Lessons I have learned along the way

Lesson One: Get Noticed

Although I did not know it at the time, my career in selling began when I was just ten years old.

At that time I lived in a suburb of Perth in Western Australia – a far cry from the business hubs of London and New York - although as fate would have it, I did spend a considerable amount of my career in London, and of course, Perth these days is a major business centre in it’s own right, experiencing yet another considerable resources boom.

However, back to the ten year old me…

It was just approaching Christmas and there was excitement in the air as we knew we were just about to go into the long Christmas and New Year school holiday break – 7 weeks of sun and surf – what good old fun time lay ahead!  (We antipodeans know we have the holiday calendar right.)

The previous year Mum and Dad had enrolled me into what we called “The Y” – what you would know as the YMCA.  I would attend every Saturday morning and participate in all the running and jumping and yelling and any other form of gymnastics designed to tire out a pretty sizable bunch of nine and ten year old boys.  Following this fun and games, which usually lasted a couple of hours, we would then retire from the gym to a meeting room to participate in some less strenuous (although just as vocal) discussion on various issues of the times relevant to young-boys-about-to-be-men.  Sometimes we were shown a film and we sat enthralled at the images thrown onto the screen and the sounds emanating from the one lonesome speaker.

So, here we are in the couple of weeks lead up to Christmas, and to help raise money for “the Y” a number of us boys, under the proper supervision of course, have volunteered to sell Christmas trees at various locations around Perth.

I happened to join a group of boys selling trees in Flinders Street, Nollamara (not that I would expect you to know where that is – other than to say that whilst it was not a main road, it was a very busy road, particularly on a Saturday morning).  I should also add that in those days just about every shop in Perth shut at midday, and did not re-open until Monday morning.  I think now, given the various stresses that many people are currently living with, that God had it right when He advised us that the seventh day we should have as a day of rest – a time to enjoy some peace and quiet, relaxing with families and friends – but that’s another story.

Back to the Christmas trees…

Here I am, standing on the side of the road with a couple of other young blokes waiting for cars to stop and buy a lovely, real, live, Christmas tree.  We waited, and we waited, and we waited…and waited some more.  This was not fun and was becoming quite boring – and you don’t have to try too hard to imagine how easily a ten year old boy can get bored!

As very little seemed to be happening in this particular location, I determined that perhaps people needed to be made more aware of what we were doing, and why we were standing around, seemingly idle, on the side of the road.  Suddenly, without giving it too much thought, I just grabbed hold of a medium-sized tree – one that I could easily handle – and began walking up and down on the side of the road.  Sometimes, when the road was clear, I would even venture into the road, and hold up the tree and shake it!

Well, apart from getting yelled at by the grown-up to be careful, you can guess what started to happen – yes, cars began to stop and buy our trees, even cars on the other side of the road had seen my “tree-shaking” foolishness and stopped to see what was going on.

Within three hours we had sold all our tress and were packing up to go home, congratulations being shared all around for a job well done.

What was the difference?  What did I learn?  It wasn’t that there was no signage – we had signs up on both sides of our stall…but here’s the thing, no-one noticed them.  So here was my first lesson in sales – get noticed!  It’s not just about having the right advertisements or website – it’s about getting noticed by the customers and clients you wish to have.

So, how do you get noticed?

There are a number of ways you can go about getting noticed, and I won’t pretend that I know them all, because I don’t. I know some, and I know those that have worked for me.  So here are a few for you to try:

Attend business forums and networking events and “work the room”.  Do not be a wall flower, and for goodness sake take your business cards.  I cannot believe the number of events I attend, where people have forgotten to bring that little card that says so much.

Get on a speaking circuit; become well known for your subject.  Every service club in the world is looking for speakers.  Use the opportunity to speak about your product or service as an opportunity to practice your craft – selling.  But be careful here, these people are savvy business people in their own right and will see straight through a sales pitch.

Do something different, or have a business card that is different, that “stands out” from the norm.  One way of really being different these days is to actually do what you say you will do.  I know it is an over-used cliché, but the problem is very few people actually live those words.  Do it.

Remember also, there are a number of companies who can assist you with developing these ideas, and if you would like to contact me, I’d be happy to provide some referrals.

What was that word referrals?  Sounds like a whole new subject for the next lesson….