"Measure your success based on the laughs and smiles you get versus the times you hear YES and all of a sudden you will start to hear YES more often.” - Jared Yellin
When I was 19-years-old I had the greatest skill development experience of my life when I did door-to-door sales which was 100% commission based and I sold credit card processing to businesses in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Anyone ever try?!?!
In my opinion, door-to-door sales should be a requirement to graduate high school.
There is no better way to learn how to communicate, influence, think on your feet, gain emotional and social intelligence, fail and get back up, along with a variety of other KEY life lessons.
My “mentor” at the company shared the following on day 1…
“Most don’t make it.” (My thoughts: Bring it on!)
“You must see 100 businesses a day to get 1 sale.” (My thoughts: I am going to sweat a TON)
“Stick with the script or you will fail miserably.” (My thoughts: Well that does not sound like fun!)
All three of these comments did not sit well, but I listened, for one week, and guess how many businesses I saw that week…?
674 DIFFERENT businesses in 5 days…
And now guess how many businesses said YES to me…
ZERO!!!
Literally, ZERO businesses said yes to me.
I was shocked…
I was frustrated…
I was deeply deflated...
I remember taking the bus home that Friday evening and reciting over and over again…
“I CAN’T SELL!”
I was recycling every NO in my head…
Thinking about where I could have taken the conversation differently…
Thinking about what I could have said to get a YES…
Thinking about how foolish I must have looked each time the door was slammed in my face…
And then I realized something…
I WAS NOT HAVING FUN!
I was not having fun talking with businesses…
I was not having fun being on defense in every conversation…
I was not having fun going into 125+ doors a day!
And I have never heard of someone NOT HAVING FUN and GETTING WHAT THEY WANTED.
Please read this statement again because it REALLY matters right now whether you are in sales, coaching, health, parenting, etc.
I have NEVER heard of someone NOT HAVING FUN and GETTING WHAT THEY WANTED!
I started to think about what FUN with SALES would mean to me…
1 - Build meaningful relationships which was not possible with 125 businesses in an 8-hour day.
2 - Have conversations outside of a script to really understand the goals and desires of the person.
3 - Laugh, smile, poke fun, get inspired TOGETHER!
I came in on Monday ready to goooooo!
I told my “mentor” the following…
“Last week sucked and it has nothing to do with what you think it does. The ZERO sales does not bother me at all. But what does is the fact that I made ZERO relationships, made ZERO impressions, and had ZERO laughs. So, I am sure you are going to challenge me right now, but my plans this week have changed. I will see 10 businesses a day, I will really get to know them and NOT follow the script, and I will laugh and have fun in each.”
My mentor said…
“Good luck (with a chuckle and he turned away).”
That day…
I saw 10 businesses and I had 4 businesses say YES and 10 businesses laughing, smiling, and feeling understood.
Day 2…
I saw 10 businesses and I had 3 businesses say YES and 10 businesses laughing, smiling, and feeling understood.
I think you can now see the trend…
SALES MUST BE FUN!
LIFE MUST BE FUN!
EVERYTHING YOU DO MUST BE FUN!
And for any naysayers out there - bring it on - because here’s what I know…
I ALWAYS HAVE FUN…
And if you believe that you can’t, shouldn’t, or want to challenge me - I’m all good - because I am having fun and you are probably not.
But now let’s get into the key takeaway from this VERY intentional message…
STOP measuring your success on HEARING YES…
START measuring your success on smiles, laughs, tears, hugs, and connection.
And I FREAKIN GUARANTEE if you start measuring the later, you will hear more YES’S
And if not - sell me whatever you sell and I promise I WILL SAY YES (as long as you make me smile, laugh, cry, hug you and connect!).
One more point…
I wrote an article called Process versus Outcome, which I encourage you to read if you don’t agree with my “HAHA Philosophy” (and even if you do align as well because it will further the importance of this point). In the article, I shared the following quote…
“My number one priority when selling anything is that the process becomes unforgettable regardless of the outcome.” - Jared Yellin
The reason this is CRITICAL and measuring LAUGHS versus YES should be your new most important metric is because the number of times I have heard NO for X and then years later this person said YES (with a laugh) to Y is unmeasurable.
Literally, millions of dollars of business has been generated by people who once said NO!
And 99% of the people I know in sales would have NEVER gotten this person to say YES because they would have assumed NO was the end of the journey with this person whereas I see it as the beginning of the relationship.
YES, the beginning of the relationship because of the following…
1- I made them LAUGH
2- I make the sales process UNFORGETTABLE
There are 10 ways to make your sales process unforgettable which can be seen here and I encourage you to recognize…
NO is the beginning of YOUR RELATIONSHIP with this person, make them last and make your process unforgettable!
Live with Intention,
