“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

I’ve already mentioned that when I first left the corporate world and started my own company that I rapidly discovered I was not naturally good at sales. In fact, I was bad at sales. I would have needed to improve just to be terrible! But I had desire – a burning motivation to succeed and I hated the idea of returning to the corporate world and I really hated the idea of someone else controlling my income.

I Was Determined to Master Selling or Die Trying!

Hoping for the best, I took a course through the Dale Carnegie organization on sales. This course was a real stretch for me and it made me a better salesperson – not great, but much improved. I decided that I had more to learn from Carnegie and I returned many times as an unpaid group leader, part-time in the evenings, and over time I helped to train many thousands of salespeople. This constant immersion in the world of sales rapidly improved my skills as a salesperson. In a relatively short period of time, I became pretty good at sales and I became really good, exceptional, at being a sales manager.

Things started to really work well at my company. I reached new personal sales goals each month and so did my salespeople. Everything should have been great. My company was making lots of money. My salespeople were making lots of money. But there was a big problem, and it was getting bigger day by day and I did not know how to handle it.

Next time I will explain how the “big problem” eventually ended up making me a “master’ of Business by Referral.

Till next time…Jack

Jack on twitter
Jack on LinkedIn
Jack on Facebook

“Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.” ~Honoré de Balzac