I have been on the road for twenty-five years. I am a fourth generation traveling salesman. I travel mostly throughout the United States (this is my territory). The “product” I sell is actually a service. You see, I sell the benefits of selling real estate by auction. Yes, while I am an auctioneer but that is a different “traveling sales story.” I am a commissioned salesperson and travel to see my prospects. I sign up the auctions and then our company handles putting the auction on.

From all appearances the real estate auction business of our firm is rather glamorous. We sell multi-million properties nationally and have been in this business since 1915. I am fortunate to get to travel to many nice areas, see high-end properties, meet very wealthy real estate owners, and earn a handsome living. But, as traveling salespeople, we all know the behind the scenes of day-to-day life on the road, for example, yesterday I flew to a meeting three hours flight time away and then traveled back. It was a 12 hour day, but what was nice about it was I flew private, which I rarely do. Usually, I elect to go commercial, especially if my meeting is too far to justify the time and expense associated with taking our plane (no, it isn’t a jet, just a twin engine Piper Navajo.) Tomorrow, I am driving to the coast for a meeting- about a 6 hour drive. That is ok too because I get to drive my “fun” car.

While I don’t necessarily travel every week, you know we as salesmen must be in front of folks to earn a living. Last week I was in Virginia, Florida and then to Texas in three days. That equates to flying in. Spending the night. Making the meeting. Back to the airport and then repeat- for three days. It will wear you down eventually so I love it when I am home.

I have been traveling in our family business on a full time basis since I was 22. Prior to that all through high school, I traveled with our company helping conduct the auctions as bid spotter; sometimes I’d be the back up auctioneer, tent crew or to put up the signage- usually all of the above.

After I went two years of college I decided to go into the family business as my profession. I quit college in order to learn from my father, the third generation traveling salesman (and owner of the company). I knew I could learn more from him about being successful in this business than sitting in class.

Now I am 47 and have traveled to most every state, Mexico, Canada, Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. I set up appointments with real estate owners and then travel to see them- to understand their objectives, preview their property and determine if our service can help. Auctions aren’t for everyone, but many folks, if they understood how they really worked would use them (and this was before the real estate market crashed in 2006 too).

I am a husband and father of 4 children (from college age down to 12 years old). I love being able to be the boss of my own schedule. I am usually able to make ballgames, honor day, etc. I am able to also earn a comfortable living and get to meet some really interesting and successful people.

Over the last 15 years our firm’s focus has been the non-distressed real estate owners and high-end properties, mostly resort or residential properties nationally (I know the market has now changed and, yes, we have a division that works with distressed sellers, financial institutions and the government). I have meet with (and signed up…and then successfully sold) Karl Malone’s, the NBA superstar’s home in Salt Lake City; professional athletes, race car drivers, Hollywood stars, and founders of Fortune 500 businesses. That part is pretty cool.

My favorite area is Lake Tahoe, Cabo San Lucas and the Cayman Islands, but many times I am on a ranch out in Colorado, or meeting on a condo project in anywhere USA. One lesson I have learned (and relearned) is to stop and smell the roses as you go along, as like you said, it is the journey not just the destination, whether we are talking about life or traveling in our job.

Enough about me and what I do. Thanks for allowing all of us the opportunity to share our stories. I’m sure everyone has some very interesting aspects to their travels as well.

Scott King
J. P. King Auction Company
Gadsden, Alabama
www.jpking.com

I sell caskets for a living, that’s right, caskets. Now before you laugh or immediately go to an image of the latest song from the band by the same name, or a bad episode of “Six Feet Under,” hear me out. Selling casket sales is an honorable profession, one that few people choose, but those of us who do, find extremely rewarding.

The ritual of burying the dead has been with us since the beginning of time. By some estimates the earliest funeral rites were linked with Neanderthal remains dating back 100,000 years ago. Yet a team of Spanish researchers recently found an axe among the fossilized bones of 27 ancient humans that were discovered in the limestone caves of Atapuerca, near Burgos, Spain. It was the only man made tool found in the pit. Professor Eudaid Carbonell, of Rovira University in Tarragona believes that it was most likely used for a burial rite. This would make burial an ancient rite of over 350,000 years, long before the means of abstract thought is believed to have developed.

