8 success tips from a former salesman

Everyone lives by selling something.  — Robert Louis Stevenson

No other trade or profession has more opportunity for one to rise from poverty to great wealth than that of salesman.  —Og Mandino

A question readers often ask me is this: How can people start investing or go into a business if they do not have the capital?

Aside from borrowing money, I suggest the best way to raise the capital you need to invest and/or go into business is to start with sales. Go into realty, insurance, car or other forms of sales work, where you can earn by sales commissions and where the incomes are literally “sky’s the limit” depending on your performance, commitment, capacity for work, energy, creativity, determination and positive thinking.

Although my paternal forebears were pioneer lumber entrepreneurs and sawmill operators since the Spanish and US colonial eras, my side of the family didn’t inherit wealth, not even a house. But I believe I inherited the same entrepreneurial energies of our rags-to-riches immigrant ancestors. My father died before I was seven years old and my teacher mom died when I was in my early 20s, so I eventually started in sales. 

While working for a realty firm in the purchasing department, I observed that the people with the highest incomes were the top brokers in the sales department. My boss was surprised when I asked to be transferred to sales, because salespeople did not receive salaries but only a monthly allowance and they only earned income if they had any sales.

I became so busy and engrossed in realty sales that I slept only four hours a day, sometimes having lunch at 3 p.m. Ever since my late mother got sick in 1989 and died in 1991, I had also totally stopped my avocation of writing and only started to write again after the 1997 Asian financial crisis due to the realty slump, which gave me more time.

In 1995, I topped the realty sales of AIC Realty Corp. and Asia Cathay Realty Corp. with pre-selling sales of condominiums in Ortigas Center, Pasig City and townhouses in Quezon City worth P1.3 billion, then this sales volume slowed down to P850 million in 1996 due to after-sales service I still had to do with previous sales, then the Asian financial crisis hit in 1997.

What are some tips I can share from my sales experiences, which I believe can also apply to all professions and businesses?

1. Focus — As a kid our family lived in a rented apartment in Quezon City, and I can’t forget seeing our neighbor’s second-floor bedroom, which had an air-conditioner open every night. After a few years, I observed that on the concrete floor of the driveway directly below our neighbor’s aircon, where tear-like drops of aircon water would drip down every night, there was a hole on the cement floor as if a bullet had punctured it! That illustrated to me the power of focus. Even strong water from a hose cannot puncture a hole in cement without focus.

One weakness of salespeople and other professionals is a lack of focus.  I knew I had limited time and energy, so I chose to focus only on selling real estate from one developer and becoming an expert in those properties for maximum efficacy as well as for personal efficiency.

2. Hard work

Once I read a magazine article on America’s legendary life insurance salesman, the late Ben Feldman. What struck me was this: He had a wife and kids, he was Jewish, so he was out selling every day and every night except Saturday nights because it was the Jewish Sabbath, so that was the only night he dined with his family.

I read that article at night in my home while watching TV, and I said to myself: I’m single, in my 20s and not the number-one salesman like Ben Feldman. Why am I not out there making sales calls or meetings seven days and nights a week? I told my secretary that I wanted my whole week filled with sales appointments, even Sundays and holidays except Holy Week and All Saints’ Day. I worked hard daily, nonstop.

Another reason why I worked so hard: I really thought the 1995 Philippine realty boom would last only one year because there were not so many rich people in our society. I also told myself I wanted to work so hard to earn a lot so I could become a future investor with no need to sell again in the future.

I sincerely believed — and I was proven right — that hard work and perseverance could overcome the superior knowhow and experiences of my competitors. Perseverance can often overcome even natural talent.

3. Don’t be too comfortable

I’ve always believed that a little pressure and some discomfort in life is good; that we shouldn’t become too comfortable in order to really grow.

When I started selling real estate, I had the temerity to approach the owner of the realty firm to request to buy a pre-selling condominium unit with no down payment and with preferential amortization terms. Why? It was an affirmation of my belief in the goodness of the project as investment, but more importantly, I wanted to be pressured into working hard in order to be able to pay my amortizations.

When my income grew, I took out my first bank loan with then Citytrust Bank with the help of officer Myra Roa (now Mrs. Lazaro) to buy a vacant lot in order to pressure myself to sell more and not be too comfortable. When I invested in more pre-selling condos, I bought a lot of life insurance to cover my obligations in case of early death.

So why was I even more hardworking despite my big monthly income and my little expenses as a single guy? Every morning when I woke up, I told myself I had many bills to pay, not that I had lots of earnings!

4. Be humble

Work quietly and don’t gloat about high sales in order not to arouse the unnecessary envy of competitor brokers and even top company executives (pride or sales trophies cannot be eaten, only sales commissions mattered to me!).

I continued using a simple second-hand Kia Pride car, no ostentatious or extravagant lifestyle for me, because I also didn’t want clients to think I was earning big commissions but wanted them to focus only on the positive reasons why they should invest in prime real estate.

5. Get support from good people

No matter how hardworking or visionary a person is, he or she needs good people for support. Half of all my sales in 1995 to 1997 I closed with the help of fellow brokers and only half were personal sales, so I shared my sales commissions. I also had a good team in my office to do paperwork, computations, etc. Seek out good people to support you and take good care of them. 

6. A “no” is not the end, persevere

The law of averages applies to sales work, too. The more “no’s” you get, the more chances of getting a “yes.” Thank each person for every “no” to your sales offer, persevere, talk to others and return again in the future. 

7. Enjoy your work

There’s no way you can be extremely hardworking every day, nonstop, if you don’t psych yourself to love and enjoy your work. Since I’m a people-oriented person, I love to read and learn everything. Every potential client’s life story and vocation was genuinely interesting to me. I enjoyed sales work!

8. Listen more, talk less

One gigantic weakness of salespeople is we tend to over-talk. I enjoy listening to and conversing with people; my eventual sales talk or even consummation of a realty sale was sometimes already a consolation for my enjoyment in interacting with people. Secret: people often like others who really listen to them.

Do research on basic background information before any sales appointment. Let potential clients talk, ask them questions about themselves and their needs or wants, learn from them, genuinely listen more and talk less!

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