Just arrived on the ferry at Porvenir, Chile, on our way back to Punta Arenas, Chile, and then the final leg will be up to Puerto Natales, and then it’s all over. It has been an absolutely fabulous journey. Experienced amazing people and amazing travel, some really exciting driving and riding on motorcycles, some rough terrain and dirt, and even snow and rain, and cold, and wind; oh my god, the wind, the wind of Patagonia.
I can tell you, it is known for the wind and there is nothing really quite like it. I’ve ridden motorcycles in a lot of different places on many different terrains through sand and gravel, and mud, and torrential downpours of rain, and even up until now, even snow, and the wind is something new. Riding a motorcycle through very high winds while they’re pushing against the side of the motorcycle, you’re riding on this kind of 60 or 70-degree angle, and you’re constantly having the wind push you, push you, and you’re just fighting it. It’s really quite challenging and really tests the limit of your skill, because you think that that motorcycle is just going to fall over.
But, it’s amazing what it does, it just wants to go forward, you just stay on the throttle, hang on for dear life, fight against the wind, and away you go. I guess in a way that’s a little bit of a metaphor for life, sometimes. Sometimes you get hit with high winds and lots of adversity and you don’t know if it’s going to push you over or not, so you hang on for dear life and you put faith that you’re going to make it through, and most of the time, hopefully all of the time, you do. As long as you don’t stop and give up, then there’s every chance that everything is going to be just fine. And then at the end of it you’ll feel that much stronger, that much better.
I have the most respect for people that can put themselves through adversity to reach a goal.
It really struck me while I was riding through that wind, the question of why, why push yourself like that? I’m riding a motorcycle through this terrain. We passed people riding bicycles, bicycles, 4,000 kilometers through all the elements. For what reason? The same reason, to get to a destination. It’s not the destination, they’re just living the experience. They would take easily a month, maybe even two months to do that kind of travel, 4,000 km on a bicycle through Patagonia, absolutely unbelievable. I have the most respect for people that can really put themselves through that kind of adversity to reach a goal.
And you see that every day on trips like this. Rock climbers, hikers, kayakers, cold-weather kayakers, it’s 0 degrees, it’s snowing, and people are kayaking in wetsuits, it’s unbelievable. Rock climbing, a flat face of a rock in bitterly cold temperatures. Ask yourself, why would you do that? Why would you push yourself so hard?
The answer is this. If you don’t push yourself in any respect, then you will never know what you’re capable of. Whether it’s in school, doing homework, studying for tests, whether it’s at work, just working hard, working hard with your hands or working hard with your mind. Spending your time effectively. If you’re in sales, pushing yourself is really the secret to reaching much higher levels. Making more phone calls, talking to more people, sending more emails, discovering new ways to reach out to people, discovering new ways to find large groups of people to talk to. Staying busy, keep pushing yourself to the limit and then you’ll find out how much more you can achieve.
If you don’t push yourself in any respect, then you will never know what you’re capable of.
There’s a beautiful thing about working in sales, specifically in car sales, because that’s something I’m passionate about. It allows you to be entrepreneurial even as a salesperson starting out at a dealership, you’re on the same level as the guy next to you or the girl next to you who has been there for 10 years. There is no difference, the opportunity is the same. You may be sitting there and thinking, oh, they’re getting all the leads or the managers are giving them house deals, or something’s not fair, or maybe they have an advantage because they’ve been there a long time.
But, the reality is you have an opportunity as a new salesperson to get out of your job and career exactly what you put in. That’s a great thing about the car business. The cream rises so quickly, if you just work hard, communicate, build relationships, be ambitious, look for new people to talk to, new contacts to talk to, you just put in the time, push yourself, push yourself to the edge. You will find that you have great success and you will move up.
The car business, new car dealerships, used car dealerships, are screaming, screaming for talented people. I can tell you, the car business attracts some really horrible salespeople, because it’s kind of like the last thing they want to do. And I’m not disparaging any job, I’m talking to people who are selling cars, so for anybody else that might think that I’m disparaging what they do, then too bad. But people, maybe they’ve been a security guard, they’ve worked at a variety store, they’ve been a barista, they’ve worked at a grocery store, they’ve done all these jobs, and potentially they could have even failed at these jobs because, well, they required you to show up on time, maybe actually do a little work when you show up.
