A very bad sales person

Something I’d forgotten about my work history… my very first full-time job out of school was a sales role.

I worked at Bing Lee (a big 70-year-old Aussie retailer) for 3 months… which coincidentally was the exact length of the probation period for that job.

It was a brand new store, so in my first few weeks as it was being built and fitted-out, my cohort completed an intensive 2-week sales training program – the first they’d ever run.

Aside from it being a snooze-fest, I remember very little from those 2 weeks… but the bit I remember with crystal clarity was that our playbook said not to leave a customer wandering on their own for more than 30 seconds before inviting them to say “Just looking thanks” (obviously by saying “Hi, can I help you?” to them).

30 seconds. No wonder I hate retail shopping.

When the massive new store was ready, my new mates and I spent a week filling shelves with stereos, TVs, VCRs (this was 2001 baby, no DVDs or LCDs!) and preparing for the grand opening.

In the following 2 months, I learned A LOT about sales… or at least how a rigid, formulaic, shittily-scripted selling system sits at complete odds with me.

I also set a few records that probably still stand:

1. Lowest number of sales
2. Highest number of unbreakable rules broken
3. Most embarrassing “upsell” to close a sale
4. Highest value pity sale in the store’s (2 month) history.

Guess any of them correctly over the weekend and I’ll gift you a first read of the in-progress Solo Selling Workbook (and a free final version when it comes out in a couple weeks).