The Physical Movement: Business. 25 Lessons From 25 Years in Sales

As a result of the ongoing economic impact due to COVID-19, skill development around sales becomes more and more valuable in the…

As a result of the ongoing economic impact due to COVID-19, skill development around sales becomes more and more valuable in the marketplace. These skills increase job security.

I left school teaching 25 years ago to take a position in fitness equipment sales.

Commission only, 30 years old, new mortgage, hoping to start a family.

2nd career.

Never did sales.

Don’t sell = Don’t get paid.

Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash

When I look back, I am not sure if I would have the stones to do that today. Let’s attribute that to the energy of youth!

Ambition + work ethic + desire to learn and do better every day.

I always wanted to be a professional athlete growing up. In looking back, it was a transfer of performance-based mindset to the world of sales and business.

Since that time, I have covered a small territory in 2 languages, sold in a big one in 1 language.

Managed a small team while selling and coaching others to do the same.

Worked on very small transactions, been a part of some very large ones.

I have met many very interesting people, travelled to many interesting places.

I have been disappointed and lost many times, however, my wins overshadow those losses.

Made many mistakes and I have lost money but overall made a good living.

The bottom line is that I have had the privilege of supplying lots and lots of exercise equipment to organizations that focus on creating healthy communities. That has become my specialty. Selling to organizations that offer fitness. From gyms to department of national defense, hotels to schools.

I don’t think there has been 1 day when I have not learned a lesson, and maybe that is why I have survived 25 years.

25 years multiplied by approximately 300 working days a year = 7500 lessons……minimum!

From those 7500, I have narrowed it down to my top 25 . You will notice that many of the lessons revolve around building your knowledge base and communication skills.

That is not a coincidence!

These are the 25 lessons from my 25 years in sales.

1. Have a passion FOR the product you are representing. There is a reason most sales business cards say “sales representative”. We are being paid to represent the company for whom we work. Being passionate about exercise, it was a good fit to represent companies that created equipment to help exercisers. Never had a shortage of motivation as I saw my role to serve others around the equipment and helping get more people active.

2. Believe in your organization and the people who run it. Tough to be successful without the support of others. Without the belief in your organization, it is very difficult to speak confidently about the equipment you represent,and deliver at a high level to customers. I have changed organizations 3 times over 25 years. 1 time voluntarily left and created the 2nd with 2 partners, and the 3rd was bought out by the current organization for whom I work. I left only 1, and did so when I stopped believing in that organization and their priorities. I created another with 2 partners as a result.

3. As a former team sport athlete growing up, I was always more comfortable in a team. That worked out because to be efficient and productive in sales, you need a supporting team. In our industry, that team included administration, logistics, technical support and finance. Sales is an individual activity within a team sport. Without the support of your team, you risk becoming a jack of many trades, and master of none.

4. Understand the company’s business operations. How does your organization compete, be profitable, win/lose. While working with a team, and specializing in 1 aspect of the sale (the front end), understanding the business side became a massive asset. My first organization were sticklers for inventory control. In big pieces of exercise equipment, 1 mistake around inventory costs a lot. Being part of an installation and the last touch point to a customer was also a valuable perspective.

5. Understand the customer. The customer is not always right, but putting yourself in the customer position is a good start to making a connection and earning a sale. What are their concerns?, fears?, challenges? and worries?. Without understanding this, you are playing roulette instead of establishing a starting point to enter the conversation. The success foundation of sales is to knowledgeably offer a product and/or service that solves a problem.

6. Have a USP. Unique Selling Proposition. Early on I learned that having pieces of the puzzle others could not compete with was critical. Being unique. Unique Selling Proposition. USP. What makes what is being offered unique? Different? Worth a 2nd look by your customer?. A unique selling proposition is taught by every business school from here to the north pole. Being able to transfer that to traction for your offer and customer was a direct link to developing consistency in my sales performance.

7. Adopt a mindset of “service”. Sales is another term for being of service. To get someone to write a cheque to your organization and be excited to do so, comes from creating something of value. One of the best sales trainers I ever witnessed, presented dressed in a service shirt with his name embroidered. This epitomized the “service” mindset. Sales , also known as “service department”.

8. Study and master lead generation. This has changed a ton over 25 years. Social media and email marketing did not exist when I started. However, the phone did, the car did, and so did standard mail. These are still valuable tools, or channels to connect with your prospects. Connection is the key. When customers are ready to buy, who and where do they go? That is the question I needed to answer. Regardless of the communication tool, what was I doing to be top of mind ? If consistency is the goal, then lead generation is the skill that sets you on your way to achieving it.

9. Understand your industry: growth trends, top players, best practices. You can learn a lot from what the best are doing, and others who are struggling. How can you learn from top performers?. When I say industry, I refer to sales, not just your product category. I have been in B2B sales for my entire career, so this is the industry I study, then I practice applying to fitness equipment sales.

10. Understanding how your competitors sell and market is a good idea. (These are your prospects’ options). Most important lesson here, to do something better. For sure, important to know best practices, and integrate into some of your offering.

11. Professional development. Never stop learning. 25 years ago it was reading and cassettes. Today, reading still critical but cassettes replaced by podcasts, webinars and seminars. Focusing on getting better every day. As John Wooden said “it is what you learn after you know it all that counts”.

12. Use the products you sell. This is linked to a passion for what you represent. Also, use the products you compete against. This was especially relevant for me over the years. But this applies to all industries. If you don’t use your products, you are not the advocate you claim to be for your customer.

