Beginnings

Often, when we begin a new experience, we learn several things very rapidly in our effort to adjust to a new situation.  Sales was no different for me.  On April 26th, 2013, I flew out to Oklahoma, and the next day I began selling.  Before this, I had been given a sales manual to read in preparation, which I did.  I soon learned that the experience itself could be far different than what I saw on paper.  Here were some things I learned within the first two weeks of selling:

1.  Selling can be a lot like a (Mormon) mission.  The routine and schedule are very familiar, as are the daily team meetings and setting goals.  But more than that, it is a refining experience that develops personal qualities in ways that nothing ever has before.  I had to use faith, patience, confidence, diligence, and trust in the Lord almost daily.

2.  What you say is not nearly as important as how you say it.  I could parrot the phrases in the sales manual like any other human with average intelligence, but I came face to face with the fact that the verbal aspect of communication constitutes a very small part of the information we really transmit.  My posture, stance, hand movements, facial expressions, tone, pitch, volume, and everything else painted 99% of the picture.  Confidence is shown, not told.

3.  It's a roller coaster.  There are days when you sell nothing and you go home wondering why you ever left your bed that morning.  For me, it was easier to go to the Lord at those times and wonder what I was doing wrong or how I could improve.  And then there are days when a lot of success comes and you feel on top of the world.  Unlike a mission, salesmen are not reminded constantly that regardless of their individual efforts, all their success comes from the Lord as a gift.  It was easy to forget that.  It was and is easy to think of myself and my accomplishments.  I learned different things from being on the bottom and on top, but overall, the truth is:  You've got to learn that nothing is permanent.


4.  Nobody learns this overnight.  Every new salesman who sees a natural at work thinks that his kind of talent must have been there the whole time, that he's a "born salesman".  It's just not true.  Everybody who's reached success in this field has had to work at it, night after night, for months and years.  Everybody has days with no success and wonders if they're cut out for the job.  I could endure a single day with no success, but after several days like that, the hardest thing was the unavoidable question, "Am I ever going to be good at this?"  There were some times that the only thing keeping my going was that I knew God had me here for a purpose, and I owe a lot to that.  Everybody has plateaus, not only in their results, but in their own progress in learning their skill set.  As long as you're putting the effort in, wait a few days and the progress will come.  Nobody learns this overnight, but:  Anybody who's persistent can and will reach success.


What I learned helped me to get past the difficulties I faced.  I wouldn't mind forgetting about the end of April (I didn't sell anything and had a less-than-pleasurable experience with the Yukon police), but May and June were good months.

We had a good group of guys.

We helped each other when we needed it.

We spent countless car rides reading Og Mandino and pumping each other up.

We saw our first tornado.

We had a way-too-close shave with another tornado.

We laughed about the crazy people we ran into.

We laughed at how crazy we were sometimes.

We ate a lot of Buffalo Wild Wings.

But just as all good things must come to an end, all easy (or doable) things must get hard.  And before long, it did.  But that will have to wait until the next post.

Choosing where

This post is a lot more about revelation than it is about sales.

After deciding on summer sales in general, I needed to decide what opportunity I was going to go with.  My conversation with the satellite company introduced me to the world of summer sales, so I began to open my mind and look at the options I had.  Several of my friends and family members were planning on doing sales the next summer, and from communication with them, I came to learn of the three most common sales jobs for RMs (returned missionaries):  security systems, satellite, and pest control.  I collected as much knowledge as I could about these three.

Security systems seemed appealing, but I had heard from several people that it was the hardest of the three.  I decided that I didn't want to begin my sales experience with security, although I held that idea in reserve for when I was more experienced.  So that was out for now.  Next, because I'm not really a TV person, I couldn't imagine myself getting excited about convincing other people to buy satellite services, so that was out.

With pest control, I was looking at two main companies that I'll call Apple and Orange.  I was introduced to Apple by a friend in the window cleaning job (Brightly Services).  He had sold pest control over the summer before and introduced me to a friend of his who would be leading a sales team at Apple.  I liked that I was being introduced to the company by someone I trusted.  After school one day I headed over to the Apple office and met with the guy who would be my team leader.  After my interview with the satellite company, I had come to realize that interviews for many summer sales companies are not like interviews for other companies.  In interviews with most companies, the prospective employee must show and persuade the employer that he is qualified for the position.  In interviews with summer sales companies, the employer tries to "sell" the job to the prospective employee.  After being in sales, I now understand why they do this, but back then it seemed strange.

