Incrementalism Wins The Day in Sales!

Landing a great role in sales is not an instant ticket to the top 5% of income earners in the sales profession. It takes years of hard work and hard knocks to break through. In my particular case, I knew as a younger person I did not want to work in an industrial environment, the medical world, the sciences or the trades. In my particular case, I wanted a vocational role that was creative where I could help others live their dreams while I worked on my lifetime plan. I had this life-long?vision. I just did not know how I was going to complete the picture.

?

Oddly, people saw my potential when I was still in high school and I was offered a full time job selling high end piano’s even though I was not a great keyboard player. I just love to chat with people and help others live a better life. Believe it or not, my first big break was getting kicked out of the Mohawk College National Advertising program in Hamilton, Canada. Getting booted out… got my sights set straight. It also made me realize, I had to personalize my business education one course at a time. This is going to sound odd but University never really made sense to me. It only made sense later in life when I enrolled at York University in Toronto in my late 20’s. I just wanted a taste of higher education.

?

After graduation from the Retail Advertising in Oakville, Canada I realized just how far I had to climb to live my lifelong dreams in sales. I took incremental leaps of faith moving out to Edmonton to work at a community newspaper without knowing a sole other that my college roommate. We were so poor we could afford rent but not furniture, so we slept on the floor. Just surviving that first year in sales was a huge step. In eight months I saved up to buy a car and then my first big incremental step was covered. I was now free to travel anywhere in Canada. I paid $600 dollars for my lime-green 1972 Chevy Biscayne and felt like I was on top of the world because it was all my money. Nobody gave me a cent. This was completion of incremental level one.

?

Incremental step two meant getting a lot of sales and business experience. I moved back home to Hamilton and set up shop with my new beauty car! I worked at a magazine that eventually went bankrupt. Huge setback. Huge debt. I paid everyone back working the assembly line at International Harvester where my Dad dropped dead 12 years earlier. Many kind people tried to help me get back into the media game but I needed to do it on my own. Then, out of the blue, I received a call from The Oakville Journal Record (OJR) and I was back in the game. I rose from junior sales rep. to senior sales rep. in one year. The OJR was a three times weekly newspaper, so I was only one step away from a daily newspaper. It was here that I cut my teeth on really hard work and insane work hours. On one occasion I remember working 21 days in a row. No weekends off. That was how hungry I was and earning more money than I could have ever dreamed.

?

Then, my Publisher’s new Chrysler Cordoba came up for sale and I snatched it. Paid cash. Incremental step two check-marked! I also invested in great new suits and shoes. I was ready for incremental stage three. The brand newly launched Calgary Sun came into my site lines. ?I sold everything but my car and moved to Calgary. There were no openings at the newspaper when I arrived in Calgary to my astonishment so I took a dangerous job rolling oil pipe. Three rotating shifts outdoors in Calgary fall and winter weather. Fricken cold. This got me even tougher and hungrier. Finally, a role opened up at The Calgary Sun and again I went from junior sales rep to senior sales rep. in about 18 months, but now I was working at a daily. Incremental stage four. Check marked! My Step-Dad suddenly died on the anniversary of my natural father’s death day and I moved home immediately to protect my Mom.

?

Now, I had a bag of money in the bank and set my sights on the big stage. I took a job at The Oakville Beaver Newspaper for 6 weeks and then landed my dream a sales job at The Toronto Star. Incremental stage five check marked! The Star in those days was Canada’s largest daily with 840,000 circulation on?a Saturday! I was 24 years old when I landed my Toronto Star role. Now, I was so hungry I set out to complete my vision. Now it was about building my influence in the publishing business at the highest level. I needed more education and knocked off more college and university level programs than you could shake a stick at. Again, I was working seven days a week between The Star and a personally crafted education. The difference at The Star was that I was hired as a senior sales rep. I needed one more role at The Star to get me National Agency exposure so, I took a job at Star Week Magazine. Check box incremental Stage Six! I worked my butt off at The Star. I bought a five bedroom brick, country escape in my birth place of Campbellford, Canada. I was now a landlord at age 26. I was ready for incremental Stage Seven. I turned down two management positions while working at The Star because my vision was set. Just not for me yet.

?

I heard about a head office role on The Retail Team at Canada’s largest daily newspaper group Southam Newspapers from one of my other future roommates Peter Bailey. I was passed on the first round, but a year later I snatched that role with a much bigger compensation package. Incremental Stage Seven was locked in. Over the next 20 years I turned down about 5 management roles. I was having too much fun selling at the highest level. Then poop hit the fan and we were taken over by Hollinger Inc. By this time I was forced into management because I was smashing too many sales budgets. It was then that I got the internal call. “Come on up to the Executive floor Pat. We are about to change your life.” Without me knowing all of the Advertising Sales VP’s from across the country had secretly voted me into the role of Sales Leader, Insert Distribution Sales, over 125 newspapers. I was assigned the role of smashing 6 newspaper groups together to bring the new mega Hollinger Company to market with a staggering 5.5 Million circulation. It was roughly 55% of all the dwellings in Canada. In this role I was in charge of pricing, strategic planning and distribution launch under the new banner. At this point, I was working 70 hours a week. Over this time I got married. I raised a family. Bought 3 more houses. Each incremental move seemed to take me to a new level. Finally, in 2007 I applied for a Sales Directorship after turning one down but now I saw it as a VP Sales Role. I had the job nailed but not the money and the title so life got a little messed up. I departed the company under a new owner CanWest and retired at age 49. Incremental Stage Eight was a new target and in 2008 I started Centroid Marketing and Training www.centroidmarketing.com . Now 15 years later I have sales and negotiation trained some of the coolest businesses in North America. I have three sales books in world-wide distribution. My incremental sales vision is complete. Or, maybe not!

?

Lessons learned. A huge life in sales is not a sprint. Rather, it is an incremental climb up a growth staircase. In order to climb the stairs we must have a vision but be prepared for stinging set-backs. There are no failures in a great sales life unless someone dies. Everything else is an iteration and just part of a vision to complete our destiny. My advice to all who read this. Dream big. March toward your dreams like The Black Watch warriors from Scotland. During WWll the Nazi’s referred to The Black Watch and others brave men like them as “The Ladies from Hell for their bravery and bag pipping into battle.” Remember the guy who got kicked out of college and had to sleep on the floor because he was so poor? If he can do it so can you. Take that to the bank! #Incrementalism #WinsTheDay #Sales #Successmindset #LiveYourDreams #Giddyup!