Alex Newmann, Startup Mentor, Founder, Newmann Consulting

<p>JB:How’d you get into sales?</p><p>AN: Mom wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer, so I failed there. </p><p>Worked at a restaurant for 4 days as a host- want to use my brain</p><p>Got a letter from Vector marketing = Cutco Knives and got my start at 18-19 years old selling knives door to door</p><p>Worked my way up, did it through college, came out and stayed </p><p>JB: Talk to me about your door to door sales days, I find there is powerful learning there.</p><p>AN: When you have 95% employee churn, need to get something figured out. But they have a good product.</p><p>No Quit Mentality. Never quit anything until I figure it out. </p><p>Used to pay me $15 per appt whether you sell anything or not</p><p>Figured I would do as many appts as possible</p><p>And I found I was working 10X harder than anyone else</p><p>Boss- “never seen anybody have this many appointments and never sell anything...going to have to let you go”</p><p>Begged and pleaded to stay - and let me LEARN how to actually do this right</p><p>If you buy something great if not, OK</p><p>Now I see the potential for $$ when I actually sell something, could get up to half of the sale and make some pretty good money</p><p>First part, was following a sales process</p><p>I wasn’t listening to my manager or my top reps</p><p>Wasn’t listening to what the best of the best do - did a lot of  ride alongs, asked a million questions</p><p>Game Changing piece for me, I had to understand WHY someone would pay that amount of money for a $200-400 knife -- that was crazy to me at 18-19 years old</p><p>Why would the customer buy?  What are the use cases?</p><p>Growing up, my parents would NEVER pay that amount of money for knives. But I figured out my pitch. </p><p>Being able to truly articulate the value is what is important. </p><p>Just showing up is a part of it, but that won’t deliver the results you want</p><p>Comma checks, you want a check with a comma in it. I was notorious for NOT getting the comma checks. </p><p>Big difference between do you WANT IT or do you Wa