The job where I truly cut my teeth on sales was with Tom James.  In case you’re not familiar, this is a men’s clothing company that is sold by direct salespeople to men in their offices.  My job responsibilities were as follows:

• Prospect for C-level executives, the target was to find men who could afford to spend $2,000-$5,000 per suit, or roughly $10,000-$20,000 per year on their wardrobe
• Cold call these prospects.  After successfully (sometimes creatively) bypassing gatekeepers, it then became my mission to convince this busy, C-level executive that he should spend an hour or so with me during his workday to talk about clothes.  I made roughly 100-150 cold calls per day.
• Once I secured a meeting, I was then tasked with the challenging objective of convincing this C-level executive that he should pay me $2,000-$5,000 (half right now, thankyouverymuch) for a suit that I can only describe to him using a swatch of fabric, since it won’t even begin to exist until he orders it and I submit his measurements to have it made.
• Once the suit was sold and made, it was my responsibility to make sure it fit, accurately mark the pants to be hemmed, mark the buttonholes to be made, and make sure my client would look stellar and be comfortable with his purchase.  And then convince him that he needs a few more, and push him hard for referrals.

As a relatively young person, relatively new to sales, I had no appreciation for how intense this sales experience was.  I jumped in with both feet, just assuming that this is how most sales jobs looked.  The beauty in these challenges is that I’m not intimidated by a massive list of cold calls to make, I’m not hindered by selling out of my own pocket, it doesn’t phase me to be hung up on, and I’m very comfortable with learning the technical specifics of an industry in order to make sure my clients are happy enough to continue doing business with me long term.

In case you’re not convinced yet, here are some highlights of my sales related achievements:

• Rose to the top of a veteran sales staff at the Shane Co in terms of year-to-date sales.
• Top salesperson for both June and July 2005 at the Shane Co.
• Tripled sales quota within first month at Tom James.
• Led the sales team in advance bookings at INK Publishing- meaning I had sold more advertising in future issues than anyone else.
• Had the highest average page rate of the sales team at INK Publishing, which means my sales carried more profit than my peers because I could create more value for my clients and convince them that the space in my magazine was worth more.
• Successfully grew territory at Mphasis Integrated despite economic objections.
• Was the only salesperson to sell a page at the full rate, which means I sold a page of advertising for 133% of the team’s page average.  Again, this means I was bringing more profit with the same amount of product.
• As President and Founder of Grillo Media Group, it was my job not only to fulfill my obligations to my clients, but to convince them to spend money on my consulting and media buying services as well.