Testimony 032611

I learned about selling books because my older brother had done it for two summers after he graduated high school. Both summers he was a top 100 salesperson and he thrived in the system. He only had positive things to say about selling books. I didn't sign up right away when I graduated. It took two years for me to decide sell books and once I committed to it I left without reservation and without fear. I packed up from where I had been living and drove across the country to meet a group of people I had never met before. I didn't go through the usual process of recruitment. I called my brother and told him to have one of his friends who was still selling books to get a hold of me. Looking back I guess I sought Southwestern out, I didn't have to go through any of the recruitment, pre-sales-school preparation. Long story short I did sales school, surpassed my peers in learning all of the basics and came out of boot camp a clean-cut, made-for-selling machine.

After logging two O sales days in a row I finished strong with 120-ish units my first week. A solid first week. I had no idea what I was doing but I was loving every minute of it. I did alright for my first four weeks but then I hit a plateau. And that is when things started getting a little rough. (I still hadn't allowed myself to see the writing that was on the wall.) As my numbers became less impressive I started taking myself a little too seriously. My managers could see it but I just thought I wasn't trying hard enough. I began to beat myself up quite a bit and my support group of managers never did much to help me.

Most first years follow someone early on to learn the ropes. I didn't follow anyone until week five because my managers didn't like being followed and I was one of the two first years who were actually making sales at that point. My Org leader didn't like it because it messed up his day. And with the way he could make money on the book field I don't blame him. There were only male managers in my org and two of them only liked assisting girls and looking back I realize that Southwestern had been a dating service that gave them three months to prep a one night stand at summer's end. That left two managers- one who was very ill all summer and another who was "off schedule". In my fifth week I was made to follow the off schedule manager.

From that point on my summer was up and down but in the end I finish 3rd in my org among first-years. And that was nothing to brag about because my org was falling to pieces but I did okay with sales. Delivery week is what kicked my ass. of the 1600 units I had signed up I only delivered about 1300. At prices then that meant about 1350 profit loss in cancellations. The check I received in Nashville was little more than an IOU.

So here I was sitting at the end of a summer in which I had worked hard and came back with nothing to show for it. My confidence wasn't shattered but I didn't feel great about the check. I did feel good about finishing the summer.

You are taught in sales school that everything that doesn't push you to make your next sale is mediocrity. So when you end up having a disappointing summer the only force working against you is yourself by their logic. When I look back at my first summer I see a group of kids set up for failure. I see a group of kids who struggled, who ended the summer trying to be positive and worked hard but not reaping the financial reward they were promised. And mostly I see a lot of irrational guilt.

My first summer there were several things going against my org that sales school would have dismissed as excuses;

1.When I joined the team it was falling apart. Our Regional manager or DSM was quitting after the summer and somehow that knowledge had worked its way through the org. He didn't give a shit anymore and that had a trickledown effect. We'd have contests and those who won wouldn't get their prizes. One Saturday I had the most sales by a first year in our org for that week and I was supposed to have won an Ipod- I never saw it. (They made a point to advertise that every group would go skydiving at some point or catch a baseball game on a Sunday- our org never did anything. We were just surviving the summer.

2. Territory. It is jammed down your throat that territory doesn't matter. If you work hard you'll have success. But what if you are in an area with high poverty and low emphasis on education? I sold in the deep south in a very backwoods and impoverished area but that wasn't supposed to stop me from making my sales.

They don't care who sells books. If you sell one book someone makes money. In our org we had two people make it out of sales school and into the field who should have never even been recruited. There was a 17 year-old high school dropout who was all of five foot two and dressed like a gangster. His English was hard to understand because he had a thick Asian accent. His territory was very deep in the south- a place known for extreme racism. He lasted two weeks. I'm not saying he shouldn't have been recruited because he was Asian, I just think he could have been placed working in a city somewhere. There was also a girl who made it to the field who was completely socially inept. She was so awkward that her sales approach was uncomfortable and creepy. In sales school when we'd do the practice approach where one person holds up a book and uses it as a pretend door and the other person knocks on it, I would feel so awkward just practicing with her. She had the smile but there was something hollow about it and after she said the first part of her approach she'd become so timid she would just mumble. And they passed her through sales school! She lasted a week and a half before they sent her home. I overheard the managers talking about how she had admitted to not having knocked on a door her first couple of days! So they obviously didn't seem to care about screening certain people.

They aren't realistic when they give their statistics.

