I sold advertising for six years – some say pretty successfully – and built five papers of my own, training a sales force that was consistently outselling our competition.    In subsequent years I owned businesses in commercial finance, equipment leasing, and financial consulting.   The interesting thing is those businesses shared more similarities than they had differences!

Many years ago I conducted a symposium in Orlando for CEOs from 25 different companies and most all were from entirely different industries.   For example, at one table the CEOs came from trucking, consumer products, industrial manufacturing, publishing, and food distribution!  There were five tables with five CEOs at each and we spent the entire day discussing ‘The Changing World of Selling’.   About half-way through the symposium, the trucking company CEO threw down his pen and said, “Hey!  We’re all in the same business!”  You could tell everyone else saw it, too.

So, no matter what industry you’re in, you might be able to identify with these – because most of them are more personal than they are industry-specific.

1. `I can’t afford it’ is NEVER true.  The purchase is virtually never a matter of budget as much as it’s a matter of value.   People who don’t see value don’t buy.  Those who do will.  It’s up to you to communicate value.
2. Most people could earn a second living with the time they waste.  It’s true!  Even now, I own two businesses – and I have owned as many as five at a time.  It’s all about (1) hiring the right people, (2) not micro-managing good people (delegating), and (3) managing my time.   I’ve never had to work evenings or weekends, except when traveling, in thirty years.  It’s about balance (#4).
3. The Extra 10% beats 90% of your competition.  Believe it or not, the larger your competition, the more likely it is they’re not as good as you.   We outsold our much larger competition because their training was all internally-produced by people who’ve been doing it the same way for years – I call it `incestual knowledge’.  We also had more responsive service.   As for new products,  when we launched our first product, we could go from concept to market in under 120 days  while our larger competition took six months to discover what we’d done!  I knew then that they’d be a year `in committee’ while we’d be moving forward to the next thing.    You see it everywhere:  Some of America’s largest corporations have terrible training – often conducted by people who’ve never made a payroll or had P&L responsibility.    Even when ‘outsourced’ it’s often done by a staffer.  One household-name financial services firm is still teaching selling right out of a 1950s playbook.   Amazing.
4. Live a balanced lifestyle.  I’ve discussed time management in another blog post; but, this one’s important.  If all you do is work, you’ll always be working in a burnt-out frame of mind.  Working with a ‘full charge’ is far more effective, and you’ll be happier.  When I was in publishing, I didn’t like people working overtime.  It bothered me on two levels:  I wanted them fresh each day, not running on ‘half-a-tank’ and I wondered about their ability to manage themselves, their clients, and their time.   Since training was a high priority in my companies – much of it conducted by me personally  - these issues didn’t surface very often.
5. Have fun!  Sales is a contact sport.  It’s a lot more fun than any other line of work I can imagine!  It isn’t easy; but, if it were everyone would be doing it and it would pay minimum wage.  I’ve always thought of it as very much like professional sports:
   1. Earnings are tied to performance
   2. Performance takes place on/in the field, sometimes under pressure
   3. Producers make more than many doctors and surgeons
   4. Non-producers get cut
   5. Producers execute in the field under pressure because they train.
   6. Producers train and practice

Those who live a balanced lifestyle, have fun, and are willing to develop skills to manage time and their activities can live a life few others will ever experience.

Who knows?  You may never quit!

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