I was talking to some friends today who all happen to be in sales. We talked about all sorts of things and then one of them said he was born to be a sales rep. Every time I hear that I say, “Really? I was born naked and screaming, I don’t think I was thinking about becoming a sales rep.” We all had a good laugh and then I asked when was it that everyone realized they wanted to be in sales?
One of the guys looked right at me and said, “What makes you think I WANT to be in sales?” He said, “It seems to be the only thing I’m any good at so I am doing it.” With this we all laughed again but then one by one we started telling our stories and by the end we discovered that not one of us ever set out to become sales reps, we all just became one somehow along the way.
I told my story, which I used to tell in class every week. I went to school and graduated with a degree in Biology and minors in Entomology and Botany. My goal was to be a forest ranger. When I discovered that I would starve to death as a forest ranger I went into sales because my father told me to get a job or come home. I went to work for Friendly Ford selling cars. I HATED selling cars, but I was good at it. Sales seemed to be something I could do, make a living, and didn’t need to go back to school to get any more degrees.
The more my friends and I talked the more our stories sounded about the same. Not one of them ever thought they would be in sales and yet here we were.
When was it that you decided to go into sales and why? Most people never think about it because it “JUST HAPPENED”. Like the story of the frog and the boiling water. If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water it will hop out before it get burned, if you place the frog into a pot of cool water and then put it over the heat the frog will sit there until it is cooked. So many of us became sales reps like the frog in the cool water, S L O W L Y.
Now I want you to think about being a sales rep and the living you are making as a sales rep. There are a lot of people who went to college for years, and graduated at the top of their classes, but don’t make the living we make.
We are a gifted group, we become top in our field without degrees, without years of school, without tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans. We learn by our mistakes and grow with every one of them. We learn by listening and watching. We grow by trying things and experimenting. We grow by keeping a GREAT attitude and having a POSITIVE outlook.
As my friends and I talked you could hear the pride we all had in our accomplishments. The more we talked the more passionate we became about our jobs, our companies, and our opportunities. These are the same friends that would usually be telling each other about everything wrong with their companies, but when you start to talk about them being a part of the sales force and the sales force being a part of the company, they will defend it to the end.
As I walked away I really felt good about myself. More importantly, I felt good about my profession. I never doubt myself and my ability but hearing everyone talk made me feel like a king. WE WERE ALL SALES REPS! WE ARE GOOD AT WHAT WE DO! WE ENJOY WHAT WE DO! WE APPRICIATE WHAT WE HAVE!
Do you?
Lorin
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