Why Broken Salespeople?

I was 27 years old and crying my eyes out into a pillow. I could not make anything work and it drove me nuts.

This was my breaking point.

I have always thought that no matter what, you grow up and accept responsibility. No matter the situation, you fight back, improve your skills, and figure it out. This strength of will served me well for years, but now I was fighting something new, my own biases.

I had been selling security systems for a few months at this point, and I use the term “selling” very loosely. I sucked at it and did not know why. I thought I could simply grit my teeth, buckle down, and make it through.

I couldn’t.

It took my literal breaking point to realize what it mean to be broken by a sales job. I had heard for years that if you knew HOW to sell, it did not matter WHAT you sold.

It was one of the worst pieces of advice I have ever been given.

The problem was that WHAT I sold did, absolutely, matter. You cannot successfully sell a product you, yourself, are not a fan of. It is like marrying someone you do not actually love. Eventually you either have to start loving that person or there is not enough commitment to keep things going. Shotgun weddings only last until the shotgun is aimed somewhere else.

I have gotten a lot of bad sales advice over the years, but this is the only piece that broke me. This was my rock bottom.

This is where I became broken.

I do not say this lightly. Just like a broken bone, I had to heal myself from the damage that was created by this bad advice. From there it was years of reading, learning, re-evaluating, and testing theories.

It was this first step, admitting that I had a problem, that helped me move forward. The problem I had had some bad beliefs regarding sales. I needed to tear everything down and rebuild my mindset brick by brick.

I will admit that I never fully healed. I still have those phantom pains of the day I broke down and cried into my pillow. I will always be Broken at some level, but I wear those scars with pride.

I hit rock bottom and bounced when others went splat!

If you found this site, you are probably Broken too. Maybe not as bad as I was, but you know something is wrong.

Being Broken Salesperson is not about being irreparably damaged. It is about wearing your scars with pride and getting back up anyway. It is about having a deal fall apart and sitting back down at the table with a smile.

Some of us were hurt worse than others. Some of us wear our damage more visibly, but together we can work to get better than we were yesterday.

Take pride in being Broken.