At the Apple office, I was shown videos, stats about the company, all kinds of fun incentives that were part of the sales program, and I met several salespeople at various levels in the company.  Almost all of the guys seemed friendly, honest, and trustworthy.  Their presentation was excellent.  I liked the team leader and I felt like he really wanted me to succeed.  I didn't tell them my decision right then, but I contacted them later to let them know.  The truth was, I had already made my decision before I entered the office.

About a month earlier, I came in contact with Orange.  Blake Edwards, somebody I barely knew from my childhood and hadn't talked to in years, posted on Facebook about a job opportunity at Orange.  The post was intentionally vague, but I knew from experience that it was referring to summer sales, so I contacted him about it.  He met with me over dinner and we discussed what the job would be like.  Blake would be the team leader for Orange in Oklahoma City, and I would be part of the team.  At that point, I had already learned a little bit about the other company, Apple, through an email conversation with Apple's team leader, so after the conversation, I told Blake I would choose between them and Apple and let him know what I decided.  Both companies seemed to have a lot of similarities, and they both seemed like good opportunities.

As I thought the decision over, I thought about what God would want me to do.  I knew that wherever I went, I would try to serve Him and serve in His church.  I had already been taught that there are some times, especially like a full-time mission, when there is a specific place the Lord wanted you to be.  I didn't know if it would be like that with summer sales, but if it was important, I wanted to know about it.  During this time, I attended the temple with some members of my singles ward (LDS temples are different from regular meetinghouses; they are considered very sacred and set apart from the world.  Often members will attend the temple if they are seeking help or answers to difficult questions).   I didn't necessarily go to the temple to find out if the Lord wanted me to be somewhere, but while I was there, I felt like the Lord wanted me to pray about it.  At first, I was hesitant, because I prefer to focus on spiritual things in the temple; not things like work or school.  But I felt that it was important, so in prayer, I asked Him, "Do you want me to go to Oklahoma with Blake?"  The answer came clearly; "I want you in Oklahoma."

It was the next day that I met with the team leader at the Apple office.  After comparing the pay scales, it looked like I would have made more money with Apple (you can never be sure with sales, but I still think that would have been the case).  But I remembered my answer from the day before, so I decided on Orange.  This was back in late January 2013, and ever since then I've been searching for reasons why the Lord wants me here in Oklahoma.  That search has led me through a lot of ups and downs, and it's given me both difficult and rewarding experiences.  But I've never doubted what the Lord told me that day, and I know He has a reason for everything.

Why I originally chose sales

Despite what the title implies, this does not necessarily mean I am choosing sales as a career.  I'll discuss my feelings on that later.  Back in July 2012, I had just returned from a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Alabama.  I was preparing to return to college and pick up where I left off.  The first thing I was looking for was a job.  I found a posting for a door-to-door sales job nearby, and it ended up fitting my needs extremely well (kudos to Brent Reed of Brightly Services).  I figured that since I had spent two years knocking doors and getting rejected as a Mormon missionary (among other activities which were much more rewarding than I could ever describe), I could do it again.

The job itself was enjoyable.  I liked being out moving around and talking to people.  People were generally nice, even if not interested in the service, and it paid better than 90% of other student jobs out there.  But everybody who's done door-to-door sales knows that if you do it for long enough, you, the solicitor, will be solicited for job opportunities.  Especially in Utah, which I came to discover is prime recruiting ground for door-to-door sales companies, due to the high concentration of returned missionaries like me.  After discussing a possible job with a satellite company, I really put a lot of thought into the opportunity and what it would mean to me.  Following is what I wrote in my journal recently after, on October 28th, 2012:

"A lot of opportunities have come up for me lately, which is good, but it also means decisions that may or may not have a huge effect on me.  The one I've been thinking about most is an opportunity to go out of state to do door-to-door sales for a satellite company.  I've been approached about it in the last week or so, and I've gotten a variety of opinions about it (Commentary:  I put an exploratory post up on Facebook about it and got nothing but negative comments).  It's definitely something that I'll have to be all for if I decide to do it, because it'll be a big commitment.  I'm just trying to think about all the things it could effect.  It could affect my schooling a lot, because if it goes well I won't have to worry about financially living semester-to-semester without saving much money, and I'll be able to focus on academics and preparation for higher schooling (this was the main reason I ended up deciding on summer sales).

