Seasoned Canadian Sales Trainer

Saleswizard

I've been in sales for over 35 years and in sales training and sales management consulting for the last 20 or so.

Been there, done that, had doors slammed in my face, been kicked out of people's offices, and not only learned from the experiences but lived to share them with others. One of the best ways to learn what to do is to do it wrong and learn from it.

I share many of my experiences through our free newsletter for sales professionals.

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Gilbert

Hello Saleswizard. I look forward to reading more of your posts. The first few were great. Welcome to the forum.

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"If today was a test, how did you do?"

MitchM

saleswizard -

I don't have close to your years of experience so if you would "been there, done that, had doors slammed in my face, been kicked out of people's offices" tell me if this is what it takes to really be successful? I mean, what kind of situations create doors being slammed in one's face and people kicking you out of offices?

What does that say about sales and does that reflect on your approach or what?

AZBroker

Hello Saleswizard. Welcome to the forum.

Jolly Roger

Welcome aboard!

Saleswizard

Good questions. No, having doors slammed in your face and getting kicked out of someone's office isn't a requirement for success in sales. These experiences are part of the learning process of what works and what doesn't.

I got the door slammed in my face while trying some new cold calling techniques. Some of the techniques worked and some, obviously, didn't. I was quite devastated after the experience and wanted to go home and crawl under the waterbed! Fortunately, I had the courage to carry on doing more cold calls. If I had quit that day I'm not sure I ever would have made cold calls again. Too afraid of rejection.

I got kicked out of the prospect's office, rightfully so, because I knocked my competition. After a 2-hour drive, I was in the guy's office for about 5-minutes when he told me what he intended to buy and I proceeded to trash the competition. The guy looked across his desk at me and said, "Look, if you think you can get my business by bad mouthing your competitor, your sadly mistaken. Please leave!" I had a 2-hour drive back to my office to digest the lesson, and what a valuable lesson it was. Now, when faced with the same situation, I always start off with a positive or neutral comment before discussing my competitive differences.

While I never liked them, I never regretted going through the experiences. They make you grow. Or at least they made me grow.

MitchM

The inexperience of youth, it sound like. Once when I was very young I inerviewed for a job with a publishing company and thinking I could enlighten the owner I gave him a lecture on the use of a thesaurus as if he would never have heard of one.

I didn't get the job but the man was patient with me and humored me. Over the next few days I kept thinking about it and realized he probably knew what a thesaurus was and I felt an inch tall.

Saleswizard

Well at least you had some room to grow after that experiece.

Jeff Blackwell

Hello Saleswizard and Welcome to SalesPractice!

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Newbie

Hello Saleswizard and welcome to the forum.