If you want to make a billion dollars, it’s a good idea to start with a job in sales.
I came across some research that looked at the top 100 billionaires in the world. 30 of these inherited their wealth and 17 started a business early on. That left 53 that worked for some other company before making their billions.
The research went on to look at the first job these 53 billionaires had. What was #1? Sales.
The research doesn’t go further in explaining why sales might produce these results. But having spent 20+ years in some form of sales, this doesn’t surprise me.
Being a salesperson is one of the hardest jobs out there, unless you are selling Teslas.
Here’s the reality, everyone sells. Not everyone gets paid for selling, but they are always selling something to someone. It might be a coworker, boss, child, spouse, friend, customer, recruit, investor or voter to name a few.
Selling is not a bad thing. At the core, it’s about influence. Communicating a point of view in such a way that others embrace it, share it and at times buy it.
Overcome Fears
Unfortunately, there are no degrees in sales, the only choice is to learn by doing. But this growth only happens if you can overcome your fears.
When I started out, everything about sales was scary. I feared rejection. I feared speaking in front of others. I feared not being able to answer a question. I feared something going wrong with a demo. I feared not getting the deal.
The only way to overcome these fears was to start. To get better I needed practice. To practice, I had to come to terms with the fact that these things could all happen.
While I could never control the outcome, I could stack the odds in my favor.
Preparation
I always did my homework before walking into a sales call. I poured over the prospect’s website, read annual reports and researched the competition. Before the meeting I researched every person I would meet. Next, I’d look for recent news about the company.
Only after doing all this would I craft my presentation. To be sure I was ready, I would practice it over and over. Finally, on the day of the meeting I would triple-check everything was ready to go.
This level of preparation always helped calm my nerves.
Many Baskets
As the old saying goes, you never want to put all your eggs in one basket. In sales, I learned early on to find as many baskets as possible. They call it prospecting.
Most sales people hate this part of the job. Calling important people you’ve never spoken to and trying to convince them to not hang up is hard. But, I loved it!
Every one of these calls gave me a chance to practice my elevator pitch over and over. I had about 15 seconds to keep the person from hanging up on me. After I got past that mark I could move on to building a relationship.
By doing this over and over, I got better as a sales person and increased my chances of success.
Overcome Rejection
In sales it’s not always rainbows and unicorns. I got told no a lot. I got hung up on a lot. Rejection is the first thing to prepare for in sales, especially early on. It stings, but every rejection is a chance to learn and get better. I found that over time, I did get better and I started getting more wins than losses.
Walk In Their Shoes
I figured out early on that I was more effective if I tried to help people buy vs sell to them. To do that I needed to understand their issues, their constraints and their goals. I had to put myself in their shoes. It never mattered what I wanted. If it wasn’t what the customer wanted, there was never going to be a sale. My job was to figure that out.
Develop Relationships
The most successful sales people develop deep relationships with their clients. There is a connection and there is trust. Not only does this help with a sale today, it paves the road for future deals.
I saw this work over and over. But this isn’t just about closing a deal. This is about long term relationships. Today, I have countless friendships that all started with a sales call. These relationships are worth far more than the money I made from a deal.
Think Long Term
Quotas force sales people to think short term. While it’s possible to take shortcuts and nail a quota one quarter. The quarters that follow may be tough. It’s possible that long term thinking may cause a short term loss, but it always pays off in the future.
We did a deal with a big Wall Street Bank years ago. It took longer than we wanted, but we did the deal the right way. This led to an introduction to their venture arm and millions of dollars. It also led to an introduction to one of the best business minds I’ve ever met. One of the key people in the deal went on to become an advisor for the company. After that, he walked us into countless new accounts.
I never would have imagined this sequence of events. By thinking long term we made the right decisions along the way that led to these amazing outcomes.
Listen
“Most people think ‘selling’ is the same as ‘talking’. But the most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of their job.” – Roy Bartell
I never learned a thing when I was doing the talking. All the answers sit on the other side of the table. The only way to figure them out is to listen.
It’s often what people DON’T say that matters the most. To figure it out I have to first hear what they ARE saying. From there, I need to ask the right questions. My goal isn’t to get a deal. My goal is to understand the other person’s world.
Make the Customer a Star
I was most successful in sales when I focused on what I could do for the customer vs what they could do for me (i.e., buy my stuff). This always started with adding value first. By doing this I became a trusted advisor. And trust is the foundation of a great relationship. Whenever I reached this level, I knew my chances of closing a deal would skyrocket.
Take the High Road
Sales can get nasty. I’ve had competitors tell all sorts of lies about my company and even me. It always struck me as odd since it was easy to prove that what they were saying was a lie. I saw countless examples where mud-slinging ruined reputations. In my mind, integrity and reputation is far more valuable than a deal and it’s not worth the sacrifice.
Belief and Passion
I never sold anything I didn’t believe in. To do so would be another way to sacrifice integrity. Because I believed in my products, my passion came through. I never felt like I was selling, rather I felt like I was spreading great news. I was more of an evangelist. This made the job easier because passion is contagious.
Be Persistent
You would think by doing all this that success would be easy. It’s not. I learned early on that persistence pays. For example, in my day I often needed to make 7 calls or emails before I got a response. Average sales people give up after 3-4 attempts. That was good news for me!
Deliver Under Pressure
Sales is a hard job. I didn’t realize how hard until I was responsible for a quota. I had to deliver revenue every three months or before long I would get fired. This is pressure. Like all pressure situations, it either brings out the best or the worst in people. I never would have known what I’m capable of had I not taken these jobs.
Hitting Goals
A quota is just a goal. Like all goals, it’s best to start with the end and work backwards. Based on how much money I needed to bring in I could figure out how many deals I needed to close. Based on that, I could figure out how many active sales cycles I needed. From there, I could figure out how many leads I needed to develop each week. Knowing that, I could figure out how many calls I needed to make each day. Breaking the goal down always made it easier to hit.
Exceed Expectations
It’s easy to do the obvious things. It’s hard to go beyond what’s expected. In sales everyone is competing for customer dollars. To win new business it’s important to stand out from the crowd. One way to do this is to exceed the customer’s expectations.
I remember one time our inside sales team was trying to reach a customer to set a meeting. Nothing seemed to work. They decided to create a music video, record it and send it over. That got their attention. It was pretty silly, but it worked. Sometimes standing out is the difference between a deal or rejection.
Be Unique and Valuable
Standing out from the crowd isn’t the end, it’s the beginning. I’ve never gotten very far unless I could show how something was both unique and valuable to the customer. This has been true whether I was selling a piece of software or myself.
I’m grateful for my sale’s journey. I know for a fact I wouldn’t be where I am without those experiences. I can now see how sales teaches lifelong skills.
It’s no wonder that so many self-made billionaires started in sales. There isn’t another job out there that will teach so much in such a short period of time. And I can attest that the lessons and skills I learned from sales are useful every day in my career.
This post is part of a series of letters to my kids. My goal is to reflect on and capture as many life lessons as possible. Here is the current list I am working from.
