I did not
aspire to become a professional sales person.
It was not a life long dream to pursue a career in sales. As a youngster, I really did not realize that
people could make a living by selling a product or service. I thought that I might become a professional
football or baseball player. If I did
not go into professional sports, I thought that I would become a police
officer, chef or farmer.
Sure, I was a
successful paperboy in Detroit, Michigan.
My paper route
consisted of just two streets with five
or six large apartment building. Each
building had three to five floors. Every
floor had at least 10 apartments. It was
a great opportunity for an ambitious boy.
However, nobody wanted this route.
There not a lot of customers. Paper
boys would quit and customers were not happy with the
service. Conservatively, there were
potentially over 300 customers on my first street and about 150 on the second street. I seized it!
I built this route to over 200 daily and over 300 Weekend Saturday
Sunday deliveries. Believe it or not, I
hired a couple of assistants to help me!
I could not use the standard red wagon for my route. I delivered my newspapers from a shopping
cart! It was the only way to finish my
deliveries!
As a paperboy,
I would talk to everyone on my route! I
was friendly, courteous and always
smiling! Those people were potential
customers. Every two months, I would
visit door –to – door and ask everybody who answer to buy a newspaper from me!
I was a numbers game. I practice my sales pitch and smile. Hello, my name is Kenny.
Would you like to subscribe to the Detroit News? I
offered a free newspaper to every new customer!
I was selling and asking for the sale!
Some said, “Yes”, some said, “No”
and others said, “Call or Come back later”. Happily, I did! I was
making good money!
I delivered my
dailies after school in the afternoon.
Early in the morning, I delivered the weekend newspapers. I would run up and down the stairs and see if
how fast I could finish each apartment building. I would time myself. It was a good work-out. I made it fun! I collected my payments and asked for
referrals from satisfied customers on Fridays and Saturdays.
That was my
first sales job!
What was your first sales experience? What did you learn? What did you enjoy? How can our children learn about the sales profession? What opportunities can we offer to our children?
