TSOS Birth of a Salesman – My Origin Story FINAL

Welcome to the Story of Selling blog. I am the author, Paul Petersen. I have over 50 years of technology experience as a programmer, as a consultant and as a sales representative. I have worked with a quota for over 35 years.

My career as a sales representative started in an unexpected way. Unexpected because I was in law school – about to become a licensed attorney. I had to pay for college and law school so I started work as a self taught computer programmer. Good pay, flexible hours. And I joined a trademark firm before graduation. But I kept gravitating to technology issues and left the firm and joined Arthur Young as a management consultant with Arthur Young helping big companies look at new operating systems and reengineering process. (My work history is in the appendix).

So, i shifted gears and entered the dark world of sales: it was the best way to earn more money leveraging my technical expertise. I just needed to learn sales – how hard could that be?

During that time, I made quota most of the time and earned President’s club over 12 times. The role as a sales professional was a good fit for me. I was lucky too in that the companies I worked for provided sales training and I would “read up” to develop my skills. I liked technology, was a good speaker, and enjoyed helping customers explore their options.

I was proud and enjoyed “carry a bag”.

As a sales rep and as manager, I became aware of things I could do to help my sales process and just to be more efficient. Thus, upon my retirement, I have undertakin this effort to capture my “tips” and share them with you.

Today, the world of sales is changing. AI has  made it much easier for prospects to get a lot of very specific info on solutions available to them. And that personal “smile and a shoe shine” schmoozing for the most part has been set aside. Customers want value and are prepared to go it alone. In the “old dys”, I’d order 10ks by mail to learn about a company; fly out to meet with the company “software eval team” as part of a “bake off” between vendors. Today, you are lucky if you get to meet face to face. In fact, my last three 6 figure deals were handled over text, email and docusign.

Many people are in sales and surprisingly, some industry studies show that over 80% of reps are not at Quota. There is plenty of room for improvement apparently.

So, do we need another sales book? There are many – but I found that often the authors would focus on one aspect and not others; or they’d discuss approach but not get specific about “what to do or say”. (I have a chapter on Mastering your Craft – a  list of my training and reading”.

As a sales manager I have watched many a good person make misteps that could ose the sale. As i reviewed what made me a successful rep (for now this means consistent quota performance) I realized that i used bits & pieces from what I read or observed and determined that many things that are important for sales are not purely sales. Often the inclusion of personal productivity has a bigger impact than say a sales tactic like “trial close”.

My intent is not to claim any inventions, nor to say that I am the world’s greatest sales rep. Sometimes, I wondered did i “create that sale” or just “get it in the boat?” Does it matter?

Most times you have to work hard just to be considered let alone win a sale. Other times it means keeping your mouth shut and not getting in the way. Knowing when to use one approach or the other is the key.

“Carrying a bag” is a honorific phrase. It’s sitting around the fire after a long day,  swapping stories that we learn. With that, I  hope you find a new tactic or more.

Author’s Note:
I became a sales representative for the money – and I found it to be a good career. I enjoyed learning about the busineses that m yy clients ran from SMBs to Fortuene 2000.

Here is the secret code to my success: I was curious, liked talking to my prospects and tried to add value to everything I did.