The Sales Experiment

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Finding a Place to Write

As much as I love to write and try to connect it to sales and marketing, I’m not a fool.

The top 5 salespeople in my firm wouldn’t be caught dead trying to figure out how to create a post in WordPress or any other blog software.

It’s not mandatory to be a good writer in order to be an effective salesperson.

That said, writing can be a powerful way to clarify thinking and develop a content library to benefit clients and potential clients.

Writing has been the stuff of marketers, but these days, it can be the stuff of salespersons who want to develop not only their bottom lines but their thought leadership.

A long lead in to this: How do you find time and space to write?

We live in a modest house with a 6 year old who loves to wake at 5:45. Consequently, my space is my dining room table, and my time is between 5:00 and 5:45am. That’s not ideal.

But I’ve decided it’s important and if it’s important, I can’t worry about finding the perfect zen location and time for putting my thoughts down on paper (or word processor).

The key is this: Keeping a commitment to the act of writing and building it into the schedule. When the schedule gets disrupted because a little guy bounces downstairs too early, be gracious, attend to the relational priorities, and try again the next day.

While it might be helpful to have certain music playing and to have a particular private room with the minimalist laptop desktop, many of us have a shared computer and no extra room to craft into an office.

In that case and if writing is important, the key thing is to pencil it in the schedule and put the laptop in the right place so when the time comes to write, all you have to do is sit down and start tap, tip, tapping away.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be a priority.

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Why I Write, Sell, and Do Most Everything Else These Days

I honestly don’t really want to use this blog for blog challenges, but I am. This is from Day 2 of 10 Days to a Better Blog. I like John Saddington. An increasingly salty style over what appears to be a very compassionate, authentic heart. He is a smart kid who has created a bunch of stuff – a bunch of stuff. He’s more than worth a follow. I have no reason to brown-nose here unless he needs insurance for his various ventures. Then I’m his huckleberry. 

Today’s Challenge: Connect with why you write… 

I have no clue whether I write well or not. I have enough grammar sense at least to say ‘write well’ vs. ‘write good.’ But that doesn’t make me a good writer.

I love to read. I love words. I like to toss around ideas. I like to think.

Writing provides a way to get thoughts out and play with them.

Since words mean  lot to me, writing has become a method for me to offer up a bit of myself to others.

Again, no statement on the quality here, but I write because it is a way I can give something to others.  Writing has become one of my chief methods of telling individuals that I love them, respect them, and appreciate them.

Writing also provides a way for me to learn. If I simply think about something, I forget it. But if I mull over the idea and write it down, then it becomes much more real and more likely to become something I act on.

Writing provides a history. Journal after journal and a growing number of blog entries create a pretty clear picture of my life since high school. Probably too much navel-gazing, but that’s fine.

Hopefully, my writing will be something I can leave behind for my kids that might at least make them laugh even if I don’t teach them anything.

What Does Any of This Have To Do With Sales?

I was not supposed to go into sales. My English major self (with a graduate degree in ministry) never had selling on the radar. Luckily, we’re not always correct at 22 with all of our assumptions. It’s crazy how we feel like life has passed us by if we didn’t have the solid job, marriage, and family by 25 or 28 years old. I was an idiot back then (and might only now be crawling out of idiot-hood).

So sales… I’ve learned that selling isn’t about getting people to buy something. It’s about creating value.

I sell because it teaches me, over time, the importance of creating value. And this idea from selling has been ridiculously important for any of my attempts at writing. Writing isn’t only about any ability I might have to turn a phrase.

Writing (for me) is about taking what little value I can provide and putting it out into the world. It’s something that I think I have to offer, and I’d be a horrible steward if I didn’t practice and make a habit of taking the little that’s in my cup and pouring it out on the off chance it’s exactly what someone needs.

So I write because I want to give what little bit of experience and even wisdom I might have to others. If it helps you… wonderful! If it doesn’t… just chalk me up to one of the other billions of people who take up space on the interwebs.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to write, sell, and do other stuff in feeble attempts to make others’ lives just a bit better (and perhaps mine will improve in the process).

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Have a Focused Purpose

Blogging is a funny thing. Those of us who do it relate well to each other. It’s hard to talk about it to someone who doesn’t without hedging and making a few self-deprecating snarky remarks.

I’m good at that because I sell insurance for a living, and since insurance has been a second career, I had to spend a little time getting over similar hedging and self-deprecating snarky remarks.

Both blogging and insurance sales are supremely honorable pursuits. But they are made most honorable when they have a purpose.

Blogging without a purpose is public journaling (still a small purpose, but then you have to be super witty or engaging or kind of a train wreck to be worth reading – or a family member).

Selling insurance without a purpose outside of straight-up raking in the cash can become smarmy and sleazy (although if one is going to be in sales, then making money isn’t a bad motivation at all – it just can’t be the only motivation.)

Having a purpose mitigates self-deprecation. It gives some meat and bones to what we do as either salespersons or bloggers (or both).

Having a Purpose

I’m walking through Jeff Goins’ ‘Intentional Blogging Challenge’ at the moment (to join up, check out the Facebook page he set up for the 15 day challenge).

Day 2’s challenge was all about giving your blog some focus. Identify a subject, theme, and objective for your blog.

So I considered those three items for this particular website. It can easily fall into a little business journaling exercise (a worthy thing, indeed, but not entirely useful for anybody else).

Here were my responses:

  • SUBJECT: Sales success
  • THEME: Learning how to find your ‘sales voice’ – especially for those who came to sales or a marketing career as a second career after slightly more romantic pursuits like ministry or some other liberal arts career didn’t pan out.
  • OBJECTIVE: To find and clarify my own sales voice while developing coaching tools and methods to help other individuals and organizations do the same thing.

I put myself through this exercise for my day job:

  • SUBJECT: Commercial insurance sales
  • THEME: Helping my clients protect their nonprofit visions
  • OBJECTIVE: To be a consultative partner with my clients, helping them to identify the operations, people, and assets that are vital to moving their nonprofit’s mission forward, matching appropriate insurance tools to protect those three things.

I spent some time today filtering newer opportunities as I want to work with people who have a vision (mostly nonprofits) and that value having a mission and being committed to caring enough about the people they serve to be wise about protection.

Having a Focus Filters Opportunities and Gives Us an Editorial Perspective

I love the exercise in focus because it helps filter opportunities. We can’t do everything for everybody and maintain effectiveness over the long haul. Even in our writing, the more laser-focused we are, the more easily we can identify topics to write about (as contradictory as that seems).

In sales, the more laser-focused we are, the more expertise we develop and the deeper we can dive into our chosen niche.

What’s Your Focus? 

I won’t bore you with listing the reading and listening for today.

I’ll leave you with a question: What is the subject, theme, and objective of your work life right now? Can you define it? Would it help you to sit for a moment and do so? Give it a shot…

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