The pressure is on for me to write about $15,000 in business between now and the Fourth of July. I'm taking a rest and reflection day at home today. Went to Church this morning, picked up a few staples at Trader Joe's on the way home (Strawberries, raw almonds, cheese, Ezekiel Bread) and I am getting mentally prepared become a saleswoman.
The truth is, I haven't crossed over yet. I'm not selling very much. I can set appointments with pretty much everybody. No kidding, I think I can set an appointment with like four out of five business owners I meet. People don't want to say no to me. The only problem is, I haven't learned how to get them to say yes to me, either. It's really time consuming -- and I wouldn't mind the time if it was leading to a sale and referrals. But I am starting to see that in some cases the stall tactics are a blow off.
So, today while I am doing my laundry and cleaning house, I am going to be listening to some sales CDs. Also, I'm going to read my books about selling and better memorize some of our product brochures so that I can convey the information with more confidence.
I've been spending too much money buying potential clients pizzas and sandwiches and cupcakes. The products sell themselves if the information is conveyed correctly. No more feeding people to get their business.
This is crunch time!
Have a great week everybody and keep me in your thoughts and prayers! Want some Aflac? No kidding. Let me know, I'll come sell you some! I should be really pretty good at it by the end of the week!
Oh.. and this is the thing...
I think having a gift for setting appointments but having trouble with closing deals puts me in a worse situation in some ways than that of somebody who isn't so good at setting appointments. It's like everybody wants to be my friend. They like me. They trust me. But hey -- I've got friends. Nothing personal. I love friends! I need clients.
And just one more thing...
I did invest a little bit of money in Aflac incentives (some really cool plush ducks that fish and wear cute outfits and stuff and some pink ball caps for breast cancer awareness... stuff like that). I think they were a good investment. I'll keep you posted on the outcome of that, though. I think they are a better investment than pizza and cupcakes.
OK, Maybe just a few more tidbits to convey...
A veteran insurance salesman has generously volunteered to spend some time in the field with me this week and I think it will really help me get my game on. I hear he's killer at salons! I have one salon enrollment on Wednesday and another salon enrollment in the works -- possibly to be scheduled later in the week. I'll keep you posted.
Sales is pretty much all psychology I guess. The truth is, so far in this life I've filled the role of being a really nice sort of nerdy girl. You know, the somewhat submissive and fun-making youngest child in a boisterous family. I'm the person you want to read stories to your children. I'm the best friend of the most popular girl in school -- you know, the one the guys call to figure out how they can get a date with the most popular girl.
But I can't keep being that sweet nerdy girl if I expect to sell anything. I need to take it up a notch. I need to become a force with which to be reckoned!
Crunch time!
Showing posts with label patty maher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patty maher. Show all posts
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Friends
Starting a career that's 100-percent commission based can throw a wrench in the diet and exercise regime of someone who has to pay strict attention to what she eats -- especially when she is starting such a career with no savings account, really on a wing and a prayer, I suppose (although, I am not certain what that means, exactly... a wing and a prayer?).
During the first few months of this career transition, my eating program has fallen by the wayside and I'm fatter for it and less healthy. That isn't good, not at all. Some people can do fat gracefully. I am not one of those people. It's not just that I don't like the way I look. I don't like the way I feel. That's the big thing -- feeling effective and healthy.
Friends and family who support me in this career transition have been so kind. They gave me bags of groceries, grocery cards. I felt their love and I really appreciate them. But by the time I admitted I needed help with healthy groceries, I had already strayed from my program. Once I stray at all, it takes me months to find the willingness to follow it again. I thought I was willing to follow the food plan a few weeks ago but I wasn't. Today I am feeling willing and I took action by calling other people who follow the program I follow.
When I feel effective and healthy I have more energy. When I feel effective and healthy I'm a much more dynamic salesperson.
I spoke with a friend of mine who does the same food program I do on the phone today. Like me, she has had a number of slips and road trips from the behaviors and community that support our healthy lifestyle. Currently she has been following the program for about sixty days. She's a mom, a teacher, a full-time student.