Why do we bury our dead? To remember them. To gather as a community to pay our respects. To hold who they were as sacred. To never forget them. To believe that there is something more than simply “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
As the war in Iraq wages on, every family of every fallen soldier wants the body of their son to come home so they can bury him. This is a sacred tradition that has been with us, and will continue with us, I believe, until the end of time. To bury those we love means that we care enough to want to remember them. We want their history, and who they were, never to be forgotten. If you ever wonder if someone was loved while they lived on this earth, go to their funeral. There you will see people gathered together to remember a loved one. The ritual is not only to remember the person, but also to mark the life they lived, and what it meant to the people who knew them. We mark graves with grave stones because we care and because we want to remember. And yet, in our modern society, a person can live a life that is totally forgotten, almost as if they never lived—no funeral, no memorial service, no burial, no nothing. I call it the “state of the unknown individual.” It’s an increasing reality in our society.

I work closely with Funeral Directors who are often referred to as Undertakers. Like myself, they take their profession seriously. For most of them it is a family business they are often born into rather than openly choose. Think about it? Who wants to live with death and dying each and every day of their adult life? Not many. And yet, the image of a Funeral Director (or a Casket Salesman for that matter) is one of a money grubbing, heartless lot, preying on the sorrow of others death. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Whenever someone wants to “get into it with me” (meaning: I want to tell you why what you do for a living is bad) I refer them to the movie produced in the early 90s called “My Girl.” It is a story about friendship, love, and death concerning a widower mortician father played by Dan Aykroyd, and a free spirit beautician, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who works at the funeral home. The story unfolds through the eyes of the Funeral Director’s daughter as she tries to make sense of her world through friendship, discovery, and self reflection. Through her eyes you see the humanity and care of people in the “burial profession” from a positive light. We do what we do because we care. We are not a wealthy group. Most of us make an average living that provides us the ability to be productive citizens in our community. Some of us own homes, many of us cannot afford one; some of us are married, others are single, and yet others, divorced. We are more or less like everyone else in our communities. Most of us belong to civic organizations like the Rotary Club and Kiwanis. We are hard working citizens trying to make a contribution to the world we live in and the communities we serve.

Not too long ago I had an unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate depending on your perspective) experience. I accompanied a Funeral Director to a church service at the local parish. The deceased has specifically requested a casket similar to the one that President Ford was recently buried in. It was a metal casket of the highest grade. The family honored his wishes and so the casket was special ordered for his funeral. As we stood in the front of the sanctuary with the deceased setting up for the funeral service the parish Priest went off on us.

“This is disgusting. This is the worst case of crass materialism I have seen in some time. What a waste of money. While people are starving in the streets, Mr. _____ has the audacity to order up an expensive casket—and you sell it to him. You should be ashamed of yourselves, you merchants of death.”

Neither of us could believe our ears, especially coming from a Priest. The Funeral Director said nothing. I could not do the same.
“So what would you have Father, nothing?”

“I would have a simple memorial service with no body for people to gawk over. I would have the remains cremated,” he quickly replied.

“Well that’s what you would have, but that’s not what the family wants. And you don’t get to choose how the family wants to remember their father, husband, and friend. And quite frankly, I don’t appreciate you dismissing the worth of our professions. It’s not like the ministry has a great reputation these days. I find your comments offensive and hurtful,” to which the Priest immediately stormed out of the sanctuary.

Some of us sell shoes for a living, others houses, or appliances, or perhaps insurance. I sell caskets—not because I have to. I sell caskets because I want to.

Anonymously yours,
The Casket Salesman

Before we start flying I decided I would start out giving you a little bit of background as to how I got to where I am today, and finish off by sharing some of my thoughts and views as to what the differences are in selling software to telecommunication companies vs. fighter jets to governments and countries. My story begins in Egypt.

I was born in Egypt by my Swedish parents. My dad was assigned to Egypt by his company in the mid 70´s. I spent the first nine years of my life in the Middle East traveling between different countries and cities attending American and International schools. This explains my American “gringo” accent. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse. I guess only time will tell.

After spending the first 10 years of my life in the Middle East we moved on to South America, spending several years in a variety of countries until my parents decided that it would be a good idea for me to become a “Swede” and discover my heritage by moving to Sweden for the first time in my life. It felt like home as soon as I arrived. It gave me roots to a place I always thought of as home, yet I had never been there. So a Swede I became, if only for a few years. I left the country even before finishing my University studies.

