Preface: Kelly Riggs and I got acquainted a number of years ago. We started sharing ideas on LinkedIn, then Kelly has invited me to appear on his podcasts. Like me, Kelly is a “grinder,” he doesn’t believe in tricks/gimmicks, he believes top performers do the work. One of the things Kelly highlights is the thrill of competing and achieving, “why I love the profession – it provides a way for me to feed my competitive nature. I want to set goals and reach them. I want to look at the top of the leaderboard and figure out a way to get there. From a practical viewpoint, selling provides more opportunities for growth – personally and financially. It allows competitive people to compete.”
Why I Am So Interested in Selling
Kelly Riggs
When I first became a salesperson at the age of 20, I had just gotten married. I had also walked away from a full ride in college where I was studying to be an engineer. The fact is, I had lost interest in engineering (a class in differential equations was the last straw) and I was looking for a new career.
My wife was working at an office equipment company (think copy machines) and they happened to be looking for a salesperson. And this is where my story diverges a bit from the norm: I had no idea what a salesperson did! I had never had any exposure to the business world. But, as she described the role, I became quite curious to see what “sales” was all about.
Now, after four decades in the profession, I firmly believe it is the greatest opportunity in the world. If you look closely you will see that sales provides someone with the opportunity to run their own business – without all the risks and costs associated with running a business. Having been a salesperson AND having owned companies, this distinction is quite compelling. As a salesperson I never bought inventory, hired and paid employees, leased facilities, or paid for marketing.
However, in my role as salesperson, I had access to all of those things. I could “run my business” and be completely focused on the singular objective of developing customers. Plus, if I wanted to make more money, I could decide to do so; I could create a plan to develop more business and earn more money!
Very few vocations provide the freedom that exists in the world of sales. However, very few vocations provided the scrutiny that sales provides. Yearly. Monthly. Sometimes, weekly. Most companies keep score and performance matters. That is the second reason why I love the profession – it provides a way for me to feed my competitive nature. I want to set goals and reach them. I want to look at the top of the leaderboard and figure out a way to get there. From a practical viewpoint, selling provides more opportunities for growth – personally and financially. It allows competitive people to compete. But, as I have also learned in forty years, it also leads to some of the most lasting friendships one will ever create. As a successful salesperson builds trust that leads to sales, it also leads to deeper conversations about life in general. About families. About struggles. I have relationships that have spanned the entire forty years of my sales career, and each new client provides a new opportunity to add to that list.
As one of my first sales managers once said, sales is the highest paid hard work there is. It is also, he said, the lowest paid easy work there is.
Sales rewards discipline. It punishes laziness.
Sales rewards endurance. It punishes excuses.
Sales rewards learning. It punishes mediocrity.
Sales rewards those willing to consistently learn from failure.
Why wouldn’t I be interested?
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