"Successful people give other people credit for their victories."
So I never intended to work in Sales. Account Management, maybe. But not general Sales. Here's how it happened:
2009 was a rough year for the U.S. economy. It was coincidentally the year I graduated with a B.A. in Advertising & Public Relations. There wasn't a lot of opportunity in Poughkeepsie, NY -- especially in the creative field. Nor was there work in "The City" for that matter (how the upstate folk refer to NYC). Hell, Allen Rosenshine wasn't even hiring!
Meanwhile, I was slinging garlic cheese biscuits at Red Lobster.
I finally found a gig selling display ads and directory listings for a regional print magazine's website. This first "real" job required me to make my own call lists and set appointments to explain advertising options. I was provided with a laptop, a price sheet, and a week of training.
My goals were to make 100 cold calls, set 10 appointments, and make at least three sales weekly.
The calling part was hard. First off, small business owners rarely answers their phones. This applies especially to the restaurant owners who I was stupidly targeting because of my familiarity with the business. Little did I know how terrible that decision was.
Secondly, it's awkward to make a sales pitch to someone you've never met. Some people get downright pissed that you're trying to contact them.
Regardless, I made my 100 calls, struggled to get appointments, and eventually just started to visit establishments uninvited. I was 10x more likely to have a conversation that way.
On my best weeks, I sold a single $50 package. Two months after my start date, I was canned.
In retrospect, I probably should have focused on doctors more than restaurant owners -- and asked for a little more direction since I had no clue what I was doing.
Looking on the (questionably) bright side, this horrible experience paid off and helped me land another underpaying short-term gig selling test prep services on college campuses. I collected scholarship sweepstakes forms and called student "leads" to enroll them in on-site classes. Sensing a theme yet?
That company made major cuts just four months after I was hired, and I was the least experienced and thus the first person on the chopping block.
Then I landed something closer to by dream job: sales for a geothermal heating and cooling company. This role paid a living wage, allowed me to work from home promoting energy efficiency, and required lots of project bid research and phone calls to estimation departments.
It continued the tradition of high volume outbound dials, but the calls felt more purposeful -- which made it super easy.
Fast forward to the present -- I've morphed from outside sales to inside sales, and guess what? I'm still making calls. But now it's better; I actually get to make meaningful connections with clients to offer them means of increasing their success. And I do this 100% over the phone.
I've finally made peace with my landline and my calling (pun intended).
I certainly haven't peaked in my career, but I would be a fool to think I'm going to escape a reliance on telecommunications. This coming week, you can bet I'll be giving a toast to our good ol' boy Alexander Graham Bell (March 3 is his birthday, after all).
Thanks for enabling me to pay my bills, A. G.!
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