In Sweden I went through high school, Special Forces military service, and University. But after seven years I had enough of the cold, the darkness, and the Swedish politics. I decided it was time escape. I spent some time working in Poland and then actually made it back to Sweden for a brief period before ending up in the best city in the world: Madrid, Spain.

I have had the opportunity to work for Swedish, Spanish, and American companies. I have worked for Start-Ups, small companies, medium sized companies, as well as large corporations where I sold telecom equipment, software, and engineering solutions. I presently sell defense equipment in the form of fighter jets.

I’ve had the good fortune to travel to many different places in the world and live in different countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Sweden, Poland, Croatia, and Spain), each with their own unique culture. I guess you could say my family made me an international person. It’s all I have ever known; it’s who I am. There was one time in my life when I was living in Sweden, my father in Colombia, my sister in Ecuador, and mother in Australia. But we were still a family, just living our lives on different continents in varying parts of the world. I thought of it as being in a very large house filled with interesting rooms.

Many of us are international sales people. I am not alone. Travel simply becomes our way of life; it’s the means by which we get from the place we are to the place we need to be, both literally and figuratively. When you embrace it, I have found, traveling becomes one of the most exciting and enjoyable aspects of my life. For me it has been a great opportunity to meet people from different cultures, with different backgrounds, opinions, and politics. And every now and then I get the chance to meet extraordinary people and work with some exciting personalities. Travel makes all this possible.

But traveling, as we all know, has its flip side with all of the airports, the constant waiting, the security guards who dress you down at every point, to the flight attendants who are often helpful except when they are not. Its curious that no matter how seasoned a traveler you may be, the personnel ALWAYS know more than you, be that a newly employed 21 year old or a tired old longtimer, fed up with his or her job. I’ve been through great experiences from challenging two fat Spanish middle-aged Security Guards who wanted to “take it outside,” to making the massive mistake of saying the wrong thing to a security guard at a screening control point. But this is all grist for the mill when it comes to selling. Travel and sales goes together.

I remember when I was still pretty young saying that I would never be able to sell anything because I was an engineer at heart. My father, who was then and still is my mentor and business partner, told me that he was pretty confident I would turn into a sales person. Through years of experience, he knew the type. I couldn’t believe it, and yet, here I am today…

I guess it goes back to the different sales profiles and types of sales. We come in all sizes, shapes, and dispositions. I have always viewed a sales person as a car dealer, telephone salesman, or an Electrolux vacuum cleaner type knocking on doors. I was sure I wouldn’t do much good in this type of position, but I soon learned that there are many different ways of selling.

Early on in my career I worked for a small privately owned Spanish company (I’ll never to that again and I could tell you all the reasons why but it wouldn’t fit in this story…). My sales manager was a “bust down the door” type of sales person. This proved to be extremely effective in the early stages of selling and I learned a lot from both him and the company CEO. All priorities were on making the sale–not on how pretty the actual package appeared. It was all about invoicing and getting paid. But I soon learned there was more to sales then simply busting down doors.

I discovered that I needed to establish confidence with the customer. For I was always the one left in the wake of the broken down door, littered into a thousands pieces on the way to getting the sale. My role was to pick up the pieces, get the door back on its hinges, and make sure we could sell more products to the customer. Repeat selling starts with building confidence.

Another important lesson I learned along the way, as Karrass would say, is that you get what you negotiate. If you are serious about sales I strongly recommend you take a Karras negotiation course. Negotiation IS the future of global sales. I can honestly say that this class is worth every penny, or SEK in my case. Whether you are in sales, or in the purchase department, or an engineer, or a finance officer, or a CEO, or close to retirement, or a newly employed sales guy starting your career, this class is worth taking. Like so many points in sales it’s not that you necessarily learn anything new, but rather you learn how to use the talents you have to your best ends. You receive confirmation that the skills and tricks you’ve learned over the years simply needed fine-tuning to further advance your career. You also realize that negotiation works both ways. If you aren’t prepared your customer just may negotiate a better deal than you intended. Sitting in the class I was reminded of a Brazilian who was very close to retirement and extremely experienced. Our contract negotiation was never ending. I know now what I didn’t know then. He was getting what he negotiated. It was a lesson I will never forget.

