Connor Emmel

Connor Emmel

Professor Leckie

ENG-111-DJ

14 September 2014

Failure to Close

           “I’m the man I’m the man I’m the man, yes I am yes I am yes I am;” I scream singing along to my favorite song by Aloe Blac as I’m cruising down the road, obeying my GPS’s commands.  I’m excited; no, I’m fired up. I’m ready to go.  I am elated with the opportunity to finally get out and sell myself.  No, not prostitution for the dirty minded; sell myself as portraying qualities that resemble the customer, making them laugh and building rapport all to make a strong and sound connection with them.  Oh, and along with that, I am also selling knives.   I have so many things racing through my head but I feel that I am well prepared and that I can do this.  I hear that familiar, computer-generated voice; “The destination is on your left.”  My heart starts to pound as I grab my kit, straighten my tie and head to the door of my first sales appointment.  As I approach the door I am riding an emotional high and as I knock on the door; thump, thump, thump, I haved no idea what was in store for me.

           A new rep that’s just starting off,  books appointments with friends and family.  For my first demo I was with my friend’s parents who I knew through playing soccer.  Since I was selling Cutco knives I figured they were good to start off on because I knew they were nice people and as a bonus; they love to cook.  We sat down at their dining room table and it was show time.  I started off just like I was taught to.  I talked about anything and everything besides Cutco.  We were laughing and were having a good time.  After about twenty minutes or so it was time to get down to business.  I started doing the demonstration as I had learned in the 18 hours of training before we were released to sell.  I talked about the history of our company, showed them the disadvantages of commons knives through multiple cutting demonstrations, and then showed them our Cutco knives.  I had high energy, I spoke clearly, and I kept both of them engaged by having them participate in interactive demonstrations.  I felt great in the 45 minutes I was presenting on why they should make the investment in Cutco knives.  However, all of that is the easy part.  The hardest part of any sales pitch was coming up, the close.

The close is what separates the men from the boys.  Nothing else that was shown to the customer matters unless I am able to get them to say yes, right then and there.  I moved into the close feeling more confident than ever that they were going to buy from me.  I said the final line, “Now, Mr. and Mrs. Jones I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask, would you like to try them out for a couple of weeks risk free?”  I looked directly at them and waited for their response.  I thought they might be able to hear my heart because it was pounding so loud during the silence that followed the question.  I didn’t have to wait long, they looked right back at me and said; no thanks.  Hearing that was the equivalent of running straight into a screen door.  I wasn’t prepared for it, I was not ready to hear that and I couldn’t believe that just happened to me.  I did everything correct and I thought that I would be able to sell this product to anyone.  At that moment I had lost all my momentum but I wasn’t done yet.  I still had some other combinations of knives to show them.

I was having a hard time going forward.  I wanted to quit, I wanted to leave and never have to feel this uncomfortable ever again.  But, because I am not a quitter I continued.  After the initial no I asked the same question to try and close on multiple other items and all I heard was no.  I thought to myself, these are my friends!  How am I ever going to get a stranger to say yes to me!  After all of that humiliation I didn’t know what I felt.  I was in between the point of tears and anger.  I cleaned up all of my belongings in a whirlwind of awkward silence.  I sulked to the door and thanked them for their time and took a walk of shame back to my car.

I sat back in my car feeling smaller than I ever had before.  I didn’t know what I did wrong.  I turned on my car and my Bluetooth radio kicked in that continues playing the song that was being played before I turned off my car.  In the midst of feeling beaten, weak, and demoralized, Aloe Blac came blasting through my speakers:  “I’m the man I’m the man I’m the man!”  I screamed back, “I am not the man!” as I shut off my radio in disarray.  The next thing I had to do was going to be even tougher than hearing all those no’s.  I had to call my manager and let him know how the demo went.

           Each ring was like getting punched in the gut, I heard him answer with enthusiasm and ask me how it went.  “John it was a no sale, I’m sorry” I said thinking I was going to get yelled at or maybe even fired.  A strange thing occurred when he began to speak.  He chuckled quickly and quite possibly with even more enthusiasm said “That’s awesome!  Congratulations on getting your first no sale out of the way!”  I didn’t know what to say.  I couldn’t believe he was happy for me.  He went on to say, “Now you’re one step closer to a sale!”  After talking with my manager I felt much better.  I realized that what I thought was a complete failure was not actually not that at all.  Yes I failed, however I learned many things that I could do differently and better the next time.

Over the course of two months since my first no sale, I have had $20,000 and counting in sales as well as only one other no sale.  I learned how to accept failure and turn it around into a positive learning experience.   The day after my first no sale I made my first sale. It was invigorating.  To be so down after one no sale was foolish of me when there are so many other people out there that are available to sell to.   I realized that on my two no sales they purely didn’t want any Cutco.  I say that because I gave the same presentation whether it was a sale or not.  The first thing that I gained from my failure was to have a short memory.  To just let things roll off and go out of my comfort zone and be comfortable. When people say no to me now, I actually get excited.  This is because I realized that it’s going to happen and it’s up to me to find them something that they will love and can use every day.  Since that day I now use much more rhetorical tactics to influence the customer to say yes.  For instance,  nonverbal messages such as when I ask them a question I begin to nod my head, then before they know it, they start to just because I am and right there we’re on the same page.  Also I start to not ask questions now and basically tell the customer what to do, in a lighthearted manner of course.   Instead of asking “do you want to do this?”  I will say “So let’s just do this” and start writing up the order until they either say yes or say no.  If they say no, I just keep going because I know that I can find them a combination of knives that they will love and can use every day.  Without that no sale I do not think I could be the salesman I am today.  All in all, that no sale was the best thing that could have happened to me.