They say that the average first year makes about 8,000 dollars their first summer. They also say that expenses run from 2,000-3.000 dollars making a check for close to 5 grand at the end of the summer. They are averaging those walking in with those who are driving. The drivers obviously have much higher expenses. On Google maps it shows my morning drive was 60 miles one way just to get to my sales territory- over an hour with traffic. I had 120 round trip a day and many more moving throughout my area. On the low end I was spending 20 dollars a day on gas though it was much closer to 30. During delivery week it was closer to 100 dollars a day. I spent close to 3,000 just on gas. In a conference call our DSM said that if we had to fill up our tanks every day we were spending too much time in our cars. I was in my car a lot but it was just to get from house to house. In a city I would have been hitting twice the demos easily. Food for the week was ridiculous. Breakfast every morning was 8 dollars because our group wanted to eat at a mom and pop place and not a Denny's.  For lunch I had cheap granola bars and I ate a can of tuna for dinner most nights. (I am 5' 10" and 160 pounds naturally. When I returned from selling books I weighed 139 pounds. A weight I hadn't been since my freshman year of high school. I looked unhealthy).  It came out to about 10 dollars a day in food. Then there was rent. We had an amazing living situation with great people but it came with a price of 40 dollars a week which was on the high end compared to other book people. So over the 13 weeks we lived there it cost 580. (They never seem to include delivery week in the calculation of costs and it is by far the most costly week.)

So far my expenses are ...

Gas:  3,000

Food: 900

Rent: 580

SubTotal: 4,480

Now I also had my cellphone which was $40 a month. My rent in my apartment back home was $340 a month as I couldn't find anyone to sublet. Now these personal expenses can't be counted in to their expense column for their statistics. And a lot of kids have parents who will pay these expenses anyway. But most kids whose parents will pay all of their monthly expenses for them aren't going to be putting themselves through a summer of book sales. And since this money is coming out of my final check then I'm sure as hell adding it in.

Cell Phone: 120

Rent: 1020

Subtotal: 1240

Subtotal 1: 4,480

Total: $5,720

My check at the end of the summer was under 500 dollars and I only got a check because I charged more than they suggested Just about the same amount I had left for Nashville with. Oh an my car broke down on the very last day of selling before delivery week- the engine was shot. It was a junker but after doing the license/reg and all that we'll say 1500 dollars. So selling books cost me 7,200 dollars. But for the expenses that they can calculate it only cost 4,400. And if I would have been walking it would have only been 1,400. average the two out and it is just about 3,000 which is what they tell you. What they should tell you going in is that walking will only cost a little over 1,00 dollars and driving will cost you over 4,000.  Long story short I made less money than one of the walkers did and he only sold 800 units. Nearly twice the sales and none the richer for it.

The solution is sell more. Knock on one more door, just one more. But it didn't work. According to Southwestern logic I must have been off task, embracing mediocrity and not working hard enough. It has taken a long time for me to come to terms with the fact that we might have been set up for failure with the way our summer was arranged. One of my managers sold under 2,000 units that summer. The next summer he had a new DSM and he sold in Ohio were he hit 7,000 units. Maybe he just worked harder. Maybe he was in a better situation that allowed him to be successful. Maybe it was a combination of the two.

One other thing I would like to point out. And this I believe to be the most fundamental difference between those who had success on the field and those who didn't, it was the ability to create conviction in themselves because it was necessary to sell. I was selling in a low-income area. I often found myself at odds when the dealing with a "weak" costumer, or a 0 down. Following my best week I struggled. I had 0 sales and on the drive home I called my brother. We spoke for a while about the day and I told him about a costumer I had actually pushed away on purpose.  I was talking to a mother and her son about the Volume Library. I went through my sales talks and somewhere along the lines the mother became convinced this could be good for her son. Finally I asked the kid if he would use the books or not- he shrugged at me. The mom told him to go get 20 dollars to put down for the books. I realized that I had created the idea of the need for this product and that idea was the catalyst for the sale. At the end of the summer these people were going to spend 300 dollars, a large chunk of their monthly take home, on books that were just going to collect dust. When the kid handed me the money I asked him again if he would use the books and he said no- I handed the money back, thanked them for their time, and walked away. This story blew my brother's mind. He told me that i needed to be convicted in what I was trying to sell. I needed to believe that everyone needed these books. And I just simply couldn't convince myself of that. I knew that these books weren't for everyone and I couldn't fool myself into a conviction just to make money. And that is the difference between successful book salespeople and unsuccessful ones- the ability to become convicted in something based on the prospect of profiting from it. That wasn't me.

Southwestern can be a good experience, but do not be afraid to read between the lines. To them you are just like the product they've convinced themselves to be convicted in. They act like your personal growth is their goal, but it really isn't. Your personal growth is only important for them because it has possible monetary implications.