"Maybe the 57 K goal was unrealistic given that I didn't even get through sales school until half way through the second quarter of the year. I said, really, the 57 K goal is more like 90 K, maybe even 95 K. I think I might have been looking at this a little bit ridiculously. I mean health has to come first, right?"
"Yah!" She said. "I mean what is this 57 K goal anyway? I mean everybody knows about it because you published it. I mean the goal is paying your bills, not how much you make. The goal is paying your bills and putting some healthy food in your stomach."
Everyday wisdom.
Everyday goals.
This is why I need people in my life who know me outside of computers. This is why I need people who understand my eating and health issues.
Making 57 K may well be possible. Heck, I could make even more than that, I am told. Some new agents do. But none of it matters if I get fat in the process. Because, like I said, I just don't do attractive, robust, healthy fat. If I get fat it's accompanied by stressed, depressed and lethargic.
Just for today -- not going there!
I won't be blogging much about the weight and eating issue. I think it's a private matter and I'm not out here to become a diet guru. But I do think it is important to note that it is something that I deal with while I make this career transition. Everybody has something, right? We all have our issues that can throw us off our game. Eating is mine. I'm really grateful to have a way to deal with it.
During the first few months of this career transition, my eating program has fallen by the wayside and I'm fatter for it and less healthy. That isn't good, not at all. Some people can do fat gracefully. I am not one of those people. It's not just that I don't like the way I look. I don't like the way I feel. That's the big thing -- feeling effective and healthy.
Friends and family who support me in this career transition have been so kind. They gave me bags of groceries, grocery cards. I felt their love and I really appreciate them. But by the time I admitted I needed help with healthy groceries, I had already strayed from my program. Once I stray at all, it takes me months to find the willingness to follow it again. I thought I was willing to follow the food plan a few weeks ago but I wasn't. Today I am feeling willing and I took action by calling other people who follow the program I follow.
When I feel effective and healthy I have more energy. When I feel effective and healthy I'm a much more dynamic salesperson.
I spoke with a friend of mine who does the same food program I do on the phone today. Like me, she has had a number of slips and road trips from the behaviors and community that support our healthy lifestyle. Currently she has been following the program for about sixty days. She's a mom, a teacher, a full-time student.
"Maybe the 57 K goal was unrealistic given that I didn't even get through sales school until half way through the second quarter of the year. I said, really, the 57 K goal is more like 90 K, maybe even 95 K. I think I might have been looking at this a little bit ridiculously. I mean health has to come first, right?"
"Yah!" She said. "I mean what is this 57 K goal anyway? I mean everybody knows about it because you published it. I mean the goal is paying your bills, not how much you make. The goal is paying your bills and putting some healthy food in your stomach."
Everyday wisdom.
Everyday goals.
This is why I need people in my life who know me outside of computers. This is why I need people who understand my eating and health issues.
Making 57 K may well be possible. Heck, I could make even more than that, I am told. Some new agents do. But none of it matters if I get fat in the process. Because, like I said, I just don't do attractive, robust, healthy fat. If I get fat it's accompanied by stressed, depressed and lethargic.
Just for today -- not going there!
I won't be blogging much about the weight and eating issue. I think it's a private matter and I'm not out here to become a diet guru. But I do think it is important to note that it is something that I deal with while I make this career transition. Everybody has something, right? We all have our issues that can throw us off our game. Eating is mine. I'm really grateful to have a way to deal with it.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Green Laptop
By Patty Jane Maher,
(Writer's Note: This story is part of my series Poor Journalist Gets To Business. Visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Poor-Journalist-Gets-To-Business/364775722055?ref=mffor for the index and to be a Facebook Fan of this series. I'm documenting my career transition from journalist to saleswoman and my goal to earn $57 K in Michigan in 2010 during the recession.)
I'm a little sad about moving my "Poor Journalist Gets To Business" series to this quiet Google blog from its birthplace on Open Salon. I really appreciate many things about Open Salon. Truly, that boisterous cyber cacophony of writers, dreamers and fanatics is what gave birth to this series.
