What I learned after being fired from my first sales job

“You have potential”

I’ll never forget those words.  They were uttered by my Sales Manager in a quarterly review…right before he fired me!

That was in 1985.  I was 27 years old with a mortgage, wife and two recently born kids at home.  This was my dream job:  Selling advertising at the local radio station in Kitchener right out of the Broadcasting program at Conestoga College.  To this day I get a visceral reaction whenever I think of those words.

Being fired was the best thing for me at that time.

The truth:  I hated the job.  I hated commission sales.  When I started I was on a draw against commissions.  I had a sense of security in that.  It should have been a warning sign.

I liked and still get great satisfaction from selling in marketing, promotion and creative ideas.  Just not as a commission salesperson. Being fired freed me to look for work that suited my abilities and interests more closely.  And I found it in the Marketing and Advertising industry where I spent the following 40 years!

So what did I learn after being fired from my first sales job?

1. We are all salespeople.  All of us, all of the time are selling something.  Ourselves, our ideas, our work…our businesses. 
2. Sales is not selling!  Successful selling is finding solutions to your customer’s problems…they buy solutions that they feel work for them.
3. Selling is a learned skill.  Natural salespeople exist only in the movies.  Yes, another Hollywood construct.
4. Learning how to sell effectively takes hard work.  Like everything worthwhile, it takes time, practice and a lot of mistakes.
5. The best salespeople are great storytellers.  They know how to craft their stories to engage emotionally with their customers.  Think Steve Jobs.

I’m thankful for that harsh lesson nearly 40 years ago.  I learned that I had a lot to learn and don’t plan to stop.

And I’m still working on my potential…

Happy selling!

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