JUST LIKE RIDING A BIKE

Over the weekend I reconnected with a friend of mine that I haven’t talked to in almost 30 years. The last time we talked was the day I closed my diamond business in 1982! At the time he was also in the jewelry business and we had several opportunities to sell together.

We talked about our career paths over the last 30 years and I was shocked to hear that he got out of sales shortly after we lost touch and went back to school to become a general contractor building residential homes. He was telling me about some of the projects he had completed over the years and I must say it was an impressive list.

He then told me how he just about lost everything when the housing market crashed and that for the past 4 months he had returned to sales.

When he found out that I had gone into sales training about 20 years ago he half-jokingly asked if I would work with him and help him out a little. I said I would be glad to do whatever I could and he immediately said how about Monday? So there you have it, you now know how I spent my afternoon.

When we met I asked him what his plan was for the day. He opened up his laptop and showed me his map for the day with 6 stops marked. He handed me a folder with the sales records for each account we were going to call on.

As we arrived at his first customer and got out of the car he quickly reached into his back seat and grabbed his case. We were inside the lobby of the customer no more than a minute after stopping the car. I listened to him and watched as he went through his presentation taking the time to ask questions and using the information he received to lead him to the next question and eventually to a product to demo.

I loved how smoothly he made transitions from one question to the next and how easily he made it look when he closed each product as he moved the sale forward. It seemed like we were only in the customer’s business for a few minutes but we were actually with the customer for over an hour and walked out with what my friend said was one of the biggest orders he has taken to date.

As we started driving to the next customer he asked me what I thought, I told him that for him selling was like riding a bike, he didn’t forget how! I told him how impressed I was that after almost 30 years of not selling he was every bit as good as I remembered he was.

I saw him repeat this same level of professionalism and competence for the rest of the day and all 6 stops he had planned on making. We finished our day around 6:45 and as we said goodbye he asked what he could do better. I told him that the only thing I thought he could do better is to not waste his talent on simply selling, he needed to go to his boss and ask to be a mentor for new reps. I said that he was too good to be alone every day.

Today showed me that a good sales rep will always be a good sales rep. The skills and talent stay with you as long as you live and if you ever need to use them they are there ready to go at a moment’s notice. Maybe not every rep will be as polished as my friend in just 4 weeks back in the field, but I am convinced that with a minimal amount of practice a great sales rep will be back on top of the leader board in no time.

Lorin