فصل 2

CHAPTER TWO

SALESPEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND

SALESPEOPLE DRIVE ENTIRE ECONOMIES

Career salespeople are vital to the dynamics of any economy. Without salespeople, every industry on the planet would stop cold tomorrow. Salespeople are to the economy what writers are to Hollywood. It’s been said that even God and the Devil need good salespeople.

Selling is the last great truly free-enterprise opportunity available today; in sales, an individual can work for himself, be accountable to himself, and make his dreams come true. Literally, with a pen to sign contracts and a commitment to excel, you can become whatever you want! For those who are willing to commit to selling as a career and to continue to learn how to master it, there are no limits. Do so and you’ll be rewarded with all the treasures that exist. Learn the great art of selling and you will never be without work, because you’ll always be needed by others. Learn how to control the entire cycle of selling from start to finish, and you’ll have the confidence to go where you want, do what you want, sell whatever product you want, and know with complete conviction that you can have whatever you can dream.

The world would stop turning without salespeople. If a product isn’t sold and moved on to the public, factories stop, production stops, there’s no need for distribution, no need for storage, demand for shipping is reduced, and advertising stops. The burden of the entire economy of our culture today rests on the ability of salespeople. The economic engine of society relies completely on the ability to get products into the hands of consumers. If the consumers don’t buy it, the factories won’t make it.

Salespeople drive products, individual businesses, complete industries, and whole economies. Like many people, I went into sales when I got out of college because I didn’t know what I really wanted to do with my life. I decided to try selling until I found a “real” job. I chose sales because it was easy to get into and I didn’t have to make any life-changing decisions. Even after making my decision, my family, friends, and teachers rebuked me, saying that I should get a “real” job.

The problem for me was that the so-called “real” jobs didn’t appear to pay “real” money—plus they seemed to be boring traps that sapped the life out of people. The only thing I could associate these “real” jobs with was the teachers who promoted them. Even today, these “real” jobs come with “real” titles, like doctor, lawyer, accountant, nurse, chemist, engineer, stockbroker, chiropractor, etc. But the funny thing is, all of these professionals have to sell themselves to others to make it in their careers. Their success in life is utterly dependent on one skill more than any other, and that skill is selling.

SALES OR COLLEGE?

It’s a phenomenal mistake that the culture today doesn’t value selling enough to teach courses on it. Not once throughout my entire formal education was selling introduced as an option. I wondered how respectable and desirable the field could be if it wasn’t taught in school. If the subject isn’t taught in the great “learning institutions” of the world, it must not be a real career. Right? Wrong! No one taught me about money or investing or real estate in school. But that doesn’t mean that those subjects aren’t valuable. Schools don’t teach people how to make a marriage successful or how to raise children, either, and what could be more valuable than that?

Many young people attending my seminars have told me that they were torn between going to college and continuing with their sales careers. My response has always been the same: While the schools teach people very needed basics to get along in life and in the working world, no school can make a great person. You will learn absolutely necessary requirements in school, and you might make some great connections, but schools are not capable of making a person successful. Only by application will you or anyone else become successful or great in a field.

Survey the top one hundred most financially successful people in the world today, and I bet you can’t find one who attributes his success to his formal education. Many of them didn’t even go the traditional route. That is not to suggest that schools are bad or are a waste of time by any means; but higher education is not “the thing” that causes people to do great things. Look around and you will find the school systems we have today producing a workforce of people who are able to remember what they read rather than apply what they learned. While you will learn many very necessary basics in school, you won’t learn how to balance a checkbook, increase your net worth, save money, negotiate a great deal, communicate, resolve problems, or increase your value in the marketplace. You will only learn such skills by seeking other information outside schools. That is what most people know they need to do in order to really improve their abilities. A basic education, while very necessary, cannot be considered an “end all.” While there are some great teachers in the school system, it’s unfortunate that due to the ridiculously low salaries, many of them are only regurgitating curriculums and forcing students to study courses and subjects that will never be used in their day-to-day lives. Ask any business owner what his greatest problem is, and it will always be the same. He can’t find people who can think independently, who can solve problems, and who can increase his business and help him expand his company.

Schools teach students English, math, grammar, chemistry, history, and geography, which are absolutely necessary, but they never take the time to teach things as important as selling, persuading, and really meeting an employer’s needs. The schools, for whatever reason, are just not set up to teach the things that may make the biggest difference. I don’t know why that is, but I can tell you that I know salespeople who are making more money than heart surgeons, with far less liability and much less stress.

ALL PROFESSIONS RELY ON SALES

I know for a fact that for a person to have a great life, he’ll have to know and apply the skills of any great salesperson. You can hire a doctor, a lawyer, or an architect, but you can’t get along in life without the ability to communicate, persuade, negotiate, and close a deal.

These skills will prove more useful and vital than anything you’ll learn through a formal education. I’m not suggesting that these other areas of knowledge are not valuable and worthy, because they are. I’m only demonstrating that selling is a valuable, worthy, and respectable profession and a vital life skill for all. Rather than being an hourly worker bee, you can become a highly paid individual with no ceiling on your earning potential. While others may have decided that sales isn’t a respectable career, I can tell you that I’ve been able to spend time with leaders in many professions, from engineers and bankers to actors and film directors. Every one of those people has had to build a career around selling to get to the top of their industries. Of those top producers, every one has told me that they have studied books on negotiating, selling, and persuading. Why? Because they understand that those skills are vital to their success.

Every person, no matter what his profession is, relies on selling. The politician wants to appeal to you and your interests so that you’ll vote for him in the polling booth. The public speaker is hoping to convince the audience that his approach is the right one. The employee desiring a promotion will have to sell the boss on his value to the company. The coach has to sell his team on the idea of winning the game. The real estate agent must convince you to buy a house or to give him the listing. The mortgage broker wants you to refinance for the third time. The banker wants you to invest money in the bank’s mutual funds. The waiter is selling the special of the day. The clothing salesperson wants you to buy the suit along with three shirts and two ties—and also wants you to apply for the department store’s credit card.

Selling never ends, and it includes everyone. Those who can sell, persuade, and close are the ones who survive the best, regardless of the line of work.

I’ll let you come to your own conclusions about why selling is neither respected as a profession nor taught in schools. Maybe it’s because there have been a handful of criminal salespeople over the years who have ruined the reputation for all. These are not salespeople; they’re crooks. But you’ll find criminals and con men in every field, including medicine, law, dentistry, teaching, politics, and certainly psychiatry.

I’ll tell you the fact of which I’m sure: No person will ever gain true power and stature in the world without the ability to persuade others. The ability to communicate and convince others is an asset for you; the inability to communicate is a liability. No matter what your ambitions are, you are required to communicate with others, and the better you can communicate, the more people will agree with you. The more you can get others to agree with you, the more you can have your way in life. The more you get your way in life, the more you will enjoy life.