So what type of salesman am I? Negotiator? Hard Driver? Listener? Consultant? I believe the answer is: all of the above. I use different talents at different points in the sales cycles. I have also learned to meter my temperament according to the customs and practices of the country I am selling in. But in the end, my motto is: “Get the job done,” which is increasingly difficult to do in our multi-lingual, multi-cultural, everybody sees the world in a different way reality. But such is the challenge of a global salesperson. You still have to “Get the Job Done

Finally, selling is more important than the product! If you have won over the customer, all else can be solved! As the saying goes, “people buy from people they like.” And when it comes to selling products, let’s face it, after awhile they all look the same—even fighter jets. Speeds and feeds, and grandiose features will not close the sale. Getting close to the customer will. Now don’t get me wrong. You have to know your product. Selling software was challenging but nothing compared to selling fighter aircraft to the defense industry. I can honestly say that this has been the greatest challenge of my professional life. But what’s selling without a challenge, from the complexity of the product, to negotiating with a room full of engineers who know it all, to product teams who want to tell you how to build your aircraft, to essential components that are hard to explain, to unfair practices from first world competitors, to politicians with egos and agendas, to working with international teams who can barely get along, let alone work to buy your jet fighter.

In the end its all about creating confidence, building rapport with the client, believing in yourself over your competition, learning how to accept rejection, and then, when everything is aligned, ask for the order and “get the job done!”

So who do I sell jet fighters to? If I told you I’d have to shoot you.

See you in an airport, somewhere in the world.

Anonymously yours,

The Swedish, Spanish, Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Polish, Croatian, Sales Guy

I travel for a living. I seldom leave my desk.

I have been to most major cities throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and Central America. You name it, I’ve been there. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, Las Vegas, or how about Pier, South Dakota. I’ve been to London, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Moscow and St. Petersburg, or how about Bamako, Africa? Then there is Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Buenos Aires, or perhaps Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Wherever I am guided, I go. I am your virtual traveling companion.

I tell you where to stay, what to avoid, what the local currency is, and who to call if you get into trouble.

I start my days early. They usually end late. I am constantly dealing with other people’s problems; there is very little time for problems of my own. Over the years I have been cussed, screamed at, threatened, hung up on, and often thanked. I have pulled people out of deep dark travel pits they would never get out of on their own.

I am a travel agent. I am a dying breed.

I guess you could say that through the years I have been vicariously traveling the world through the eyes of my clients. I do the ground work to make sure the trip is a success and learn about the world in the process. I have not been to every city mentioned above but I know them all quite well. Take Moscow, for instance. I can take you on a street by street walk into Old Arbat. I can provide you a guided tour of the Pushkin House Museum, a place that you otherwise would have missed. I can get you a special guide who really knows the city to take your through Red Square and the Kremlin. And I will tell you where to stay (perhaps the Marriott Royal for convenience and comfort), where to dine, what to eat, what to avoid, and which gifts to bring back to friends and family. And if I am lucky you just might thank me. I might even get a fruit basket at Christmas.

Do I sound bitter? Frustrated? It’s more like overworked and underpaid. I’ve grown tired of the travel industry.

For the last fifteen years I have been serving corporate executives of every rank and temperament. When they call me it is usually because something has gone wrong with their trip and they want me to fix it. And I do. Customer service has always come first. I have spent many nights resolving problems that inevitably come up with any trip. There will be missed planes, hotel mix-ups, changed plans, and lost credit cards. Someone has to resolve theses problem and it usually ends up being me. When I was paid for it I considered it part of the job. But now I struggle to make ends meet. The internet has changed the industry, and I would argue, for the worse.

Enter in the Online Travel Agent: The Orbitz, the Travelocitys, the best service/cheapest price.coms. Now days, everyone is a travel agent—except when they’re not. I now get calls from clients who book online but when they get into trouble they call me. The sheer audacity is almost more than I can take.

“Oh, Thank God you are there. I am in Ankara and I cannot get a flight out. Nobody seems to be willing to help me and I cannot find anyone who speaks good English.”

“But you didn’t book your flight arrangements with me,” I remind my client.

