I thought I was Going to Die

I met my first husband doing door-to-door sales. He hired me. It’s a job I never thought I would have yet it was probably the most character-building experience of my life. That 9 months I spent knocking on doors, residential and commercial, was the most grueling, self development time of my life. 

Up until then I’d been in various sales and marketing types of jobs, restaurant work, bartending, restaurant management, clothing store clerk, even ice cream scooper at Thrifty’s which is my first job at age 16. 

When my first husband, now my very amicable EX, hired me and took me out for the first time to knock on doors I thought I was going to die. 

I could usually talk to anybody about anything, and sell anybody anything pretty easily without hesitation. But this is a whole different ball game, it is basically cold calling to the max. 

It’s hard not to take it personally when doors get slammed in your face and people call you a solicitor. (Some of you might feel like that just talking to people who actually want to listen to you right now?!)

Oh my God that used to hurt in the beginning, but then after a few months I would play games with myself when walking up to those houses that had the no solicitor sign in the front window. 

Did I ignore them? Heck no! I would knock anyway, you know why? 

Because I believed wholeheartedly in what I was selling. I believed everyone should want it. I was extremely confident in the good deal that I was offering that I couldn’t imagine someone wouldn’t want it after listening to me for even just 60 seconds of my initial pitch. (Maybe that’s why I talk so fast too ha ha, because I had to SPIT out my quick pitch before the door got slammed in my face!) 

Now, I know a lot of you introverts are going “holy cow I would never do that”! 

And, even you extroverts probably are saying the same thing because, who wants to do cold calling, right? You’re right. I no longer cold call nor do I recommend it to clients 99% of the time. 

One of the benefits of that nine months of my life was the sales training that I got from the company who hired me. Every morning in our sales meeting before we went out we would listen to cassette tapes (dating myself LOL) of Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy. They would motivate us and give us the words and encouragement on how to go out and be a good salesperson. To this day I use some of the strategies that I have learned during that job. (Especially the “This or That Close”, I love that and use it all the time!) 

And while yes, in this relationship marketing age, those older thought processes and sales strategies are a bit out of date, it is hard to take that training out of an old dog like me. 

Regardless of what I tell you in an email, a video, a blog post, or an email newsletter article, whether I say go out and “sell more shit”, or  I ask you “what’s your closing ratio”?  Know that my heart is all about relationship building. I have always been about building relationships. It’s just some of the words that come out of my mouth are those words of Zig and Brian back then. 

It’s not that what they said that is outdated though, it’s the WORDS we’re using now are different. What works in TODAY’S MARKETPLACE, especially the online marketing arena, is so far from what used to work back when we only met face to face to do business.

Those relationship strategies work of course too, but so many people have gotten away from relationship marketing and do “blast or post marketing”. That type of marketing is one-way marketing. Facebook lives are one-way marketing. Yes, while people could comment on your video either during it live or on replay, it’s not as engaging as when you can speak with someone or a group of someone’s’ face to face, in person or on Zoom. 

My top clients to this day are still doing what I used to do 15-20 years ago and it works even more now since social media and online marketing have gotten so cold. People strive for a connection with you, they want to get to know you, the REAL you and they want to know what makes you tick now more than ever. They want to know things about your family, your vacations, your “behind-the-scenes” lessons learned and more. 

These are the types of business and marketing strategies, words and processes that I teach over and over and over again at my live events and in my coaching. Whether you do a couple 1on1 calls with me or you attend an event, you will get true implementable value, exact steps and words on what to do and say that fit YOUR business, not just general stuff. This is the year you want to be more meaningful with your time, and the groups and communities that you’re a part of. I only want you to come if you are going to play full out and really get into action.