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Salesman, sales training
Here's A Little Success Tip
By Jim Whelan
Thursday, August 29, 2007
Last week I was on the phone with a guy whois the number one salesman in his company.He has been offered management positions ahundred times, but always turned them down.He has helped dozens and dozens of youngsalespeople succeed in a really tough environment.
(The Joan Randall Agency knows what it's like tooperate in tough times. I started this agency witha phone line, and $75 of used office furniture. I gotmy first three months rent free by negotiating, andthe rest is history. This isn't any silver spoondecorators dream here, just a bunch of hard workingfolks who deliver the goods. Call us 206 407 3124)
The reason he has never become a sales manageris simple. He knows what he is good at, andsales managers spend only about 10% of theirtime selling, and the rest of the time doing...wellI never figured it out myself.
My friend started out selling in Louisiana over 30years ago after a hurricane. He was selling knivesand china door to door, and he was a Yankee deadin the heart of the Confederacy. After a month hewas making two thousand bucks a week. In thosedays that was what was called "headspinning" money.
To be young, single, and have that kind of cash inyour pocket was dangerous, and my friend partiedhard and drank heavily in those days. One morninghe awoke in his car in rural Mississippi. He wouldhave driven off but his car was upside down in a ditch.He had no recollection of what happened, or when.
He gave up booze that day, and became the leadingsalesman in the history of that company.
While he was working for that company he startedcollecting business cards and contact informationand storing it. An oldtimer mentioned it to him, andhe says it just seemed like the thing to do.Today hisRolodex has 14,000 contacts in it. In the last month hehas done very substantial business with two fellas hemet in 1979 in Louisiana. He sold them knives when theydidn't even have houses, or a kitchen to use them in.
Two weeks ago he brokered a deal to sell 1000television sets to five men he did some business within 1981. His list makes him a half million dollars a yearoutside his regular job, which brings in over a million.
He calls it his fooling around money. It's outside thefamily budget, and he makes whatever deals he wantswith it. He stays in touch with as many as he can on aregular basis, and says there is always some cash to bemade.
When he started selling decades ago, the old timertold him two things.
1) All the money is made on the buy, not the sell.
2) Make everybody a friend, and keep their contactinformation.
That was the extent of his sales training.
At a million and a half a year, I'd say he's doing prettywell.
From the big saddle,Jim Whelan
P.S. You follow those two rules in selling, and the sky'sthe limit. You hire The Joan Randall Agency, and you getthe same deal. Call the Cowboys now at 206 407 3124.
