So You Got Your First Sales Job

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Your First Sales Job

So, you got your first sales job! Congratulations and welcome to the greatest profession on the planet. You are joining a long list of some of the most influential people in the world of business—all who started out in sales.

For a little more than 10 years I traveled the country as a professional stand-up comic back in the early 90’s. As hard as it may seem to believe, I got fairly good at it and accomplished a lot. I saw it all, too. From headlining sold out shows in 500 seat comedy clubs to doing a one-nighter in a small, Texas town where they misspelled comedy (comdy) on the flashing arrow sign out front.

Three Ways Stand Up Comedy Made Me A Better Salesperson

Those years of experience served me well as a salesperson. I’ve said before, it was the best sales training I ever got.

Here are three keys I learned and hopefully they’ll trigger you to delve deeper and sharpen your skills.

Confidence

The single biggest fear in this world is speaking in public or making a presentation. I firmly believe that stems from a lack of confidence in one’s material. Nobody wants to look like they don’t know what they’re talking about. The better I got, the more confident I got. While I never had stage fright, as my confidence in my material grew anxiety became anxiousness. I wanted the stage. I wanted to be in that spotlight.