“I know. But I should have. Could you (and here it comes) pleeeease help me out, if only this time?” And so I end up fixing a problem I didn’t create nor one that I will get paid for. This is crazy. And so I have decided like many other travel agents to get out of the business.

The way I see it, if I can put up with raging corporate egos all hours of the day and night I can certainly serve clients in a different industry and get paid for it. I should have left the industry years ago.

I will miss the adventure but I won’t miss the headaches.

So Mr. Corporate Traveler, the next time you call me for help, I won’t be there. You’ll have to call that “1-800-you call is important to us, please stay on the line” number. Wishing you the best with your future travels.

Signing off. Your former corporate travel agent.

“Ask for it and it shall be given to you…Ask not and you’ll wish you had”

Thanks Marv…..

There are a million ways to start and end a sales story but most end up in the same place: in success or failure. The interesting question is what brings you to this point?

Rather than bore you with my childhood story of woe, I will start from the beginning of my sales career. I was on active duty in the military and starting a family. I had one young son and like many young couples, we were hugely in credit card debt, literally living from paycheck to paycheck. At one point it got so bad I began paying one credit card with the other until they all were completely maxed out. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I knew I was in serious trouble but sometimes opportunity knocks and you have to recognize it and answer the door.

I had a neighbor who lived in front of us on the driveway. Every day I would pass his house to get to mine. His name was Marv (Mr. Opportunity). I never really knew him very well except for our son’s occasionally playing together outside. One day Marv approached me about a business opportunity, asking me if I would like to own my own business? He peaked my interest and I ended up going to a meeting that turned out to be Amway. Now I had no intention of selling soap, or what I thought was a scheme into tricking people to sign up. However, what I did see in the meeting were people I would not meet or normally associate with; Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Bankers and the like. I thought to myself “what are they doing in Amway”? There must be something to this. The other thing I saw was a possible light at the end of a long dark tunnel of debt. Perhaps Amway was my ticket out?

I became interested in what I could sell other than soap that would make bigger profits, quickly. The answer was selling burglar alarm and water treatment systems through my new Amway business. I immediately created a sales binder full of reasons to buy my security products. I also received help targeting the “wealthy” neighborhoods in my area. Everything appeared to be in order, save for one major problem: I was scared to death to knock on doors. I drove around these wealthy neighborhoods but I just couldn’t get myself out of the car. I was too afraid. And so I sat there, in my car, driving around sweating convincing myself that no one was interested in my products. I confided in Marv about my lack of success. He told me that he was not a salesman and was also terrified to knock on a stranger’s door. But Marv came up with a plan; he suggested we go out knocking on doors together. Marv saw something in me. I think he knew I could be successful if I could get past my fear of selling and knocking on stranger’s doors. Marv had no desire to confront strangers but he knew if he did it would help me get past my fear of selling. Besides, this was Amway, what was good for me was also good for Marv. Thinking back now I can only imagine how Marv must have felt when we had doors slammed in our face. But he stuck with me. With his help I sold a burglar alarm and my career in sales had officially begun.

As we all know, selling is never easy, especially in the beginning. I had limited success with burglar alarm and water treatment systems. Yes, I got some sales but not to my satisfaction. I soon realized that to be successful in sales I needed to sell a “different” product. Fortunate for me Amway started to offer Pay Telephones to its distributors to sell. I looked into this product and immediately sensed that this was my key to getting out of debt. Good fortune and timing paid off. As the pay phone industry began its deregulation it also opened the door for businesses to own their phones rather than having to rent them from Ma Bell (the local telephone company).

This was the opportunity of a life time; it was a “no-brainer.” Gas stations, for instance, were getting paid 10% of the “coin in box” from their local Telco. The de-regulation allowed us (Amway distributors) to pull income reports to see just how much money these pay phones were actually producing. It was shocking the amount of money they were taking in. (Remember, this was long before the days of cell phones. Everyone HAD to use a pay phone when then left the house. There was no other choice). Looking back now on the “pay phone days” this was my first lesson in ROI selling and I didn’t even realize it. I immediately took a week’s leave from the military, bought a suit, and started logging every hot pay phone location I could find. I would then approach every property owner with the option to pull the coin box reports and offer them the opportunity to own it themselves instead of renting it from a Telco. Closing was easy, “Mr. Gas Station owner, if I put more money in YOUR pocket instead of the Telco’s pocket will you buy my pay phone?”

