If you have already been following my blog, you would know by now that I'm a so-so sales guy. I have and continue to break just about every Sales 101 rule in the book. I do this intentionally because I really want to solely rely on my Lord's grace, on His blessings, not on my own brute self-efforts and worldly sales techniques. For example, I never ask for a sale, I never fire-hose "benefits of my water" at prospects, etc. But what I do try to do is treat my prospects like I would want to be treated; being truly appreciative and respectful of other's opinions, reservations, timing, constraints, etc. as well as wait on His favor, His timing, honoring His injunction to "love thy neighbor as thyself" found throughout His Word. Please don't misunderstand me, what I'm not saying is that I just sit around twiddling my fingers waiting for His blessings to be poured out upon my business. Instead, I stay busy, continually praying for His favor to go before me as I go about finding others interested in knowing about my water, then freely sharing my water with them and teaching them as I share. And of course, I also keep very busy helping others on my sales team "learn the business" and assisting them with their initial marketing efforts.
From one perspective, my personal experience of averaging 1.25 sale referrals per month during my initial 3 years is not too bad considering I'm wired as an analytical, introverted sort of guy. But from another perspective, lets say I was employed by someone as their sales guy, I would have probably been broke by now and/or lost my job a long time ago.
But fortunately for me, the referral compensation plan I have in place with my manufacturer acting as their sales rep compensates me in two ways: I earn commissions for my own sales referrals and well as earning overrides on the sales of my fellow-teammates whom I have recruited and trained over time. It's this second means of being compensated that has really resulted in the financial windfall I have enjoyed so far; truly allowing me to use my "real" giftings (administration, software development skills, teaching others) to achieve financial success in my business endeavors.
Stay tuned; in my next blog entry I going to tell you the story about my marketing campaign I conducted during the Spring of 2007. I believe this story will really shine the spotlight on the financial leverage (i.e., blessings) one can experience by attracting and training others who are like-minded, but not necessarily like-gifted. Just as it is said in Ecclesiates 4:9-10: "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend (e.g., fellow-laborer) can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!"
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