Originally posted by LemOn36
Originally posted by Chowchow12
Originally posted by LemOn36
Or commission only sales ♦
I actually started playing poker during my sales career because it was something predictable , stable with relatively low variance comparatively .
It's a closed very predictable system - if you want to see real gambling and real variance get out there in the real world
I would imagine the issue out there is that the climate can change so quickly. At least poker has an equilibrium. The game changes because it is slowly getting closer to being solved, but you more or less don't have to worry about some new technology, or something making your the product you sell obsolete. I think it would be like imagining pokers hand rankings changing over time. Or certain cards just getting taken out of the deck. Poker is at least a fair game haha.
Even with a top tier product you happen to run into bad people
Or you get socially weak territory and there's nothing you can do
Products go out of favour, territories get saturated with competition
Or you hit a bad streak, your attitude and body language shows it to people and you get on a sick self-fulfilling downswing with things out of your control...
Don't get me wrong, Sales is just like Poker in that it should be treated as one long session, and great consistent attitude and work ethic will get you to the top sooner or later even in shitty markets
But the variance can be insane and out of your control for way longer than in poker. Companies and products crumble, and staff turnover rate is insane in almost any commission based sales business
As I've said, I'm 35 now. Back in my late teens through mid 20's I worked in sales heavily. I was doing high end in home sales at night in lucrative neighborhoods for a while. Home remodeling (we'd do absolutely anything), sunrooms, pools, spas. If you closed 30%, you were a millionaire. Period. To do that? Yeah, there's nothing we can go through at the poker tables from the comfort of our own home and PC that compares. Miserable nights of being insulted and thrown out of homes. Driving 1.5 hours in snow only to find that nobody even lives at the address. Working on a deal for 3 hours in someone's home, missing your 2nd appointment because of it, and then dealing with their wife walking in who says absolutely not and starts the entire sales process all over again. This is why you want all decision makers there from the beginning.
Now, of course, when you were closing deals? Yeah, you felt and were treated like a rockstar. $2k to $10k commissions. Those deals don't close themselves though and the amount of education, experience, sit behind experience, and your state of mind (huge) are all going to be put to the test each and every day. You're always working on your pitch. You're always working on blocking objectives before they come up. It's very much like plugging leaks and making adjustments in poker. Then, like poker, there's the inevitable dark ages. 15, 20, 30 sits without a deal. Threatening to be fired. Everyone basically toasting champagne and rolling in their money at weekly meetings but you. It's literally suicide level depressing.
Basically, anything that has a huge upside potential in profit is going to be like that. The majority of the time you'll fail. Persistence, mental game, and just raw heart, sweat, and tears is the only way out of the "pit of misery" when you do find yourself inside of it.
VS