My first selling job was in life insurance.  I’d just returned from Vietnam and now here I was hearing `No!” from everyone I approached.   It was combat all over again.  Not only that; I wasn’t really committed to my success.  I figured if this `job’ didn’t work out, I could always find another job.

I was young.

I was inexperienced.

I failed miserably.

I hated the rejection and really had no desire to succeed in selling.   I looked for another job.

That job worked out pretty well – so I thought.  From walking-in off the street, in three short years I’d made a mark working for a company with sixty-five branches throughout the United States and Canada.  I found myself being promoted rapidly and was soon working `at corporate’ in the U.S. head office in Marina del Rey, California.   I had a company-paid apartment in the Marina and a company paid car.  It was just a Chevy Malibu, but Hey; I was 29 and being promoted AGAIN… now with TWO offices – the one in the Marina and another in Vancouver, B.C., with another apartment and another company car there!

No rejection here!

Then, the other shoe dropped:  The conglomerate that owned our company sold it to another conglomerate.  You guessed it – the only people who were `safe’ were secretaries and janitors.  All key people were let go as the new owners brought in all their own key people.

No paid apartments any more.  No company cars, either.  I was back on the street.  I took another job – temporary in my mind – to pay the bills while I looked around.

That’s when I met Harold.  Harold was a 27-year-old rep for a graphics company who I’d hired on behalf of my employer to design and print new brochures for the company.  We got along great and he invited me to his house for a party he and his wife were giving.  His home was a typical `starter’ home in the San Fernando Valley, but it was still very nice, beautifully furnished, and had a huge back yard now filled with close to seventy-five guests he’d invited.  Like Harold, they all seemed highly educated and definitely people who were headed somewhere in life.

It was only when mingling with them I began to discover a common denominator:  All the guests were clients and prospects!   When I cornered Harold I asked him about it.

“Sure!  My wife and I hold these parties once a month!  We mix clients with prospects and a few neighbors!”

I thought this was a great idea.  Prospects get to talk with clients one-on-one!  Prospects get to find out who you are first hand – they’re in your home and they meet your friends!

But, I was working in a job, which now seemed pretty boring after seeing what Harold was doing with his life.   While I was bored, he was excited.  All of a sudden rejection didn’t seem to matter as much.  I wanted what was on the other end of that rainbow.

I asked him, “When you first started, didn’t you feel insecure about being on commission and hearing all the rejection?”

“Absolutely!  It’s cold out there.  But the insecurity left as I began to make sales.    Let’s face it, it now would take fifty clients – acting in concert – all leaving at once for me to lose my income.  That’s more secure than a person in a job who can be fired by one person.”

I can vouch for that.

I soon found a sales position with a commercial financial services company, and after about three weeks I began making sales.  Now, rejection was something I never thought about.  I had my eye on the prize.

While I didn’t yet own a home, I did live in Los Angeles; so, there were numerous entertainment options available to me – since my prospects in those days were all major corporate executives, I did a LOT of entertaining at high-end restaurants, and it worked.

There was a difference in how I used to handle rejection and how I was now handling it.  Before, I was worried about each swing of the bat.   Now, I was focused on the strategy of the game.  I was now focused on process, not events.

It made all the difference in the world.   Selling became fun and I was achieving for the first time.

What do you want?

Write that on your bathroom mirror.

What do you want?

Focus on that.  See everything as a process to achieve it.

Then learn the STRATEGY of selling.

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