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Education

Even mediocre skills can make you valuable Hang in there
You may be familiar with the adage that successful people do what others are Forum member blueplatepc
unwilling to do, which loosely translated means working that extra hour or deserves credit for just staying in
going that extra mile to deliver unprecedented service. 1Slick67 is an example the game. Many would have cut and
of the many MLSs who operate outside the 40-hour work week. run after an encounter similar to his
inaugural sales call.
He wrote, "I might be old school, but even when I am out and about I still
find myself handing out a business card or two 'cold calling,' and my closing "The first merchant I ever tried to sell
ratios are much better than [industry statistics indicate]. He added that, more to actually screamed at me to get out
importantly, it's not the dog that's in the fight, but the fight that's in the dog. of his store," he recalled. "After over
five years, it is the hardest rejection
I ever had. When you are confident
you have a good product that is
competitive, I have always looked
at rejections as 'their loss' not mine."
Manage the odds to
enhance your luck

As Adams reminded us, you can't
control luck, but you can take actions
that will make it easier for luck to
find you. He mentioned a friend who
was a gifted salesperson and could
have sold anything "from houses to
toasters" but wisely chose a sphere
that has enabled him to prosper.

"The field he chose (which I
won't reveal because he wouldn't
appreciate the sudden flood of
competition) allows him to sell a
service that almost always auto-
renews," Adams wrote. "In other
words, he can sell his service once
and enjoy ongoing commissions
until the customer dies or goes out of
business. His biggest problem in life
is that he keeps trading his boat for a
larger one, and that's a lot of work."

So persist after your failures and
you, too, might soon be deciding
when to upgrade from a mere boat
to a luxury yacht.

Dale S. Laszig is a writer and payments
industry executive specializing in busi-
ness development and sales performance
improvement. She manages channel
sales at Castles Technology and sales
effectiveness programs through IMPAX
Corp. and C3ET Credit Card Consortia
for Education & Training Inc. She can
be reached at 973-930-0331 or dale_
laszig@castechusa.com.

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