Failing At Selling.

Welcome back WordPress, today I want to talk about my experience with failing in a sales job. I have been working a job in sales for the past two months and I have found this position to be much more challenging than originally anticipated. I am currently looking for a new job and so I decided that I wanted to reflect on some of the aspects of the job that did not work for me. The program that I will be addressing is labeled as a management training program. The position caught my eye because the company trains individuals to run their own business after a year within the program. All in all, I do not think that the program is necessarily bad but I did decide that it was not the right path for me.

What it is like to fail at a sales job.

• Perfecting Your Pitch
• Rejection Therapy
• Maintaining Your Attitude

Perfecting Your Pitch

To kick off the training, the first thing that the company teaches you is competitor knowledge. Almost every other customer that you interact with will already have a service provided by your competitor. Your duty is to understand the competitors service well enough to convert the customer towards your service. You do this type of persuasion through what is known as your pitch. Your pitch is your money maker, if you mess up your pitch you will probably mess up the sell. Additionally, a pitch is typically made up of an introduction, some eye contact, some small talk and then finally some presentation of your product. Ironically enough, I was actually really good at my pitch. This was the most frustrating aspect of the job for me because I felt like I had refined a fantastic pitch that was just not pulling enough customers. Most customers that I interacted with were usually responsive to humor and straight up details of the service. Eventually once I started to become a little demoralized, I would adapt my pitch into a straight up conversation. At times like these I would find the conversations I had much more rewarding than the rejection I would receive after trying to sell them something.

Rejection Therapy

Now that I may piggyback off of rejection, lets talk about the mental stress that comes with being told no all day long. Oddly enough, this was the most rewarding part of the job for me. I am someone who is constantly trying to push themselves to overcome a seemingly uncomfortable situation. I often times pride myself on being good at being alone. This is not a depressing statement but rather I think this is an important quality for someone who can become self-motivated. Therefore, this preconceived belief that I had about myself was deconstructed whenever I was surrounded by people who did not want anything to do with me. I already felt intrusive pitching to people who seemed busy and so this made it even harder of a fall whenever I would get rude responses from people who were genuinely bothered by my presence.

Q: You know whats more lonely than being alone?

A: Being surrounded by people who will not even acknowledge your presence… and then being tasked with selling something to them.

Cole Lamkins

Maintaining Your Attitude

Perspective is one hell of a life changer. I came into work thinking that I was a salesman. The high-rollers in the office were coming into work thinking they were customer service representatives who offered solutions to service problems. Can you see the difference in how each of those sentences make you feel. That one flip in mindset was all that it took to change their work lives for the better. I saw their paychecks and I knew exactly why they were maintaining that mindset. If I could not offer a service that was better than what my customer was already receiving, than I did not feel comfortable making that sell. These ladies and gents on the other hand truly believed that the service we offered was superior. This means that they believe that they are helping each and every customer make a superior financial decision that would benefit both the seller and the customer. I asked a couple of these high-rollers how they maintained their attitudes. The average answer was that it was mostly willpower. They said that they were like completely different people outside of work. I understood this because I would come home mentally exhausted from putting up a friendly mask all day long that would help me make sales. This is where I found that my work was conflicting with my aspirations of cultivating a creative spark on my free time. This is why I failed at sales, and this is why it is important to fail in general.

To leave you all with some food for thought. In my two weeks notice I recently asked the oldest coworker in the office some advice for living out my twenties. My co-worker responded by saying:

“You are too young to not be making mistakes. Make mistakes while your young and that is what will help you grow.”

Jim James

“Failure is only a stepping stone towards the path to success. Without failure we would not understand growth.”

Cole Lamkins

What I’ve Learned From Two Weeks of Interviewing.

Hello WordPress, one thing that I have been dealing with in my life has been the constant scheduling and negotiations that come alongside job interviews. Last month I graduated from Texas State University and ever since graduation I have been applying for jobs daily. I have been fortunate enough to have landed a variety of interviews that have really helped give me a perspective of what I think an employer is looking for. Throughout these interviews I can comfortably say that every single opportunity was completely different from the previous. I had an interview where I was alongside another applicant, an interview in a group setting of six people all playing games, an interview where I was able to talk directly with the CEO, and even an interview where they instructed me to drive to one of their job sites and talk with an employee. Nevertheless, these are a couple of insights that I took away from the experiences.

1. You Bring Value To Their Company.
2. Do Not Be Afraid Of Asking The Important Questions.
3. Bring a Book.
4. Answer With Authenticity.

You are valuable

If you don’t believe that you bring the necessary assets to get the job done, neither will the employer. There is a reason that the employer chose you to come in for a face-to-face interview. I believe that it is safe to say that you may assume that the employer has at least a fundamental interest in your application prior to the interview. This means that the spotlight is going to be on you to show them that you are confident in your ability to resemble those desirable traits. Even if you happen to be human like the rest of us and have a little bit of doubt, fake it till you make it, employers want to see confidence.

Ask the important questions

I think that this insight is very important in finding a job that is going to feel fulfilling. In a certain way, you are going to be interviewing the recruiter just as much as they will be interviewing you. If you sit down at the interview and just nod your head as they give you their pitch, they WILL take advantage of you. There are certain questions that I believe are necessary in discovering the hidden truth behind a company. One of my favorite questions that I would ask employers was:

“What is your employee turnover rate.”

Me and Every other careful applicant

This question was perfect because It would allow me to gain valuable insight on not only the job’s security but also whether or not the employees were satisfied enough to stick around. Think of it like you are meeting a partner from an online dating site for the first time. You always want to know what is hidden underneath the profile.

Bring a book

I would consider myself an avid reader and I actually stumbled across this insight on accident. I can not emphasize enough the amount of times that employees and employers would comment on the book that I was reading while I was waiting to be called in. I have been reading a job search book called “What Color Is Your Parachute,” and when I would hear someone tell me about how great the book was I would feel as if I had already gained a valuable connection. These comments also showed me that the person communicating the message was probably an avid reader as well and so this opened up the possibility of exchanging valuable resources for learning outside of training.

Answer authentically

Finally, keep in mind that the goal of the interview is going to be to stand out among the other applicants. If you put yourself inside the perspective of a recruiter, you will quickly understand that It can be a very long and tedious process. It would be intelligent to assume that the employer has heard all of the typical responses to questions such as:

“I am interested in this job because I have a passion for helping out others.”

Your typical job applicant

Regardless of whether this is a good answer to the question, the matter of truth is that they have heard it a thousand times. If you truly want to stand out among the other applicants you are going to have to dig a little bit deeper than that. Additionally, if this requires you to do a little bit of self reflecting, more power to you. You have to understand why you are applying to that job and then you also have to understand what aspects of the job are going to be the most fulfilling to you. First, you are going to have to be completely honest with yourself as to why you are applying. Then, you have to take that information and put it in the prettiest package that you have ever delivered to an employer.

conclusion

All in all, I have learned a lot throughout these past two weeks and I am looking forward to starting my career with a job that I accepted today. I hope that these personal insights will help you land your dream job, and I also hope that you follow my blog Semi-Poetic. I plan to hold myself accountable and post on here at least once a week and I encourage you all to live a life full of mindfulness, empathy, and creativity.

“Peace, Love, and Positivity”

Logic