In a way I feel like I'm letting my Open Salon friends down by retreating to this veritable dirt-road blogging oasis -- out of the rapid-fire-speed-race of the Open Salon Autubon of blogging.
But let' face it. In my heart, I'm a small-town girl. I'm a paper newspaper lover. All that cyber dagger throwing -- I'm just not cut out for it. I don't want to feel compelled to talk about my religion several days a week just to prove that I belong to a group of people who are extremely diverse and shouldn't be put in a box. I don't want to defend the religion of my childhood or anything else. But out there on the Open Salon, all's fair in love and war and blogging. And as a journalist, I can't just let really inflammatory comments and stories go unaddressed when they refer to something very close to my heart.
So, here I am -- blogging in the Googlesphere. It's pretty cozy, especially with my new laptop computer. I bought it off of Craigslist for $250 this week with a loan from my dad. Thank you, Dad! Happy Father's Day! It's lime green on top, a Dell Inspiron 1520. I like it. It's easy to type on. And it's all mine! Yay! No more driving to meet another guy on our sales team to exchange the computer a few times a week. It was a pain in the neck. Plus there were some real problems with that computer that interfered with a few business transactions. Eventually I would have understood its quirks. But I really like having my own laptop. I'm typing here on the couch in my sweat pants. It's snugly! I like this.
I sold more insurance this week than I think I ever have so far. I felt more involved in the sales. I feel like I'm really learning to be a saleswoman.
This morning I sold a cancer policy to a barber before seven o'clock. We had a nice chat in his business. He made me a cup of coffee and told me about the hot dog stand across the street that has been in business (through different owners) since the 1930s. He has been in business for twenty-nine years and his barbershop was established in the 1950s.
I enjoy historical little old small businesses and their owners and I really had a fun week.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Taking Business Ownership
By Patty Jane Maher,
(Writer's Note: This story is part of my series Poor Journalist Gets To Business. Visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Poor-Journalist-Gets-To-Business/364775722055?ref=mffor for the index and to be a Facebook Fan of this series. I'm documenting my career transition from journalist to saleswoman and my goal to earn $57 K in Michigan in 2010 during the recession.)
I’m not just learning to sell stuff. I’m learning how to own a business.
That means I’ve no time for monkey shines.
Blogging has been an interesting part of my career transition from newspaper journalist to saleswoman/small-business owner. For one thing, I do much of my best thinking when I’m writing. So it’s a way of organizing my life, of setting goals.
The downside of blogging is that it has pitfalls. It’s quite a bit like junior-high school when it comes to social etiquette (that is if you happened to go to a junior high school with a ton of really mean and loud kids who liked to use foul language and get in food fights).
There were some things I liked about blogging the Poor Journalist Gets To Business series on the Open Salon. For one thing, I liked the attention of occasionally being picked by the editors. Everyone likes recognition – especially in junior high. Feeling like a teacher’s favorite or an editor’s favorite can ease the pain of you feel when you’re a bit of a misfit. And isn’t everybody a bit of a misfit in junior high? For another thing most of the commentary is quite thoughtful. Probably only about five or ten percent of it is mean spirited. But the culture is worlds away from the culture of the daily newspaper. Light years away, really.
In the end, it was too time consuming to keep blogging at Open Salon with all the dust ups and social expectations. That’s why I’ve retreated here to the Google blog neighborhood where the commentary is quite sparse. Comments are welcome, of course. But hardly anybody does that here. And there’s no social expectation about commenting. Or if there is, nobody has clued me in to it yet.
Time organization and keeping on task and schedule will be my theme in the week ahead. Also, I am investing in a $300-$400 laptop computer to enable me to do my business more efficiently. I have been sharing a computer with another agent and I find it is just too time consuming to pass it back and forth. The computer has our company software on it and belongs to our district sales manager. It was generous of her to let us use it but it is time for me to get my own laptop so that I can have better control over my time and business. In addition to spending money on the computer, I will have to spend $500 on software.