"More important, though, are the spiritual implications.  I won't ever work on Sundays, so that's not a problem, although its uncertain how long I'll be in any one area, so serving in the church may be difficult.  I'll still have enough time for scripture study, but I may not be able to attend a temple for the entire four-month period.  Institute (part of the Church education system) and family home evening are pretty much out, unless there are Sunday classes or if I'm rooming with active members.

"The thing I'm most worried about, though, is how much it has the potential to take my focus off of the gospel.  The time I've spent already weighing my options about this is enough to make this a fairly significant distractor.  What's it going to be like when 90% of my lifestyle revolves around sales and money?  Do I trust myself enough to honestly say to myself that this won't be dangerous?  This isn't a questions just for this specific situation.  Money and worldly prominence are incredibly tempting, and I'm only beginning to discover the scope and severity of that temptation.  No one is immune to the temptation of pride.  The rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22) was righteous and obedient to the commandments from his youth, but missed a chance to follow the Savior (and perhaps entrance into the kingdom of God) because he couldn't take his heart off of his riches.

"The trouble is, I can see myself becoming like that if I'm not careful.  I've always been someone who does what I'm supposed to do.  Furthermore, the Lord has given me talents, skills and abilities (many of them activated and enhanced by my experience as a missionary, but some of them totally created by it) that I feel could cause me to become highly successful in life.  How do I know that if the true test comes 10, 20, or 50 years down the road and I'm asked to give literally EVERYTHING to the Savior, how do I know that I'll be able to do that?  Perhaps I can't know that now.  The danger in wealth or prominence is that it will likely come gradually, like many temptations do, until before I know it, I'll love it more than I love the Savior, or my family, or things that should be most important to me.  I'll work and save and gain myself into complete self-centeredness.

"Who am I to say that my character alone will prevent me from becoming like that?  I don't mean that the temptation of wealth will take hold of me against my will, but if I am to begin traveling down a road that may lead to what the world calls success, I need to be ready to take the necessary precautions to keep it from getting into me.  What those are, I can't say exactly, but I'm sure it includes keeping the commandments the Lord has made clear to us (all of them, strictly), but also following the Spirit to know how to get the world out of your head (for example, occasionally or even frequently sacrificing a favorite piece of worldly media for something that will bring the Spirit into your life and help you avoid the more subtle temptations).

"Being a missionary does teach you how to keep the world out, even if you don't want to, and that may be a spiritually life-saving skill in the future.  Satan can spread his messages SO EASILY and SO SUBTLY through the media that, if it were possible, he could deceive the very elect.  So, as a product of this rant, I'm going to not listen to the radio this whole week.  I will replace it with silence, gospel talks, or uplifting music.  Perhaps I'll see a difference and be able to make decisions better.  I hope so.  I need to have my mind clear enough to make decisions, because I have incredibly important ones coming up very, very soon."

Intro

Hello, everyone.  My name is Dallin Dressman and I am a salesman.  At least, for now.  And possibly for life.  The purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts and experiences related to sales and how it's impacted me as a person.  This is something that I feel has changed my life for the better.  Let me start by saying that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), and since this blog is basically going to be a modified copy of my journal entries, there will be many references to Mormon belief, both official church doctrine and my own personal feelings.  I connect everything I do to what I believe, and my experience selling has been enriched and made meaningful by my beliefs as a Latter-Day Saint.

I don't know exactly who I expect to be the target audience of this blog, but I hope it will appeal to both a Christian audience and to a sales-enthusiast audience.  As far as sales go, this blog is NOT meant to teach selling principles.  I am very new at this, and I intend to learn far more than I teach.  But I do enjoy sharing my experiences, and any feedback or thoughts are welcomed.  Be warned that I sometimes write A LOT.  If you don't like it, don't read this blog.  Finally, this blog is a story.  You've got to read the posts chronologically or it won't make sense.  So, without further ado, life of a salesman.