of my being hired, I left. My friend called me
a few days later and offered me the chance to work with him. Long
story short, we didn't make any sales and I was forced to move back in
with my parents. About a month later my friend calls me again and is
working at a new floor. So I pack what will fit into my car and came
back. I was excited to work again but I didn't want to go back to
sales. You see, by this time my patience dealing with potential
clients was gone. Hearing the same tired excuses and BS every single
day had become a problem for me. But I did what I had to do. Then a
disagreement over payroll led me to leave that job for a new company
in a different sector of the economy. Prior to this I'd always sold
education. Now I was going to contact businesses for grant
preparation. But much to my dismay, despite the fact that we were
dealing with businesses, the conversion ratio was abysmal. I sent deal
after deal to closers and I only make a few sales. More and more I
felt like I was wasting my time. One of the central philosophies in my
life is the importance of time management. The fact is if you're on
welfare, or the Forbes 400 everyone shares the same 24 hours in a
day. And the fact was I didn't like spending day after day calling
people and not making sales. On Friday my boss calls me in to his
office and goes off on me about how many leads I have. Keep in mind,
I've always had a large number of leads. I pester my team leader
constantly about more leads. After about 10 minutes of berating me, he
hands me one stack of about 30 leads and takes the other 300 or so
that I had. And tells me he doesn't want to see me off the phone for
the rest of the day. I go back to my desk and I think of a quote I'd
heard Jim Koch, CEO of The Boston Beer Co say in a commercial. He was
thinking about his future. He said "You know what? I don't want to do
this (work for someone else) for the rest of my life. Matter of fact,
I don't want to do it tomorrow." And I didn't want to be calling
people for money the rest of my life. I didn't want to do it that day.
And I don't want to do it ever again. Please don't misunderstand me, I
believe that salesman are vital to the success of any company. I just
don't want to be a salesman anymore. Luckily during my career I
discovered my passion. One of the companies we sold education for was
an Internet marketing guru. He came to Vegas in order to introduce us
to the new system we'd be selling. I'll never forget when he came down
because I thought to myself "I can do that." Prior to this we'd always
sold real estate courses. And although I believed that the info we
were teaching our clients would allow them to invest, I never saw it
as something I could do. The Internet allows for such a low cost of
entry into the market that in my opinion, anyone who wants to can set
up a business. So there you have it. I've learned everything I can
learn about sales and am ready for the next step. And that next step
is creating a business for myself that will not just pay the bills,
but for the first time in a long while allow me to truly succeed. I'm
not sure just yet what form it'll take, but I will have a business
online. So it was written. So it shall be done. Because I'm goin'
up! :) $$
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