We were also backed by several very bright Amway businessmen who put together a company so we could represent ourselves with a little more clout. They also put together a relationship with a telecom interconnect company to do all our installation and maintenance. Instead of simply being “independent dealers” we could now represent ourselves as a company giving the customer a greater sense of confidence.

When I sold my first pay phones (two at one location) I made more money than my whole military income for the month. I still had six months left on my enlistment but I knew immediately I wouldn’t stay. I had been in the military for 10 years and it was time to move on. Sales was my ticket out.

I had great success selling pay phones. I was making more money than I had ever made before and I was getting recognized—and oh yes, I was also climbing out of debt. Isn’t it funny how things work in sales: hit the numbers and you get noticed? The owner of the telecom company who did our installations (a man I had never met) contacted me at a meeting one night with a proposition, “If you can sell these pay phones then I have telephone systems that you can sell and make a lot more money than you are making today.”

I told him I couldn’t take his offer because I was on active duty in the military. Of course he wanted to know how I was currently selling. I told him I did it by making my follow up calls on my lunch hour and as soon as my duty was over at 3:30 p.m. I would put on my suit and hit the streets. Unfortunately my honesty came back to bite me. Jealousy often finds success, and it found me too.

Soon after my meeting with the business owner I had a fellow military associate approach me as to what “I was up to?” He already knew the answer and he informed me that he had heard me on the telephone and thought I was using government telephones for personal business. “Fine,” I whispered to myself. One man’s jealousy will not hold me back. I was not about to let one person stop my sales career. I connected with a fellow Amway salesman who had an office about 15 minutes from the base. He told me I could make calls from his office. I just lost 30 minutes of selling each day. Now I had to work harder to make up for lost time.

As soon as my enlistment was up I got out of the military and went straight into Business Telephone System sales for the same company that helped me with the installation of the pay phones. I had great success with this company. I was there for eight years and made more money with each succeeding year. In my first full year I tripled my military income and I’ve never looked back.

I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs as every sales person does. But persistence has been my aid. My success is fueled by excitement, commitment, and just plain hard work. The truth is, without trying to sound boastful, I am just willing to do more than the other guy. I am willing to work harder to make more money and stay on top. But it took time to learn this lesson.

It was in my third month of sales when I started to get discouraged. It seemed like everyone I met liked me, and what I had to offer, but no one was buying. I just couldn’t understand it. Then one day I saw a video on “how to close the sale.” It was a huge eye opener. In a few short weeks I learned a number of “techniques” (the If/Then close, and so on). But the technique that really struck me was simply put, “Ask For It”. That hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized I was waiting for people to buy. I figured that if they liked me, liked the product, then they would “auto-magically” buy it. Rule Number One: Nobody buys from you unless you ask them for the order. Your product is not going to sell itself—you are! From that point on I started asking for the order and a whole new world opened up to me. Suffice it to say, I got more than my fair share of “Yes’s.”

Another key sales asset for me has been “Telling the Truth.” It sounds simple but it isn’t. If selling was that easy sales people wouldn’t have such a bad reputation. One mentor early on told me “to always tell the truth, be it good or bad, and always do what you say you are going to do.” Call it a slight spin on the Golden Rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’

“Do this,” my mentor said to me and “everything else will take care of itself.”

I have found his words of wisdom to ring true through my many years of selling. I always try to put myself in my customer’s shoes and consider what is best for him or her. I have even passed on several orders because I knew my product was not the right one. And, odd as it may seem, I have even let my competition win a few deals that I could have won. Decisions such as these have returned to me four-fold. One of my competitors, for instance, became my greatest ally, bringing me business I never expected. Bottom line: I believe in “good will.” Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For if you sell it right, what you put out will be returned to you TEN-fold (and this works both ways: positive and negative). Be careful what you ask for—you just might get it. If you BELIEVE and have true FAITH in what you are doing and selling it will be given to you.

Is selling easy? Anything but. I have had more than my fair share of problems, especially during my early years in sales. I won’t go into any detail, but suffice it to say, many people would have had the good sense to give up. But not me. I’ve often told others how thankful I am for the problems I have. I don’t need anyone else’s; my problems are more than enough to handle. And I have also found that there will always be somebody who has it worse—and better–than you. This is life. The question is, especially in sales, “what are YOU going to do about it?” Are you going to let your problems hold you back? Are you going to use them as excuses for why you cannot be successful in sales? Or, are you going to OWN your problems and live to learn from them? Owning (and facing up to) your problems will make you stronger. You will become a better sales person.