Where did the poor journalist come up with the cash for these business investments, you ask? Dear old dad! Thank you, Dad! Happy Father’s Day! Honestly, I don’t know where I would be without my eighty-year-old dad. He has been incredibly supportive of me in this venture I began in February. He has given me $3,000 so far. It’s a loan and I intend to pay him back. But the fact is, he isn’t holding his breath about it. And he isn’t a rich man. He’s a generous man. God bless him.
Seriously, I’d never be able to do this without my dad.
I think I’m going to make it. I think I’m going to beat poverty and nail this career transition. I think one year from now my life is going to be much different than it is today. There’s a bunch of hard work ahead, no doubt. But thanks to my supportive family (sisters have given gas cards and stuck $50 bills in my purse when I visit. My brother paid for me to take the course and exam for the Michigan Insurance License) I believe I will make it.
When I think about the support I do have, I feel blessed. And I wonder how anybody could make it through such a major career transition without the support of a family. Honestly, I think most would not make it. I don’t think I could. Without my family, I’d probably have given up a month ago and taken a job at a coffee shop.
(Writer's Note: This story is part of my series Poor Journalist Gets To Business. Visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Poor-Journalist-Gets-To-Business/364775722055?ref=mffor for the index and to be a Facebook Fan of this series. I'm documenting my career transition from journalist to saleswoman and my goal to earn $57 K in Michigan in 2010 during the recession.)
I’m not just learning to sell stuff. I’m learning how to own a business.
That means I’ve no time for monkey shines.
Blogging has been an interesting part of my career transition from newspaper journalist to saleswoman/small-business owner. For one thing, I do much of my best thinking when I’m writing. So it’s a way of organizing my life, of setting goals.
The downside of blogging is that it has pitfalls. It’s quite a bit like junior-high school when it comes to social etiquette (that is if you happened to go to a junior high school with a ton of really mean and loud kids who liked to use foul language and get in food fights).
There were some things I liked about blogging the Poor Journalist Gets To Business series on the Open Salon. For one thing, I liked the attention of occasionally being picked by the editors. Everyone likes recognition – especially in junior high. Feeling like a teacher’s favorite or an editor’s favorite can ease the pain of you feel when you’re a bit of a misfit. And isn’t everybody a bit of a misfit in junior high? For another thing most of the commentary is quite thoughtful. Probably only about five or ten percent of it is mean spirited. But the culture is worlds away from the culture of the daily newspaper. Light years away, really.
In the end, it was too time consuming to keep blogging at Open Salon with all the dust ups and social expectations. That’s why I’ve retreated here to the Google blog neighborhood where the commentary is quite sparse. Comments are welcome, of course. But hardly anybody does that here. And there’s no social expectation about commenting. Or if there is, nobody has clued me in to it yet.
Time organization and keeping on task and schedule will be my theme in the week ahead. Also, I am investing in a $300-$400 laptop computer to enable me to do my business more efficiently. I have been sharing a computer with another agent and I find it is just too time consuming to pass it back and forth. The computer has our company software on it and belongs to our district sales manager. It was generous of her to let us use it but it is time for me to get my own laptop so that I can have better control over my time and business. In addition to spending money on the computer, I will have to spend $500 on software.
Where did the poor journalist come up with the cash for these business investments, you ask? Dear old dad! Thank you, Dad! Happy Father’s Day! Honestly, I don’t know where I would be without my eighty-year-old dad. He has been incredibly supportive of me in this venture I began in February. He has given me $3,000 so far. It’s a loan and I intend to pay him back. But the fact is, he isn’t holding his breath about it. And he isn’t a rich man. He’s a generous man. God bless him.
Seriously, I’d never be able to do this without my dad.
I think I’m going to make it. I think I’m going to beat poverty and nail this career transition. I think one year from now my life is going to be much different than it is today. There’s a bunch of hard work ahead, no doubt. But thanks to my supportive family (sisters have given gas cards and stuck $50 bills in my purse when I visit. My brother paid for me to take the course and exam for the Michigan Insurance License) I believe I will make it.
When I think about the support I do have, I feel blessed. And I wonder how anybody could make it through such a major career transition without the support of a family. Honestly, I think most would not make it. I don’t think I could. Without my family, I’d probably have given up a month ago and taken a job at a coffee shop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)