“Sales is the single most important skill to acquire if the ‘Have It All Lifestyle’ matters to you, because the first person you need to sell is yourself and from there, every person who is better with you than without you.” - Jared Yellin
“You SUCK at sales.”
Someone actually said this to me. Isn’t that crazy?!?!
The summer before my last semester at college, I started a door-to-door sales job in Brooklyn selling credit card processing. Our outcome was to either sell a new system or form an agreement to get them to switch over to our service.
It’s important to note that at this time, I had really had no true sales experience (except for selling newspapers in the bathroom of my grade school, which in the end, I got in trouble for, and probably doesn’t count).
Now, picture this. It’s day one and I’m told that one sale is made for every hundred businesses you visit, which, in my mind, translated to the fact that if I visited over a hundred businesses in one day I would get that one sale, and potentially a second. So, I hit the pavement and visited 112 businesses and got ZERO sales!
The next day, I showed up. I visited 133 businesses and got another DONUT!
On day three, I showed up and did my thing and visited 104 businesses, ending the day with, yet again, ZERO sales.
Now, it’s day four. I arrive at the office early, do some role-playing, and I am ready to rock, looking for one sale that would act as the catalyst to my sales career. I saw over 141 businesses that day and still NO sales.
What happened next, I will NEVER forget.
I went back to the office that day, which was comprised of about 75 people, and there was this one guy who considered himself the “big man” on campus. He was standing in the room when I walked in.
He looked at me and asked, “How many sales do you have this week?” I told him I had none. He then asked me how many doors I had seen. I responded “I’ve seen over 500 already this week.”
He looked me straight in the eyes and, in complete seriousness, said “Bro, you SUCK at sales.”
Now, this was during my natural body-builder days, so my initial reaction was, “Does he know who is talking too? Is he out of his mind?”
I mean these were the days when I went to the gym every day at 3am so I could make the bus into NYC at 5am, getting into the city at 6am and arriving to the office by 6:30am so I could role-play for two hours before hitting the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn—and that was just the morning! I was disciplined to a ridiculous degree, going door-to-door carrying everything I needed for the day. This included perfectly weighed out grilled chicken, portioned out with organic vegetables and everything else to keep myself fueled. Can you imagine that? And, this guy told me that I sucked at sales.
I went home that night and committed, written in stone, that I was going to demolish this guy in sales tomorrow. He had NO idea who I was or anything about me. I was going to prove him wrong.
So, I show up the next day with PURE FIRE!
I went to 151 businesses that Friday. By the end of the day, I had ZERO sales. I went back to the office and that same guy was standing right there.
AND, he said it AGAIN— “Jared, you SUCK at sales.”
I couldn’t believe it. Two days in a row this guy literally told me I suck at sales.
This weighed on me the entire weekend, and you know what? I started to believe he was right.
I showed up that Monday and I was out of state, my ability to focus was less than optimal, and this sense of doubt creeped in and I concluded that if I don’t get at least one sale today then he was right and I don’t have what it takes.
I saw 123 businesses by 3:30pm that afternoon and it started to pour, and, for anyone who doesn’t know what it means to rain in NYC, it was a torrential downpour. The one rule we had in the office was that if it started to rain, we were to head back to the office, and I did not want to go back with nothing again.
I was soaked, in a suit and tie, and I just had to get off of the street since it was raining so hard. I ran into this local cupcake shop, sat down, dripping wet and demoralized.
Then, this gentleman comes over to me and says, “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s wrong? You look visibly upset.”
I responded, “You would never believe it man. I SUCK at sales.”
“Why do you say that?” the gentleman politely responded.
So, I proceeded to go through the sequence of events over the past few days.
After I told him everything, he responded, “Well, I don’t know if it is just the right place or the right time or maybe you’re just really good, but I’m going to buy from you. I just opened this cupcake shop two weeks earlier and I need credit card processing, and I’m ready to sign-up with you right here, right now. Let’s do it.”
I couldn’t believe it. I tore out the agreement, he signed it, and filled out everything, including his credit card information. Literally everything.
I sprinted out of that cupcake shop and to the subway, since I was in Brooklyn. I could not get back to the office fast enough. The order form was clutched in my hand, pretty wet as well, and sprinted to the office, taking the stairs to the fourth floor. I walked into the room, where the entire team was now present due to the rain, and that same guy was standing in the office.
I took the order form from behind my back and put it in his face. I walked over to the gong that we had in our office, which you were able to hit once if you got someone to convert their services, two times if they bought a system and converted, and three times if they converted, bought a system and purchased the debit card reader with the keypad.
I got ALL of it. I whacked that gong as hard as I could three times.
I turned around, looked him in the eyes and said, “Bro, I DON’T suck at sales.”
The very next week, I was the number one sales person in the country for the company out of 1,200 sales people!
What Do You Suck At?
I believe everyone has their...SUCK!
You are too slow…
You are too dumb…
You are too fat…
You are too insecure…
You are too ugly…
This is your SUCK and it typically came from…
A teacher…
A preacher…
A parent…
A friend…
A random human…
And then YOURSELF!
Your SUCK is guaranteed to manifest and guess what happens…
YOU WILL SUCK at whatever it is that someone initially declared and then you agreed with…
I could have EASILY accepted my SUCK based on three things…
1- Someone told me I sucked
2- I got no sales for a full week
3- I told myself I sucked
But what enabled me not only to get NOT SUCK, but actually FREAKING THRIVE is the following…
1- Mr. Big Man On Campus Told Me I Sucked
2- I got no sales for a week
3- I refused to SUCK!
That #3 is what makes all the difference…
REFUSING to SUCK!
Every athlete…
Every entrepreneur…
Every creative…
Every everyone…
Has had someone tell them they SUCK (maybe in a different word) and they also did not perform, but what allowed them to MAKE IT was…
REFUSING TO SUCK!
The ball is in your court and a decision must be made…
Will YOU SUCK?!?!
Live with Intention,
