“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hello everybody,

We had another great “Specialist Spotlight” today on “The Specialist” Radio Hour. What started or inspired this segment was a caller, I’ll call her Peggy, who was insulted that I said on previous occasions that I could train anyone to sell. I pointed out to this young lady that training anyone to sell was not saying that I could train anyone to become a sales professional.

There was the rub. She had been in sales at least 29 years and was very proud of the fact that she devoted her life to becoming a true sales professional. I respect that a tremendous amount, but she misunderstood me.

What I have said, and stand behind, is that I can teach anyone to sell, not train anyone to become a sales professional.

As my listeners know there is a big difference, in my eyes. But the part that inspired this Post was that she went on to say that just training someone to sell was a waste of a lot of valuable time and effort that could be spent else where rather than dealing with a problem. That is where I had to draw a line in the sand. I pointed out to her that if no one had taught me how to sell and been patient with me I would never have become “The Specialist”!

Someone saw me as potential not as a problem. All my loyal readers know that I was fired 5 times as a door to door salesman! No one gets fired from door to door sales! They need every able body they can get. What I am trying to say is it is not a waste of time teaching the less talented or the slow to pick up the sales profession. In fact I owe my entire career to those that kept pushing me and spent tireless amount of hours taking this wandering generality and teaching me a trade.

Of course later on, as I mentioned to Peggy, as everyone does that learns to sell, there will become a day when you find yourself at the crossroads of whether you want to make sales your profession or try something else. In all careers someone must teach you the basics in order for you to ever become a professional.

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