Don’t buy the myth of the natural born salesman!
My oldest son Dominic has started Kindergarten… Which, as we learned on the first week of school, also means fundraising.
Now he’s sold peaches with the neighbor kids before, and cleaned his room to earn allowance. He fully understands the reward system, and gets what it means to sell something.
And we believe that being able to sell and communicate is a great life skill. So we’ve encouraged him to not only approach family, but go door-to-door.
All completely voluntary, of course.
And it was in his very first encounter with a “stranger” in door-to-door sales that I realized how far from a natural-born salesman he really is.
Get to know him, and Dominic is chatty, friendly, and thinking at miles-a-minute…
You’d be amazed at how precocious he can be sometimes… What little thought he shares, or idea he has that completely blows you away…
NONE of that was present when we knocked on this neighbor’s door.
She answered, interested.
He froze.
I practically had to feed him every line.
She was nice AND interested — she wanted to buy something. Her daughter had gone to the same school. She was happy to support the neighborhood kids.
Every reason he should have felt comfortable… Irrelevant.
As she’s looking through the catalogs, he’s trying to hide behind me.
His younger, 3-year-old brother was there, too — shirtless from playing outside on a hot late-summer afternoon. Dominic’s trying to hide behind him.
I was practically dragging details out of him.
All while our nice neighbor was being incredibly patient and kind!
(I’m kinda going a little crazy inside, too!)
The boys were kids being kids… But the neighbor’s trying to order for his fundraiser.
He’s nervous, so his behavior goes downhill.
His brother was getting bored, so his behavior goes downhill.
As she’s filling out the order forms, he hops on his bike and starts to circle her driveway.
The younger one starts playing with her sunflowers (despite my telling him not to).
She goes in to get money for the order, and he’s practically down the driveway on his bike.
The younger one breaks a sunflower — and by the time she walks back outside, it’s laying across the driveway.
I’m profusely apologizing. I get my son who broke the sunflower to apologize.
I have to collect the cash.
As we’re trying to say goodbye, the woman asks Dominic his name.
Nervous, he doesn’t know how to reply… So he says, “Why do you need to know?” Not rudely, but it kinda felt that way.
More apologies as we left.
Here’s the wildest part…
I totally saw myself in Dominic that day.
In first grade, I was in a play. When it came time for my lines, I froze silent on stage. I never said them.
When I had to do door-to-door fundraising as a kid, I had similar struggles.
I’ve always felt uncomfortable in new and strange situations.
The only difference between then and now is I’ve learned how to face the fear, and take action.
There’s no natural-born salesman here, just like my son is not a natural-born salesman.
In fact, there’s no such thing as a natural-born salesman or woman.
Sure, some folks may be more comfortable in these situations.
But ultimately it’s all a learned and conditioned skill.
You have to put yourself in these situations and screw up.
Then learn and improve.
And that’s how you get ahead.
That’s how you get so good folks start to think it’s natural.
But you know the sweat and nervousness and awkward situations that got you to the top.
You know all the work it takes to become a “natural-born” talent.
And you smile and nod, knowing for yourself how hard you have to work sometimes to grow something that comes so “naturally.”
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
PS — He may not be a natural-born salesman, but he’d sure love your help. If you’d like to help Dominic with his fundraising, that’s awesome. 50% of your purchase price goes to support things at his school like the “outdoor classroom” garden they’re making to teach kids about where food comes from and how to grow it — all while supplying the school cafeteria! You can browse the items available here. Be sure to select “Catalog B” to have it shipped to you — and get free shipping for all orders over $60. Please order by September 8th for it to count for the fundraiser! 🙂
