The Birth Of A Salesman

If historical patterns matter then I think I'm going to become a great salesman, better at sales than I am at Microsoft Excel. In 2011, if you had asked me to name 100 things I was good at, Microsoft Excel wouldn't be on that list. In fact, if I had gotten a Microsoft Office that had no Microsoft Excel I wouldn't have noticed let alone complain. Then something happened, I got a job and I needed to use Microsoft Excel for the job. The first 4 months at the job was miserable for me. For once in my life I was sure I was doing a job I wasn't cut out for, a job that matched with none of my top skills and required skills like Excel which I had none. Just to do well at my job I learned Microsoft Excel. Fast forward 3 years, I quit the job that matched all my skill set, the job I quit the Excel one for, to become a Microsoft Excel consultant. Now, if you ask me to make a list of 100 things I'm good at, Microsoft Excel will show up at least 10 times in that list.

I went from struggling to thriving at Microsoft Excel just because I wanted to deliver at a job I wasn't sure I was cut out for. And now I'm struggling at the one thing my life, business and success depend on -- Sales. My savings are draining faster than I planned; I don't have any of the top attitudes of a great salesman -- I'm an extreme introvert. Rather than going out there to get sales I have been staying indoors waiting for phone calls emails. I enjoyed recording training videos on Excel than calling potential customers. I would read programming books and practice hard what I read but when I read sales books it was like reading a Sci-Fi, impracticable. Then the few times I force myself to go out, I go to tech meetups and events for techies, I go to all the wrong places, places I will never meet my ideal clients. And four months since quitting my job I'm yet to successfully turn a cold lead to a deal. In fact, I can count the number of cold calls I have made and the number of face-to-face meetings with interested leads (prospects). And most of the cold calls happened this week, to be precise, two days ago.
 
But I can feel myself undergoing that birthing process, already pressed against the wall that changes everything. I'm beginning to see a salesman emerge. I have stopped waiting for emails. Now I'm making sales calls, daily cold calls. I have figured out an ingenious means of reaching all the companies in Lagos that may need my service. And more importantly I have begun reaching them. I have been calling the companies, getting through to the decision makers, sending them my proposal and searching for that magic number in sales. The number of calls it takes to make a sale. I know this is a permanent progress, I'm gifted at making a daily routine out of things. I turned blogging to a daily stuff, I read my French book daily, I read the bible daily, and I pray daily. This is going to be easy, I'm going to make sales calls (cold + warm) every workday. I've already, through trial and error, figured out a great call script. It works like magic, it gets most of the leads I call to request for my proposal and give me their emails. Today is going to mark my day 3. I have started modestly, calling about 10 people a day. In a few weeks time I hope to be calling 60 people on my sales day (any day I'm not having an appointment). And before the end of the next month I should have landed a sales deal and gotten the magic number. Then in 3 years time I should have become a badass sales guy, with sales showing up 20 times in the list of 100 things I'm good at.