How I got good
There was a stretch early on when I wasn’t making my numbers, and I realized I could do something about it. So I took every meeting I could get. I tried different approaches. I asked more questions than I answered.
The businesses I met had been doing marketing for years. Not always with great results, but their doors were open, so they were doing something right. Listening to them taught me what worked and what didn’t.
I even took meetings with people who weren’t a fit, as practice. I felt fine about it, because I wasn’t only taking their time. I was giving something back: pointing things out and showing them what they could do on their own.
Teaching turned out to be my style
My meetings had a lot of laughter, a few uncomfortable truths, and a lot of explaining. People told me nobody had ever explained to them how marketing works, or what the work would actually involve.
Most reps can’t explain it, because they don’t know the work. The ones who can often hold it back, afraid the customer will take it and run. I put it all out there.
Being straight with people paid off
Prospects I had lost came back to me, some of them years later. A few called to ask my opinion on smaller agencies they were thinking of signing with. My employer got a salesperson who hit quota.
Honesty isn’t just the right thing to do. It compounds, like interest on an investment, and it follows you from one company to the next.
I learned the craft by doing it
I wanted to understand websites, and no company would let me log into one of theirs. So I bought domains, set up hosting, and published my own. I built WordPress sites, set up Search Console, ran a Shopify store, grew a Meetup to 3,000 members, and built a Facebook following of 7,000 with millions of views.
I didn’t do it to become a marketer. I learned by doing, and it changed what I could say in the room. I could take apart what a prospect’s current agency was doing and show where the gaps were.
Why The Sales Train
I have a healthy respect for sales. A company isn’t a business until the first sale is made, and the people who make it deserve better than the money-and-quota stereotype. I think what makes you better at sales is love of the game, and that it grows as you get good.
So this is training for reps and for the managers who lead them. I’ll be honest with both sides, even when neither enjoys hearing it. I’m not selling a secret. I’m selling fluency in the basics, and a way of learning them that actually works.
Who it’s for
If you’re after a shortcut, or you see sales as only a way to hit quota, there are other courses, and that’s okay. If you want to get good at the work and be someone people seek out, you’re in the right place.
Questions? Email me at rob@thesalestrain.com.