Sell Your Way To Wealth
February 26th, 2008 by 
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Sell Your Way to Wealth
I’ve often asked myself what keeps salespeople or network marketers to keep on dealing with the constant ongoing rejection? Is it the passion of their products? Their huge paychecks? Do they really love what they do? Do they see a bigger picture? When I got into sales 10 years ago it was purely accidental. I needed to make some money and all I knew how to do was play music, or act. The phone was not ringing of the hook for the latter, and I couldn’t live on air and water. I really hated sales in the beginning; at least I hated the constant rejection of it all. I felt like I was taking advantage of the less fortunate. I probably like most people felt that salespeople were greedy, or a bit too pushy.
On my 2nd or 3rd venture my attitude began to change somewhat, as I remembered a talk my father had with me years prior. He simply stated, “Son there are only 3 or 4 occupations where someone can make a decent living: Doctor, Lawyer, or Salesperson”. It went in one ear and out the other, as I was going to be a successful actor (SAG states that only 2% make a living); besides who wants to go to school for 12 years to earn a six-figure income with staggering debt. My family wasn’t wealthy, so I wasn’t prepared to take on the $300 - $500K in student loans required to be a doctor. God bless, my brother in law and uncle, we need doctors and lawyers, but I simply don’t have that sort of patience.
Looking back 10 years later, since joining the sales profession and having only completed my associate’s degree in business, has it been worth it??? I must say I have learned skills that I can apply to any profession. I personally, would love to go back to school and finish my bachelor’s and possibly masters, but in sales unfortunately you are not judged on your education, but your performance. Finishing my education would be strictly for personal achievement, as I have no interest in climbing the corporate ladder.
As a professional salesperson you are no different than a professional baseball player, basketball player, or football player. You are paid based on your ability to drive revenue to a company. When you think about it in that perspective wouldn’t all professional performers be salespeople technically. For example, Tom Cruise is paid on ticket sales from his movies, not on his smile. Tiger Woods isn’t paid for hitting a golf club, he is paid for hitting it better than anyone else. Bill Gates has made his fortune on the number of Microsoft Sales his company has generated.
The moral of this article is that if you want to be wealthy, you are going to have to sell something, whether it is movie tickets, concert tickets, soap, real estate, or whatever it may be. To frame these few paragraphs, it’s apparent to me that selling is a very crucial skill for everyone to acquire, but to further become wealthy you need to also create passive residual income. One thing that every human being has in common regardless of race, wealth, intelligence, and beauty is our time. So to keep it simple here are a few rules to creating wealth:
1. Learn to sell something (My wife consults with dentists on how to create more revenue through filling up more chairs)
2. Create residual income
3. Work for yourself if possible
4. Network Marketing (Avon, Mary Kay, etc)
5. Sell for a company where they don’t cap commissions
6. Sell something that is on-going like insurance, janitorial services, landscape maintenance, telecommunications, wireless service, cable TV, etc. (You want to sell and keep a customer for a minimum of 3 - 5 years - VERY IMPORTANT - Make sure your employer is paying you a % for the life of the customer)
Look for ways to make money on the back end, not the front end. Don’t trade your time in sales for a big salary up-front; as you will have very little return on the back end, plus if they are paying you a big salary you just gave your new employer your most precious commodity - your time. Look for opportunities that will return big over 3, 5, and 10 years. More than likely in any sales venture you are not going to see any major returns for months, perhaps years. Go for the gusto, but look for the above and over time you will succeed with the right attitude. Remember Rome wasn’t built in one day.
John Lowery is a home based entrepreneur based in Carlsbad, CA. He is also a sales trainer and sales & marketing consultant.
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