Life and selling is also about detours; we all have them. As I look back on my life in sales I now realize that these “detours” were simply “lessons to be learned,” both positive and negative. One such lesson that I learned early in my sales career was what motivated me: the need to succeed. With a young son and bills up to my ears I was motivated by NEED. I didn’t have the option to fail. It’s an interesting paradigm, Needs versus Wants. Most sales people are motivated by wants: more money, fancy cars, a new boat, etc. Yet, when you’re needs driven, life takes on a whole new meaning. You are successful because you need to—not want to be–successful.

Sales is a journey from beginning to end. I have held many sales positions since my first sales job. I’ve done a few “dot-bombs” and there have been hiccups in my sales career along the way. But, in reflection, I have to say that I’ve had a great career in sales. I’ve learned from many, and hope that some have learned from me. I often say to myself “Thanks Marv”, if it weren’t for you I don’t know if I would ever have ever gone into sales. I’ve lost touch with Marv but I did have the honor to meet up with him and let him know how important he was to my career.

In closing I leave you with this. Be careful what you ask for and know why you are asking for it. It’s OK to want something—just know WHY you want it. I currently drive a Porsche. It was a goal I had for as long as I can remember. I also wanted my own business, and now I do. These were just two motivational goals I set for myself years ago. I’ve reached more of them than not. I asked for them and then I worked hard to make them a reality. But, as a true salesman, even today I am always looking for more. So back to my car.

As I drive my Porsche to work I look over and see this guy driving a Ferrari sports car and wonder what he does? Or I drive by a beautiful ocean front home and wonder, “Who lives here, and what did they do to get there?” Such is the life of a salesperson. We always want more, but we have to be careful to not let our wants get in the way of our needs. Know what you want; understand what you need; and be able to tell the difference. Your success or failure depends on it. Don’t let your dream for more get in the way of the reality you live. Dream BIG first, write it down and turn it into a goal, break it apart and go for it bit by bit –and above all don’t give up. Strive to be the very best salesperson you can be. Learn from your mistakes. Deal fairly with everyone you meet, and never forget to ask for the order.

Good Selling!

Dennis R. Tyler
President / Owner
DialPro Northwest
www.dialpronw.com

Let’s be clear from the beginning. I am not a salesman.  I have also fallen prey to the general impression of a salesman that Hollywood has fed us for years.  You know the character. A middle aged man, wearing a slightly worn sports coat, a shirt that had seen it’s better days back in the early 1800s and a manner of speech and grin that reminds you of a land shark with a nervous disposition.

The truth is slightly different.  I say slightly in that the character above still exists, but there is a growing percentage of people who are in sales and now tend to be more of a hybrid, it is someone who is part salesman, part psychiatrist, part confidant, part fortune teller and part family.

In essence, the 21st century salesman is a man for all seasons, but the most important arsenal in his possession is his ability to understand and empathize with his clients and their culture as the world becomes smaller.

As Socrates stated “I am neither a citizen of Athens nor Sparta, but a citizen of the world.”  A state of mind and philosophy that the salesman needs to have to be successful in today’s world of the Internet, computers, video conferencing and global meetings.

Right about now, you are thinking to yourself “Thank you Sherlock for stating the bleeding obvious,” but the truth is that I have spent more time working with and dealing with salesman, managers and executives who have no clue about even the basic understandings of their client’s culture and method of ‘how they do business’ and assume that because they happen to live in a ‘developed’ country their way of doing business is the only way.

As I stated in the beginning, I am not a salesman, but I do have a good understanding of people, which pretty much started from birth.  My mother’s side of the family was from Georgia, the country, not the state.  My father was born in Iran.  I was born in Thailand during the height of the Vietnam War.  Yes, my first few years in the US, I was pretty much a ‘redneck’s’ wet dream; I had the trifecta of countries to hate. Georgia, part of the then Soviet Union, which made me a communist; Iran, the country that had held 52 Americans for 444 days; and Thailand the worst of the lot.  While technically, not Vietnam, it was close enough for the ‘redneck’ I had the pleasure of meeting in my youth, since geography and cultural awareness were not part of their strength.