13. Get good at listening. Really listening. The more I listened and observed, the more consistent I got. Simple. Not easy.

14. Practice communication & delivery skills. A good doctor can communicate medical speak into terms the average person understands. They do so with compassion and with humility. Same with a financial advisor taking complex financial information and converting it into terms we can understand. A good salesperson does the same. The communication of message needs to be customized to the person being addressed. This is a skill that can only be developed through practice. Just like an actor with a script. This also applies to the different settings of communication: in person in 1 on 1 and in a group. Via writing and correspondence. Over phone and video chat. Different mediums to master under the communication umbrella.

Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

15. Don’t let numbers scare you and don’t be a slave to them. Numbers in business and sales are how we keep score. It is how we get paid. They scare many. However, they are a guide on performance and validation of your skills. They don’t lie. I always loved the picture numbers can provide. In my business, B2B sales, numbers paint the picture for the customer as well. The more I learned and embraced them, the better I performed.

Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash

16. The work expands to the time you have: if you are good, you will be in demand : don’t let that take you away from what’s important to you. I have not always been good at this. Many years, I worked long hours to learn a craft that was foreign to me. No one is good in skill learning stage. When I started my sales career, I got some advice, don’t let the company and their interests take you away from what’s important in your life. You only have 1 chance to raise your kids and be home for important events.

I don’t mind admitting that I struggled with this for some time, because the ego stroke that comes from being in demand is gratifying. In hindsight, it is not all that important. The work is there. Especially if you are good. If you are good, you can develop your own terms of work. This is job security. Also, it is a fine line between being “all in” and working hard, and balancing your life. Keep working at it. I do daily!

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

17. Master the skills to success. Sales skills. Have a process. A musician knows what skills to practice to get better. Many salespeople don’t. The theory of sales and the practice of sales often get lost in translation. There are skills that you need to be good at to be better at sales. They include many of what is shared here. Knowledge of your customer, and market. Listening and asking relevant questions. Focus and follow up. Communication in various forms, from writing to presenting. Most importantly problem solving. The most important skills come from practice. But sales success starts with knowing the skills that work. You will find that many sales opportunities follow a pattern. It starts with understanding the customer objective, and evolves from there. Step by step. The minute I got away from just following instinct and documenting and developing a process, my sales became more consistent and was able to transfer that over to coaching others to do the same.

18. Positioning. This is a big one. This is connected to lead generation. If you can position yourself as being valuable to your customer, sales consistency will follow. For the last 15–20 years, people are searching the sales people to see who they are dealing with. A valuable piece of advice I got in 2004, was to control what people saw when that happened. It got me a lot of opportunities as a result.

19. Collect money. Early on in my sales career, I was at a conference and someone I struck up a conversation with started bragging about all the quotes he had out in the field. Being new to sales, I was impressed until I started to question whether this was important in performance. It is. But not as important as getting orders and collecting money (also known as the “desired outcome”). Collecting money is the most important skill. Get good at it. How and when to collect money is a skill that makes a massive difference in your value and contribution to the organization.

20. Understand & leverage finance. This is connected to knowing and understanding numbers that drive our business. In B2B sales, finance plays a big role. The largest sales I have been involved in were over $1M. The role of exchange rates, depreciation, interest rates, cash flow and other aspects of finance are critical in putting together a winning proposal. A lack of understanding here, also can cost you as this becomes a deciding factor for customers in choosing a vendor.

21. Don’t try to please everyone. It was a process to understand that I was not going to please everyone. Problems happen. Deliverables sometimes don’t meet expectations. All opportunities are not created equal. Being able to say no, or deal with disappointment or negative reviews are all part of the job. Especially if you experience some success, many negative naysayers will target you and try to knock you down. Don’t let it deter you from what is important.

22. Learn from your mistakes. Oh, the mistakes. I think it was Michael Jordan who said, that he succeeded with game winning shots because he missed so many. Not many sales training sessions will talk of the journey of mistakes and losses. But they are valuable. Learn from them. I did.

23. Create goals you can be excited about. The self-help industry will talk of goal setting. Which is fine and good. However, having goals that you can get excited about is most often connected to your why. This is the foundation to everything you do. Your passion, your why feed your goals. This still energizes me to this day.

24. Focus. The more success one has, the more distractions come your way. Stay focused on what’s important to you while striking a balance with what’s going on around you. At times during my career I think I suffered from tunnel vision, as well as falling for the next shiny opportunity. They both hurt and a healthy perspective has been developed.

25. Stand for something. How do you want to be known by coworkers and customers? Do you want to be known as the pushy pest of a salesperson, or a welcome guest that will help solve problems? As my experience grew, getting better at this led to more opportunities.

Bonus lesson: Last, but not least, have fun. This won’t happen all the time. But if you represent products and organizations you like, work with people you enjoy, it won’t always seem like a job. This is very high on the list. The fitness equipment industry gave me an outlet to determine my income while being part of doing something that I love. I worked hard, filled up my library and applied what I could. There is a reason work is called work, but if you can find a purpose in what you do beyond just the numbers and money, then enjoyment should increase as you go.

Photo by Jenny Marvin on Unsplash

The more I worked in sales, the more l realized that the people were the most important thing. Connection with people. It is not about product or quotas or margins or goals. Those are metrics to keep score but not what should drive you.

It is about helping people.

That was and is fun and can be energizing through the challenging times.