Modern-Day Sales and Marketing Blog

It was 1995, and I had taken my first sales job - selling copiers. Let’s set some context: I have a mechanical engineering degree and decided to move into a career of sales. My friends were all pursuing their careers or graduate school that made sense, but I was cold calling on businesses in the West Shore area of Tampa. It was terrible. My confidence had never been so low. I wanted to build a career in technical sales and was told that I need two years of “hard sales experience”, but this wasn’t what I had imagined. I envisioned presenting to rooms full of buyers that would be so impressed with my presentation and technical skills that they’d roll over and beg to sign. Yeah … that wasn’t happening. Selling copiers was possibly the best and worst two years of my career. I don’t remember sleeping – I just remember reading about sales, practicing over and over again, and asking advice of anyone that would offer it.

The best advice I received came from a phone call one night. The advice was from a gentleman named John Whetsel, and I didn’t realize how powerful his one statement was until about 15 years later. He told me this: “create a process, follow it, and fall in love with it”. His next statement is what stuck with me: “… and I don’t care what the process is.”

This ride can be a roller coaster if you only live in the world of sales results. Let go of the results. Work backwards to create a weekly process and follow it. Using Mr. Whetsel’s words: “… and I don’t care what the process is.” Examine your results for about 15 minutes per week and make the necessary tweaks to your process. Other than those 15 minutes, live in the process … and fall in love with it.