Sales Training

The toughest job I've ever had was in sales. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any sales training, whatsoever. I struck out on my own (in both meanings of the term), with only a contact list and an inkling about prospecting. While I met with limited success, that first installment of my sales career ended up a dismal failure. Looking back on that experience, I know that the absence of sales training set me up for disaster.

A decade later, I don't have too many kind words for the guy I worked for. He used to brag about all of the sales training he had completed at the expense of his former employer. But he didn't provide me with even a fraction of that expertise.

The extent of my sales training? A Zig Ziegler cassette tape I purchased from Barnes and Noble on my lunch hour. I'd drive around from client to client, hanging on Zig's inspirational words. Now Zig may be a sales training guru, to be sure, but he didn't save my fanny from the fire.

Dealing with rejection was one of the toughest parts of the sales process for me. What sunk me was that I really liked dealing with folks on a personal level. I didn't like selling what I was pushed to sell when it didn't best meet the customer's needs.