It was a time in my life when I was just changing gears in my sales career. Although I had been in sales for a few years, I was going into a completely new industry. I had no product knowledge and was apprehensive about my future success. It was a small company, with three other salesmen and they offered very little training. It was basically sink or swim.
One of my most vivid memories was that everyday I would hear the sales manager ask the salesmen what they had sold that day. The sales process for product that we sold had an average gestation period of about two months, so typically the reply from the salesman would invariably be that they hadn't sold anything that day. As the sales manager, he knew whether or not we had sold anything. He didn't have to ask us. But the reason that he like to ask us out loud was because he liked to hear us confess in front of the entire office, that we hadn't sold anything that day. It wasn't that he was mean or anything like that, but I just think he thought it was funny. Anyway, for the first month or so, I was given a reprieve and was never confronted in such a manner. I guess I was given temporary immunity to allow time for me to ramp up. Nevertheless, I remember coming home and thinking about how I would reply to my boss when the time came for him to ask me that question. It was inevitable, and I knew that the day would soon arrive. Being prideful as I was, I was determined to come up with a good answer so that I wouldn't be shown up in front of everybody. But up till that point, I still hadn't sold anything, so I wasn't sure what I'd say so I gave it a lot of thought.
Sure enough, it wasn't too long after that that I was passing him in the hall one day and he shot out "Hector, what did you sell today?" I garnered all of my courage, I set myself steady, I looked him in the eye and I said, "Well boss, the way that I see it, selling is a lot like farming..." and then I paused for dramatic effect. Now remember, he liked to ask this question as he just happened to be passing you in the hallway and he seldom slowed down to even hear your reply, since typically the replay was always the same, "nothing." But this time, I saw him stop in his tracks and I knew I had his attention. He looked at me and asked me "What do you mean selling is a lot like farming?" So I continued, "Well, first you have to plow the land, then you have to plant the seeds. Then, with a little bit of luck, if it rains at just the right time, and a little patience, you should have a nice bumper crop. He stood there looking at me for a moment, not saying anything. I could tell that I had stretched his imagination. He was sort of slack-jawed and then he said, "you know, I never thought of it like that before." "You're right". And then he walked off. And believe it or not, I never again heard him ask that question of anyone ever again.
Selling is a lot like farming. The poor farmer works hard and busts his rump in the spring. He plows and he plants. He knows that if he doesn't get the seeds in the ground in the spring, that there won't be any produce in the summer. And even if he does everything right, there are still some things that he can't control, like rain and pests, etc.
The same with sales. You have to plan now in order to have a bountiful harvest six months from now. You too have to plant lots of seeds. You plow the land by networking and finding qualified leads. Every sales call and every e-mail and every meeting that you engage a customer or a prospect is a new seed planted. It's all hard work with no immediate pay-off. And no matter how well you do your job, there is still some element of luck involved, just like the farmer if mother nature doesn't cooperate. But sometimes, if you've put in the hard work, everything falls into place and the results are a bountiful harvest. But as soon as you get the crop in and turn it into cash at the market, it's time to plan for the next crop and start plowing and planting again.
