Preface: Orrin Broberg has such a diverse and fascinating background in selling. He has worked in some of the largest organizations through starting his own companies. Whenever, I talk to Orrin, he is deeply thoughtful about all the business, strategy, leadership, growth issues that arise in our conversations. But the thing that’s always struck me is is deep involvement, in support of his teams, with the customers.
His final sentence sums things up: “Call it sales if you want, but to me, it is connecting, understanding, educating, and solving problems. I was raised in a perfect family to do that.”
How I Ended Up in Sales – And Why it Worked
I never wanted to be in sales. It just happened. I grew up in a family of professionals. My mom and older sister were teachers, and my dad and older brother were engineers. Sales was not a career that was discussed in our house, let alone promoted. In my family, salespeople were viewed as untrustworthy and dishonest. Only a true profession was worth pursuing – so I was told. So, I enrolled in a prestigious engineering school back East and dug in.
But engineering did not interest me. Connecting with people and solving problems did. I observed that teachers were, at some level, selling ideas while engineers were solving problems for their customers. Sales is a combination of the two disciplines. As a kid, I sold holiday cards door to door in my village. I got a commission of ninety cents per box. Back then, it was good money for a ten-year-old. By high school, I had negotiated a series of lawn mowing jobs in the summer and worked retail in the winter. I wouldn’t say I liked
working in retail, but I liked controlling how much money I could make.
I was also very competitive.
In our snowy winters, I raced alpine skiing in New England and was a top-ranked junior. At fifteen, I was the top sailor in our sailing club. As a senior in high school, our team got fourth place in the national junior championship. Not bad for a couple of kids from a no-name sailing club in Upstate New York.
I loved the competition and loved winning!
In college, I raced Olympic one-design sailboats and considered a campaign to go to the Olympics. However, I didn’t have the resources to get there, and I was more interested in getting my college degree and moving into a business career.
Nearing graduation, I went through fourteen job interviews and got zero offers. This was not surprising, given the recession going on in 1975. No one was hiring, so I turned to my fallback job.
While in college, I earned money as a ski instructor at Vail on weekends and holidays. Vail was a fantastic place to work. At that time, it was the biggest ski school in the world and emphasized training and developing its instructors.
The Vail Ski School stressed customer satisfaction and had well-defined processes to ensure it happened. They taught us like we were true professionals. They even had us go through Wilson Learning Transactional Analysis workshops on communicating better with your clients.
This was when I began to understand the power of connecting with people to help them ski better and have a good time at Vail.
One of my students was a recruiter for Xerox Corporation. After a few days together, he asked me what I wanted to do outside of being a ski instructor. I told him I wanted to enter business and use my marketing degree. He suggested I give him a call when he got back to Rochester.
So I did. “Where do you want to work?” he asked. I said Denver. “Not hiring,” he said. And so it went through all the places I could think of with the same result. “Well, where are you hiring?” I asked. He said, “Minneapolis/St. Paul.” I had never been there and knew little of it.
And that’s how I ended up working for the best sales organization in the world. Dave would argue that IBM might have been better, but we fought head-to-head in the office products market.
At that time, Xerox sales training was known as the best, and deservedly so. They had processes for everything. Sales management trained and supported their salespeople. It was also very competitive. Performance stack rankings in the main hallway were updated every month, so you always knew where you stood.
I thrived in that environment. I started as a sales rep cold-calling office parks and ended up as a major accounts sales manager. In my seven years at Xerox, I met or exceeded every sales quota I was given. I made President’s Club six times. I loved it.
I left Xerox to learn new industries and technologies. I started five companies, some more successful than others. I always sought to connect with people, listen to their stories, and understand their needs.
Call it sales if you want, but to me, it is connecting, understanding, educating, and solving problems. I was raised in a perfect family to do that.
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