I've never felt the drive to learn the art of selling as strongly as I did that night. It hasn't returned in the same intensity since then. Now that I'm home and doing different things, the desire is very weak. I started this blog shortly after this experience, which is why the first couple of posts make it sound like I'm ready to walk into the nearest office building and apply for a sales job. At this point, I'm not really sure what to make of that experience. I know that the Lord used it, among other experiences, to teach me that sales is supposed to take a more permanent place in my life than I thought. But I'm not going to go into sales as a career unless more things happen in my life that point me in that direction.
Beyond that, I have put a lot of thought into what I would want a sales job to be like, should I ever venture back into the world of sales. These conditions are only preferences for temporary jobs like summer sales (which I am likely to do again), but absolute requirements if I decide on sales permanently.
Requirement 1: I do not want to commit to the life of a salesman unless I can find a great mentor.
I came to this decision after reading the Sales Bible. Jeffrey Gitomer writes multiple times about how crucial it is for a company to have solid sales training. If a company has a problem selling, he says, then it's most likely due to lack of good training rather than the salesmen themselves. And he cites stories of several well-known salesman that almost failed, but came under the instruction of a great mentor and learned to succeed.
If I decided to be a salesman, Tom Hopkins is the kind of mentor I would want. I refer to Tom Hopkins as the "General Authority" of sales, mainly because his phraseology and his precise choice of words remind me of the speaking style of many Mormon church leaders at general conference (a semiannual meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the latest of which can be found here). Tom defines the art of selling in understandable but complete terms. Here's a sample of Tom at work:
Tom defines closing as "professionally using a person's desire to obtain the benefits of your product. Then, blending your sincere desire to serve in helping a person make a decision that's truly good for them." He also describes closing as "a symphony of words and actions that emotionally build, culminating in a final win/win agreement." I wish I could include the video of Tom teaching about closing, but it seems to have disappeared from Youtube.
Another reason I like Tom is that he sets an example of morality and integrity in the world of selling. He encourages people to choose something to sell that they can truly believe in, something that will mean at least as much to the customer as it does to them; as opposed to choosing something to sell based on profit alone. This, to me, is an extremely important aspect of sales that I'll share my feelings about in an upcoming post. For now, I will say that selling is the profession that holds perhaps the strongest temptation to sacrifice your integrity for profit. I feel that deciding on a product or service that I can feel justified selling will be one of the greatest protections against that temptation.
I came to this decision after reading the Sales Bible. Jeffrey Gitomer writes multiple times about how crucial it is for a company to have solid sales training. If a company has a problem selling, he says, then it's most likely due to lack of good training rather than the salesmen themselves. And he cites stories of several well-known salesman that almost failed, but came under the instruction of a great mentor and learned to succeed.
If I decided to be a salesman, Tom Hopkins is the kind of mentor I would want. I refer to Tom Hopkins as the "General Authority" of sales, mainly because his phraseology and his precise choice of words remind me of the speaking style of many Mormon church leaders at general conference (a semiannual meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the latest of which can be found here). Tom defines the art of selling in understandable but complete terms. Here's a sample of Tom at work:
Tom defines closing as "professionally using a person's desire to obtain the benefits of your product. Then, blending your sincere desire to serve in helping a person make a decision that's truly good for them." He also describes closing as "a symphony of words and actions that emotionally build, culminating in a final win/win agreement." I wish I could include the video of Tom teaching about closing, but it seems to have disappeared from Youtube.
Another reason I like Tom is that he sets an example of morality and integrity in the world of selling. He encourages people to choose something to sell that they can truly believe in, something that will mean at least as much to the customer as it does to them; as opposed to choosing something to sell based on profit alone. This, to me, is an extremely important aspect of sales that I'll share my feelings about in an upcoming post. For now, I will say that selling is the profession that holds perhaps the strongest temptation to sacrifice your integrity for profit. I feel that deciding on a product or service that I can feel justified selling will be one of the greatest protections against that temptation.
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