Highest Earning Potenial Sales Job

Hi Paul:

I agree 100% with your post about what the elite salespeople do to be in the top 5% and earn outstanding incomes. They do what most people simply wont' do.

But I disagree with your assessment that 'following your passions' to earn a living doesn't work. And I don't think it's 'dangerous.'

Like you, I love golf but my 10 handicap is never going to earn me any money on a professional tour. But why couldn't I work for a golf club maker/distributor and sell golf clubs to pro shops? Why couldn't I become an expert about every detail about my products and their benefits, do the things the superstars do, and make a substantial living working in an field I am passionate about? I don't have to be highly skilled as a golfer to show my products, all golf courses have their own pro's. And I wouldn't be working a j.o.b. I didn't like, I would be doing what I love.

If I love sports cars and want to market them I don't think I have to be a fantastic race car driver to be successful working around my passion. I have to know my product, be able to convey the benefits on a personal basis to my customers, and do the things the superstars of sales do.

Sure, you have to have common sense about following your passions to earn your living. But let me use your brother who loves photography as an example of what I believe young people should be doing.

What if your brother, while working a steady, secure job with GM, had started a part-time business as a photographer when he was young. What if he was so talented people had sent their family and friends to him on a regular basis and his part-time business grew and grew? There may have come a time when he was earning as much money from doing what he loved part-time as he was making from working the secure job at GM.

Perhaps he could have left the comfy corporate job and worked at his passion at a much younger age. Perhaps he could have been following his dreams at a younger age, rather than wasting all those years and waiting to retire before he devoted his time to his photography. He will never know.

I firmly believe our school systems do our young people an injustice by not developing their motivation to follow their passions to earn their livings. They teach us to finish high school, go to college, get a 'secure, steady' j.o.b., get married and have kids, work 30 years to be eligible to receive a pension in our 50's or 60's, and spend our remaining years doing the things we always wanted to do before we die.

That's what I did because that's what I was taught to do. At nearly 60, I follow my passions now and earn my income from several different streams, but I wasted so many years working for the 'man.' I put my dreams and desires on hold when I could have been pursuing them 35 years ago instead of now. Maybe I could have been doing what I do now at a younger age, I'll never know.

Why not work at what you love and do the things we all dream of doing before we get too old? Most of us have more than one passion. And common sense will tell us if we can earn a living in a particular passion over time. If we can't, we can follow another passion. I don't think young people should ever put their dreams on hold to work a j.o.b. for the 'man.'

Sure, we have to work at things we may not 'love' to earn a living and pay our bills, but why not pursue our passions on a part-time basis and work to grow this into a full-time income?

Paul, I have been on your website and have seen the good work you do. You are a 'people-helper." I respect what you do, and I suspect you are following your passion. I know we may agree to disagree on this subject, but we both have the same mission...add value to other's lives.

...Coach Doug

Now, based on the way you just put it, I have no problems with it. But you just added a lot of qualifiers to your original statement--part-time, see if it can turned into a paying job, get a paying job while you see, etc. That's actually a far different statement--it's qualified with a number of actions to be taken rather than just do what you love.

I've seen too many follow their passion and end up in great financial crisis because they followed their passion without taking serious inventory of what that means in the real world.

This may seem like nitpicking, but there are many who haven't nitpicked and it has cost them dearly. I think it is incumbent on anyone giving training or coaching to include not only the bright, but the potential dark side and especially the information on what has to be done before launching off into following one's dreams. I'd rather be accused of nitpicking about following one's dreams than see that dream turned into a nightmare.

Yes Paul, I do delve into both sides of 'reality' with my coaching students. As a matter of fact, I sometimes think I give a little too much of the 'reality' side of life with my students, but like you said...it's necessary.

And I have a tendency to maybe go a little too 'deep' and concentrate on the philosophy side of sales without adding the 'nuts and bolts' at the same time, but I have been told this makes me a good coach. I believe they need the philosophy as well as the nuts and bolts and I do make sure they get both...a lot of both. Many trainers serve up the nuts & bolts, but they don't teach the 'why.' When they understand the 'why' they can grow into champions.

I read so much 'nuts and bolts' on this forum that my mind screams to help with the philosophy part and I don't delve into the 'qualifications' because I don't want to make my observations too long here. Those are the 'natural' questions that follow the philosophy.

Life is so much more fast-paced, complex, and challenging then when I was young. I'm amazed at all the challenges young people face today. It's incredible. And my mission is to help them be prepared for these challenges. I coach all my students with the same care and empathy I would coach my own children or my brothers and sisters. I believe that's the intensity level necessary.

Thanks for the insights Paul, they are greatly appreciated. I'm always totally open to help. That's why I still have my own personal coaches. I'll try and add more 'qualifiers' in my future posts my friend...

I appreciate that you emphasize the need to be fully aware of the consequences and the foundation that must be established before juming in.

But--

With most of the topics discussed in this forum failure isn't the end of the world. If a PR, prospecting, or sales techniques doesn't work or someone doesn't have enough information to make it work, it hurts because it wastes time, but it doesn't put them out of business.

But with someone following their dream to open a business about what they are passionate about without throughly investigating or without building into it can have catastrophic consequences. I'm sure you get the same desperate phone calls and e-mails as I do from business owners who followed their dream and are on the verge of financial collapse and are desperate to find someone that can help them find money or a way to salvage their business overnight. Of course, there isn't anything I or anyone else can do to save them.

It was their mistake moving without doing sufficient homework, but at the same time some of the things they've heard and some of the advice to follow their dreams because if they're passionate the money will follow, etc. encourages them to jump without thinking. That's what I react against.

It is one of, if not the biggest, decisions of their life; not to be entered into lightly. Then people give them the advice to follow their dreams and they take it at face value.

I've heard "if I'd only known" so many times from these folks that I think many times that advice is doing a serious disservice if not fully qualified about what has to be done before following a dream.

A dream is nothing but a wish. To make it a reality is far more difficult than most assume--and then to be encouraged with the simple advice to just follow your dream or that if you have enough passion the dollars will take care of themselves just compounds it.

Originally Posted by Dougd55 I agree 100% with your post about what the elite salespeople do to be in the top 5% and earn outstanding incomes. They do what most people simply wont' do. ...Coach Doug

I disagree.
We have studied the sales practices of thousands of salespeople, including hundreds of the Top 1%.

It's not true that the vast majority won't do what the top salespeople do. They simply do not know what the top salespeople do, why they do it, or how they to do.

Almost all salespeople have learned a flawed sales paradigm* and only the top salespeople have figured that out. They have intuitively moved into a new sales paradigm, which most of them can not explain.

*Paradigm: The entire body of generally accepted knowledge in a given field.

Doug and Paul,
Thanks for having an intelligent and respectful conversation on this topic (and others). It's nice to read and learn from people who share different points of view.

Thank you for kind words Sallysellsseashells. I love your name...very clever and unique...coach doug

I agree Sally,
In a respectful manner it is good to see the different view points.

Great post Coach Doug and Paul.

Keep them coming

If I did not love my work so much, I would have retired 16 years ago.

I agree with Jacques. I don't see myself ever 'retiring' no matter how old I get. I'm not 'working,' I'm living my life on my own terms doing what I love to do...helping people and animals and pursuing my passions.

Never stop pursuing your passions...