The Life of a Salesman: An Interview with Nick Rundlett

Nick Rundlett is a successful salesman, entrepreneur, and advisor for Discover Praxis. Even though I have been in a few sales roles myself, it helped me to have another perspective. During our call, he helped establish a clear idea of what it’s like to be in a typical entry-level sales role, and what it takes to succeed in the field.
What does the role entail in terms of day to day activities?
“You pretty much have a checklist to go through each day. You make calls, go through emails, follow up with customers, and you’re essentially repeating whatever process helps convert leads into customers.”
What are the hardest parts of a Sales role?
“Probably being constantly rejected and having to deal with angry people. It’s difficult at first, but the more rejects you get the better you get at handling it. It’s kind of like exposure therapy.”
Are there any stereotypes or misconceptions people have about Sales (other than that salesmen are immoral, pushy, and will do anything to make a sale)
“Thank you for directing me away from that because that’s usually the route I would take. Obviously that’s a huge misconception that a lot of people have, but I would say that another common misconception is that sales is easy. Most people think it’s the easiest job in an office, but it takes a huge amount of persistence as well as creativity. A good salesman will try different methods and constantly learn from his mistakes. It also takes a lot of resilience and willpower to keep contacting prospects when it feels like for every one hundred ‘No’s’ you get one ‘Yes’. A role in Sales means you are helping people solve problems, not just trying to get them to buy a product or service. It’s about providing a solution. Sometimes what you’re selling won’t be a solution for everyone, and that’s okay. Part of being a good salesman is being genuinely interested in other people and their needs.”
How often do I have to fail, get rejected, etc to actually start making sales and converting leads?
“A lot. If you constantly put effort into tweaking your methods and keep trying you’ll eventually start making more and more sales, but it will take a while to get that down.”
Finally, what does it take to be successful in Sales?
“Persistence and creativity. If you keep at it and pay attention to why you think something may not be working you’ll be successful.”
He also explains the importance of knowing your audience:
“Many salesmen will make one hundred calls a day and end up making one or two sales, but a good salesman will do research on who they are talking to. Knowing your audience and your target is what lots of people don’t think to do because it seems harder than just making a thousand calls.”
I also asked Nick about something called a Boolean Search, which is a way to find leads through the internet if you don’t have the budget to pay for a lead-generating service. He explained the process of one and what it’s best used for. Webopedia defines it as:
“…a type of search allowing users to combine keywords with operators (or modifiers) such as AND, NOT and OR to further produce more relevant results. For example, a Boolean search could be “hotel” AND “New York”. This would limit the search results to only those documents containing the two keywords.”
