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Let me give you an example.
One of my first experiences in sales came back when I was in college. I was recruited by a company to sell educational books door-to-door. Many of my fraternity brothers had completed the program, and although very difficult, they had managed to make great money. So I signed up and quickly found myself in the middle of up-state New York.
If you’ve ever tried door-to-door sales, you know the pain I quickly found myself in.
I was by myself, in some neighborhood trying to get ANYBODY to let me “pitch” my books. I was talking to anyone I could find. I have to admit, it was one of the most difficult things I ever tried. But I was determined to make it!
Now, we measured our productivity by “units.” For example, if you sold a book, it was 2 units. My first summer, I finished with a total of 1500 units. I won the company trip and placed relatively high among first-year dealers. I had made more money selling books than doing anything else before, and I was sold on “sales.” But remember, I sold 1500 units my first summer.
There was a dorky guy name Phil. He’d been selling books for several years when I first met him at sales school that first summer.
Now I found out later EXACTLY who Phil was. Dorky Phil was THE BEST. Out of THOUSANDS of college kids pounding the pavement every day trying to make a buck, Phil had been NUMBER ONE for THREE SUMMERS IN A ROW.
Now remember (again), I sold 1500 units my first summer. The entire summer. And I worked 60 to 80 hours EVERY week to sell these 1500 units. And I was pretty excited and proud when I won the company trip and saved a bunch of money for college.
Guess what Phil’s average productivity looked like?
1500 UNITS
PER WEEK
Yep, 1500 UNITS PER WEEK.
Phil was selling 15 TIMES as many books as me. He was making 15 TIMES as much money as me. And from the looks of the guy, you’d NEVER have known.
Phil wasn’t the most attractive kid at sales school. And he wasn’t in very good shape. In fact, calling him overweight was a HUGE understatement. He was FAT. And I mean pretty chunky. And you could tell he wasn’t into fashion. He was wearing a tight t-shirt with a pair of those old elastic gym shorts like you had to wear in P.E. And he told a group of us that this was his “uniform” EVERY DAY on the book field!
And coming from anyone else, I’d thought he was crazy. But Phil was moving 1500 units a week, and I was averaging 150. And I was working REALLY hard to hit 150.
But this was my first encounter with a “Lethal” sales person. And it was an exciting time. Because I couldn’t understand how ANYONE could do that kind of volume. And Phil blew me away. I found out that first summer what it was like to compete against Michael Jordan. Because Phil was Michael Jordan in our eyes. He was M.J., Tiger Woods AND Abe Lincoln, rolled into one.
He was untouchable.
I went on to sell for two more summers, and finished in the top 50 my third year. Now I was considered one of the best of the best. I received the respect, the “Man of the Year Award,” and won all the trips, etc. In fact, my third summer selling books, I managed to earn enough money to take my fiancé to Europe for two months after graduation.
Want to know my average that last summer (the average that earned me a ‘top’ 50 award, trips, incentives and THOUSANDS of dollars?
I was PROUD to say I average 500 units per week.
Yep- 500 units per week. And I was considered one of the BEST!
I still think about Phil a whole bunch. I’ve been in sales for 18 years, and there’s not a month that goes by that I don’t think about that first summer. I still get the newsletter from the company I sold books for. I guess they had a student a couple years back who hit 2000 units in ONE WEEK. That’s 500 more units than I hit my first SUMMER! And that’s 1500 units more than I averaged my third summer!
How did Phil do it? How do you hit THAT kind of productivity?
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