So Much More than Selling

It absolutely amazes me when I sit and think about the tasks that we take on as salespeople.  The conotation that comes with the title "Sales Representative" is one of traveling around pitching your product, schmoozing, trying to peddle product to anyone that will listen.  This just isn't the case.

I know this is not isolated to my industry, my product, my markets, or me personally..........and I feel confident that every sales rep will relate to this.  We provide solutions, and are willing to perform whatever tasks are associated with that.  Today I acted as a warehouse broker to try to find a place for product that we sold last year.  Not long ago I spent days collecting pricing on products that I don't provide, from suppliers that I sometimes compete with, in order to increase the chance that my product would be used in a portion of the project.  These are a couple of examples of what we do in sales, that is very much "outside the box" of selling our product.  I sell flooring, it's fairly straight forward.  Yet for some reason my job of selling floors has allowed me to:  become a conisseur of double-faced tape, know what it takes to get a shipment across the border without raising a red flag, continually attempt to sneak a utility knife onto an airplane, lose a corner of my thumb (you'll appreciate that one Jerry), know how to run my house with solar power if desired, learn how many times a tennis ball can be used before not being good anymore and then be used on chair legs............and the list goes on and on.  And all of this comes from attempting to sell flooring in a round-about way.

Having said all of this, I believe that the experiences referenced above are truly why sales people love what they do..........I know it's why I love it.  Of course, I love the golf outings and nice dinners.  But not knowing what curveball I will be thrown tomorrow, or what role I will need to play.............is what truly makes sales enjoyable.  Sales Representative may be your title, but the truth is that you will be whoever you need to be in order to provide solutions to your clients.

**  We all know that airplane food is terrible.  The cheese omelete and the quesadilla are both terrible on an airplane..........how is that even possible?  But surprisingly, the salmon has proven time and time again to be fairly decent.  So strange that they can figure that one out.