My first year in sales was miserable; in fact, during the third and fourth month of my sales career, I almost quit every day. My experience transcended work – it was one of the worst times of my life.
Every week I seemed to be faced with a decision of quitting or losing. If I didn’t quit and find a new job, I would just keep getting rejected every week. If I quit, then I would have to look at a quitter every morning in the mirror. Like I said, it was miserable.
Of course, persistence won, and by the time I celebrated my one-year anniversary, I was cruising. Toward the end of my first year – when I was the cocky young guy beating quota every month – I developed a list of things I would tell a new salesperson they had to do to succeed. I looked at that list recently, and I modernized it.
The story of my beginnings in sales is not an exaggeration. If anything, I kept out many details; however, if someone shared this list with me, I would have had more success and not gone through as much of the agony. Take these ideas to heart and keep pushing forward. The ability to introduce yourself to a stranger and convince them to give you their money for your solution will serve you in every aspect of your life.
- Commit to two years. The biggest mistake I made was not committing to sales. I didn’t quit, but I always left the door open because I thought it would release pressure on me to succeed. You have to ditch the “if this doesn’t work out, there are a million other things I can do” mentality. Since I wasn’t committed, I had the voices in my head telling me to quit. If I made a commitment of two years to myself, I never would have entertained the option of quitting, and I believe many of my distracting thoughts and much anxiety would have disappeared.
- Work your tail off and make sure your boss sees it. Get to the office before anyone else. Train yourself during non-selling time. Balance your training between selling skills, technical competence and industry knowledge. Prospect for new business like a maniac – there is no better teacher than cold calling, social selling and networking to a new sales professional. Although it sounds artificial, make sure your boss sees your hard work. If your boss sees your car in the parking lot every morning before the sun rises, he will pay more attention to your development, give you more leads, and let you slide a little bit after those first few months of goose eggs.
- Create a process and follow it. A consistent process is more important to sales success than a great personality. Create a weekly process and follow it. I don’t care what this process is, just do it every week. After about six weeks of consistent work, you will start to see the exponential growth from your activity.
- Stay away from the complainers. Avoid negativity like the flu. Seriously, if you must choose between having lunch with a coworker that has the flu and one who is constantly complaining about the market or your company, take the flu. You must stay positive. Subscribe to audible.com and buy every motivational sales training book you can find. Go in debt to buy the recordings if necessary. Find some uplifting podcasts. For two years, don’t listen to talk-radio or music – only listen to these books and interviews.
- Accept that your life is going to be out of balance for two years. These first two years are brutal, and you are going to have to spend a lot of hours working. Accept this. When we expect to be unbalanced and know that it will indeed end someday, the challenging times are a lot easier. Because of the insane schedule that I followed in my first sales job, I have been able to enjoy an amazing life since, and it started soon after those first two years. Put in your time – it is worth it!
Chris Peterson is the founder and president of Vector Firm (www.vectorfirm.com), a sales consulting and training company built specifically for the security industry. To request more info about the company, visit www.securityinfowatch.com/12361573.
