The morning was crisp when my parents loaded up the Econoline van with 4 kids and boxes full of partially used cones of thread. It was about 6 a.m. when we were strapped in and headed to the flea market. This morning, which seemed like every other Saturday morning when we headed to the flea market, would change my life forever.
On this morning, at the ripe age of 4, I became a salesman. It was shortly after 8 a.m. when an elderly lady, “abuelita” as we call the elderly out of respect, approached our stall. My chubby little body walked over and asked: “What are you looking for?” When she responded she wanted green thread, I immediately walked her over to our box of greens and asked her which one she wanted to purchase. She thought it was cute that a four year-old was helping her, so she asked me how much the cones were. I replied “They are a quarter. How many would you like?”
At the time, I truly did not understand the power of this transaction. What I did know is that I enjoyed this moment with “abuelita” unlike anything else I had experienced. Looking back, I recall hearing my parents have similar conversations hundreds of times. The words rolled out without a conscience thought.
Since that fateful day, I have enjoyed success in food, retail, door-to-door, business-to-business, call center, non-profit, fundraising, financial services, and online sales. The process, the conversation, the language, has been refined, yet has remained remarkably similar to the words I spoke 30+ years ago. This was the start of my journey!
Great story! I'm guessing this was the first of many sales you've made in your life. In my experience, life is sales!
True enough! My career has taken me into several different sales roles, most o which have been successful!
Everything we do is sales, hell I sell my kid into taking out the garbage sometimes! Benefit>expenditure=sale
Good for you - what a beginning! I'm afraid sales is definitely not one of my strong points, and I'm probably a Salesperson's worst nightmare, lol. Unless it's a bookstore or antique store, I'm one of those people who goes in, gets exactly what I need and beats it out of the store as fast as possible! LOL!
There's nothing wrong with knowing what you want. As a salesperson, I like people who know what they want. remember that sales people SHOULD know their products. A conversation with a salesperson may yield results that you weren't expecting. It's not always about the sale, but the transfer of knowledge when talking with a good sales person.
upvoted and resteemed
Thank you!
Hello and welcome aboard!
Thanks for the welcome!