Why Getting On The Sales Floor Is One Of The Best Things That Happened To Me

Romans Ivanovs
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read

A year and a half ago I was in the process of looking for another challenge that would expand my skill set and enable me to make more money. I sat down and wrote a description of the job I’d like to do including what type of culture and people I want to be surrounded by. I began applying. A few days later I received an invitation for an interview. A week after, I started selling expensive training programmes to senior execs of Fortune 500.

It was one of the most challenging things I have ever had to do. But it paid off to a large extent. I’ve learned how to talk to people.

I’d like to share with you three lessons. I hope they inspire you to consider getting a sales job and learn, in my perspective, some of the most important business skills. It’s even more than a skill, it’s a way of thinking and doing anything in your life.

1. Persistence grows mental toughness — mental toughness grows persistence

Again, re-reading Spin Selling? No amount of books or sales workshops will make a big difference until you have the basics. They cannot be taught. You have got to get on the phone and make it happen.

Selling was really challenging in the beginning of doing the job I had taken. The reason wasn’t that I didn’t understand the implications of the job, it was my fear of rejection. I was terrified of talking to prospective customers. It felt like I was constantly trying to get over myself to make a call.

At that time the only weapon I had was persistence. No matter how hard it got, I persisted to become better at sales and couldn’t stand the thought of giving up. I observed how top sales guys were closing big deals and wanted to do the same.

It didn’t work for several months. Until I closed my first deal. And then I closed my second deal. I ended up bringing £100k in revenue in just 8 months. Persistence was the key.

Sales begin with training your mind. There are numerous studies on why training yourself to overcome rejections could improve your mental toughness. A sales floor is a perfect place to do it and will either strengthen you or will weaken you. But the outcome is entirely up to you.

2. You learn to solve problems and you learn to educate

Imagine you are helping someone to travel from London to Paris who’s never been there before. Then you also need to take care of this person by making sure he or she enjoys the journey. They want to make it to Paris. You want them to make it to Paris too.

But there are also other “helpers” just like you who can take your traveller to Paris faster, with more comfort and possibly cheaper. You know your traveller knows there are “others” and he or she can step out of the train at any time and take another one. He or she knows that you know that they can. So you better do a great job taking this person to Paris.

So now you have multiple options on how to pursue your traveller that your type of Paris is the right place for them to be. But the problem is that you don’t know yet what’s right for them. Sometimes they don’t know what’s right for them either. Learn to recognise what’s right for them and make sure to they do too.

3. Sales is counterintuitive

Sales will always feel very counterintuitive for you if you don’t know how to assess your own and your clients’ emotions. You might know what to do, you have got the script, you know the strategy but in stressful situations you allow your emotions to take over the sales process, which results into a discounting or even worse — loosing a deal. It’s happened to me so many times.

Emotional intelligence played a huge role in my success, not only in sales but also in my overall leadership and social life. But my way to developing EQ was about a lot of reflection and down time. My formula is practice + reflection + practise what you’ve learned.

Make sure you schedule reflection time because this is when you will gain lots of clarity about your sales process.

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Romans Ivanovs

Written by

Social Media Marketing Agency @ riumedia.com | Blogging @ romansivanovs.com

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