You’re better off having less sales people than you are having dead weight that will waste your leads.
Sometimes people like that gravitate to the car business and then they get hired. You know why they get hired? Because it’s so hard to find people, and not only is it hard to find people, it’s really hard to find people that have that “it” factor, that thing inside that just allows them to make and close deals. It’s so difficult to find, it’s so difficult to define the successful salesperson, they come from all walks of life. But you get these other people that are horrible, and if you have them on your team, get rid of them. You’re better to have less sales people than you are to have dead weight and feeding perfectly good leads and perfectly good customers to people that are just going to blow them out of your showroom.
The characteristic of a person who will push the limits, who will overcome their fears, that characteristic quite often is found in people who have experienced adversity. If I’m talking to a salesperson right now who has come from perhaps the other side of the tracks or somebody who has had some challenges in their youth, maybe with family, and you’ve come through it, and you’ve come through it okay, then probably you have an excellent chance at being successful, because adversity, experience with overcoming adversity is a key, key ingredient to many successful salespeople.
If you’re a sales manager interviewing salespeople, you want to ask that question, tell me about some adversity in your life you have overcome. If somebody says to you, or they have to really think about it, like, “Oh my god, I remember once I had to do the dishes when I was a teenager,” or “There was this one time when I got a really bad toothache,” then probably that’s a sign to you that you have somebody in front of you that might not have the steel to be a salesperson. If you’re going to be a good salesperson, you’ve got to have some strength, that’s the reality of it.
If you’re going to be a good salesperson, you’ve got to have some strength, that’s the reality of it.
It’s not a gender thing, it’s not a nationality thing, it’s not whether you grew up rich or poor, it’s really whether you have a little metal inside. You only get that metal from having personal challenges that can come from a variety of ways. If you’re a sales manager and you’re interviewing and you’re asking that question, tell me about some adversity that you’ve overcome, you’re looking for somebody who is giving you something from their soul, something that’s deep, something like, “I overcame this,” because that’s what they’re going to be digging down to. I can tell you, sales is hard.
Anybody that tells you that sales is easy is dead wrong. It looks like it’s easy for some people. Some people walk into it, they have success right away, but I can tell you, sales is hard. Talking to different people, it’s the hardest thing in the world when you’re a salesperson, at last for most salespeople, not for everyone, everybody is different, but for anybody who has the least bit of empathy or understanding of other people, picking up that phone to call somebody that you’ve never called before, that takes some courage, believe it or not, and it’s something that takes a lot of time to overcome.
It’s not like you pick up the phone once and all of a sudden you’re okay. You need to overcome some serious fear in order to pick up that phone time and time, and time again, and four out of five times be told no, and still be able to keep picking up that phone, maybe pick up of the phone and get a real difficult phone call, somebody that really doesn’t want to talk to you, and then still be willing to pick up the phone again. It takes a special kind of person to be able to do that.
You need to overcome some serious fear in order to pick up that phone time and time again.
It also takes a lot of courage to be self motivated as a salesperson. To come in to work every day and put 100% effort into it. To stay busy. To keep pushing, keep calling, keep sending emails, keep reaching out to people without somebody looking over your shoulder telling you to do it.
If you’re looking to hire a salesperson you want to look for somebody who has courage, you want to look for somebody who has overcome adversity, you want to look for somebody who hopefully has a bit of a personality. Don’t hire losers, really, really, don’t hire losers.
I’ll tell you -- let’s put it this way, as far as I’m concerned, if you’re a salesperson and you can’t get to work on time on your own, then you’re a loser. If you’re not willing to put in the extra time to get the results that you need to get, then you’re definitely a loser. If you’re not willing to be available when you’re not at work to your customers and to your team, then you are definitely a loser. If you’re a sales manager and you need to remind your staff to respect you because you have a title, then definitely, you’re a loser. If you’re a sales manager or a desk manager and a salesperson is struggling to close a deal and you keep sending them out to talk to that customer until finally they launch them, then you’re also a loser.
So, the real issue is are you in it? Are you committed? Are you willing to put in the time? Are you willing to get out there and close deals? If you’re a leader, or you’re a manager, are you willing to step out there on the front and make all the deals happen? Does the buck stop with you? Or are you just some loser behind a desk who’s barking orders at his or her staff? So, don’t be a loser, alright? Get out there, make deals, make it happen.