As my father was in the Foreign Service, I grew up in Thailand, Sweden and the UK.  Finally when he decided to retire in the mid 70s we moved back to Iran, a country of unsurpassed beauty and potential.  Unfortunately, we hit a small snag in ‘78.  A little known priest living in France decided it was time for a change, and an uprising turned into a revolution and we thought it best to move on.

So once again, we moved to the UK and then to the US.  As a child who was always the new kid on the block, you learned very quickly the various cultures and its subtleties that you had to understand and to be accepted in.  We all remember how difficult it was as a child starting in a new school, so having to move every four years, losing friends and then forced to make new ones, you learn pretty early what to do to get accepted quickly in a new environment.

Simply stated, seek out what you share in common with the kids and the country you were in and once the trust was established, and you weren’t seen as the foreign kid, but a kid who liked the same music, movies, football teams like the rest of them, you could then talk about the differences and learn what makes each other unique and learn to appreciate it.

Both sides of my family had members in either the Foreign Services or ministries in the government.  It was the best form of education.  As a child watching your parents in various state functions and dinners interacting with people from all areas of the world was the best schooling I received.

My father, as an ambassador, dealt with ministers of court, religious leaders, famous individuals and royalty.  So there was a certain way he manged to connect with them all, but the best lesson he taught me was in his every day dealing with everday people.  He once took me aside as a child, when he saw me being somewhat haughty with the neighborhood kids and told me what became my mantra for life.  “Success in life is not about how much money you make or how famous you become, but by how people will regard you as a man and are proud to call you a friend and trust in what you say and do, regardless of their station in life.”

When a nine year old kid hears that, he assumes his dad is hitting the bottle, but as a forty-one year old man, I have learned to appreciate what he tried to teach me.  Emphasis on the word ‘tried’, as I have had my moments of failure, but like my dad, I’ve tried to treat everyone as an equal and show the same level of respect and appreciation of who they are as a person.

Unfortunately in some quarters beign respectful, is seen as a sign of weakness and is used as a tool against you. I’ve had the joy of working for past managers who saw it as a way to make themselves look better to their superiors or to have a scapegoat when a sale didn’t pan out.

The interesting thing was that for every one sale they made, they lost ten, and eventually people see the nature of the man in how he treats others and their business dries up.

So, how to fail is simple.  All you need to do is be arrogant, show a lack of respect to your partners and clients, be ignorant of the culture of the country you are in, and refuse to be flexible.

To succeed, I am sure you can read the thousands of books on “how to succeed in sales” that are out in the market.  And I am certain they all have valid points, but to actually suceed is a simple task (but very difficult thing to do).  Learn to connect to the person sitting across from you on a personal level.  See him or her as what they are, understand their needs, and if your product isn’t the one to help them, state it.  They will see you as a person with integrity, wanting what is best for them and they will remember you on future deals.

Sometimes it’s better to lose the deal and make the relationship; then winning the first sale and have the customer realize that you sold them a product or service that is not what they wanted or needed.

We are a planet of six billion people and counting, yet it is a very small world.  You will be surprised how much smaller the world is when you see how often your path crosses with people who you have had dealings with in the past.  I have worked in the service industry,  the telecommunications industry, and the mobile gaming industry and I have seen deals come to frution in the mobile gaming industry with people I had previously worked with in the service industry. 

Clients come to us now and want to work with us because we dealt with them in the past.  In the same light, people who only thought of themselves and had no real care or time for others, are still known to all.  Their phones are not ringing.

You reap what you sow.

Massoud Marzban

Washington D.C.

When I graduated from college, Arthur Miller’s work “Death of a Salesman” was the leading Broadway play. Everyone was talking about it; most of my friends were reading it. Since selling was one of the professions I was considering I decided to read the play for myself. I did, and it immediately changed my perspective: selling was NOT the profession for me. The thought of ending up like Willy Loman, an aging salesman with no future or security, sent shivers down my spine. I mentally knew Willy Loman was only a fictional character, but I also knew salesmen like him. I guess I had conveniently forgotten this fact. The author, Arthur Miller brought it all back, front and center. Sales was a risky profession.

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