How doing door to door sales at 14 years old impacted me personally & professionally.

Most of us have done door to door sales.

Think about it. If you have ever been involved in sports, fundraising, etc. you’ve had to go around and get people to buy stuff in your neighborhood, apartment community or at local businesses.

I worked for a distributor for the Oregonian Newspaper and was selling subscriptions to the Daily Paper, Weekly or Daily & Sunday. When I first started I was terrible and almost didn't go back for my second day because I didn't get a single sale on day one. I'm really glad I did though because it created lessons that fueled my passion for sales and customer service and later teaching others how to succeed though failures and mistakes I made.

I want to share with you 5 things I learned as a 14 year old door to door salesman that still resonate with me today and have truly had an impact on my personal life & career.

1.People skills are worth their weight in Gold.

When you knock on doors you have to be able to break the ice almost immediately. If you don’t, people will close the door right away. I learned how to effectively communicate with people of all walks of life and personalities.

2. I heard a lot of no’s each day and it helped me to develop tough skin.

When you are knocking on doors and selling you hear every objection in the book. “I already have your product.” “We gave at the office”. You just woke up my baby!.” “My husband/wife makes those decisions.” “I need to talk to my roommate.” “No soliciting!”

You name it, I’ve heard it. It really taught me to search for the no’s. I would just tell myself: "A no gets me that much closer to the next yes." I'm a 90% cup full kind of guy.

3. I learned that most people tell you "no" as a natural instinct, even before you get a single word out and that taught me how to be creative and to think on my feet.

When people opened the door I would try to be as kind and friendly as possible and have a great introduction into who I was and why I was there. I would relate to them about their car, sports flag, etc. and I would also be very upfront with how I was feeling. If I was tired I would let them know and that resonated with people. We've all been tired, right?

4. I learned the value of a smile, eye contact and enthusiasm.

Simply using the ingredients above helped me get my foot in the door if you will. Smiles are contagious, eye contact builds trust and if you are excited about your product people will get excited as well.

5. I learned how to read body language and voice tonality.

Non-verbal communication is huge! I learned to tell if people were being honest and I was also able to gauge their interest by paying attention to their non-verbal queues.

Everything I learned not only taught me how to do sales, but it also taught me how to read people which has helped me tremendously as a coach. It taught me how to be comfortable with public speaking which translates into being a facilitator.

It taught me that it's all a numbers game, the more people you see the more money you make. It taught me that customer experience is really important, which has taught me empathy when I see bad service being given.

And it also taught me the value of kindness which has given me the ability to cultivate personal and professional relationships.

Have you learned any valuable lessons from a previous job?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Jordan J. Mendoza

For more sales and training information follow me here: www.dhirubhai.net/in/jordanjmendoza