My short stint working as a window salesman, or “closer” as we call it in the business, taught me a few things about life that I’d like to share with you. These are lessons that are transferrable to your situation regardless of your field of work or area of expertise.
I worked as a window salesman for a mid-size company I won’t name, but that’s fairly well-known in the United States, for a period of about one year.
This was during a particularly rough time in my life when I was recently married and didn’t have many other options available to me in terms of work.
At the time, I considered ‘sales’ a skill-set that I possessed, even if it wasn’t my strong suit, because of the years I spent working as a personal trainer selling training packages at big box gyms.
I figured since I was good at that, maybe I’d be equally as good at selling windows, if not better. As it turns out, I wasn’t a ‘superstar’ window salesman by any means, but I did manage to learn quite a few important life lessons along the way that I think everyone can glean something of value from.
7 life lessons you learn working as a window salesman
Window salesman get a bad reputation and sometimes it’s deserved, but at other times, it’s unfair because the life of a salesman is not easy. Hopefully, the following gives you a better understanding of what it’s really like.
1. Expectations rarely line up with reality.
My manager had this meme next to his desk and to this day, every time I see it, it reminds me of how he’d be on the phone cursing up a storm while chain-smoking cigarettes in the warehouse because a customer was either backing out of a deal, or because there was some problem with an installation, or because some salesman couldn’t close the deal and he needed to give them some last minute advice. There’d be times I was worried he’d have a heart attack he would yell so hard.
This was not what I pictured a behind-the-scenes look into the window industry would be like, especially considering the way it was sold to me.
When I first called to inquire about the job, a different manager told me I’d be making six figures with hardly any effort. He pitched it as the dream job because you could set your own hours and work only a few days a week if you chose to. This wasn’t exactly an accurate description of what I’d be doing.
In-home sales, where you as the salesperson drive one to two hours to the prospect’s home and proceed to pitch and persuade them to buy your product or service on the spot or you go home empty-handed with no commission whatsoever, is a tough way to make a living. I gained about forty pounds from the stress and having to sit for countless hours a day driving or in negotiations trying to make a sale. Definitely not the glamorous lifestyle it was made out to be, although I guess it can be for the right person.
I’m sure the same lesson applies to most careers, or life situations where the image you built up in your mind doesn’t match up with reality. Kind of like when you finally meet that celebrity you’ve looked up to all your life only to find out that they’re a total douchebag.
2. Convincing someone to do something (or buy something) has more to do with how likable and relatable you are than it is about facts, or reasoning.
When I was a salesman at XYZ window company, I was about mid-thirties and one of the youngest guys there. Most of the other salesmen who I trained with were retirees or guys at least ten to fifteen years my senior and the hardcore vets were all pushing sixty.
I say that not to excuse my lack of grandiose success (I’ll give you my full assessment as to why I believe I wasn’t a ‘great’ window salesman later), but to give you a picture of what it was like for me sitting in the same room as some of these guys. I was clearly the newbie with far less sales experience, so I was wide open to any kind of advice I could get, especially from the ‘superstars’.
I remember one guy, let’s call him Ben, who had been there for years, and who was consistently one of the top one or two salesman in the company for four or five years in a row, sat me down one day and told me the script the sales trainer kept trying to drum into our heads was, “irrelevant.”
Ben was mid-forties, about 5′ 11 with a pot belly, but your eyes went straight to the big gaudy watch he wore on his wrist, the copious amount of hair gel he used (as cliche as that sounds), and the air of success he had about him.
He said what it really came down to was whether the prospect liked you or not. He said I needed to focus on how to make them feel like I was one of them, like they could relate to me.
“If they have a dog, you have a dog” he advised me. He even told me to fabricate some story about the imaginary dog I didn’t have just to make the prospect feel like we had something in common. “Look around their house, notice the artwork they have and tell them you love it, that you have the same painting.”
At the time, I remember thinking he was pretty sleazy for blatantly lying to prospects like that, but I got a chance to witness him in action one day when we went out to an appointment together and he even shocked me with how gracious he could be. You would never think he was being disingenuous and maybe he wasn’t.
From what I could see, he seemed genuinely interested in everything the prospect had to say and was full of all kinds of funny, entertaining stories that made the guy laugh out loud numerous times. And if the prospect asked Ben if he knew about a particular restaurant, or if he’d been to a certain city in the midwest or made any kind of weird, obscure reference, Ben would know exactly what he was talking about and had three stories for each off-hand comment that was made.
And little by little, in between stories, Ben would move the sales process forward until, by the end of it, the guy would be signing along the dotted line. It was really an amazing thing to watch and made me think there was a lot of truth to his advice.
I’ve applied this life lesson to my current day job (not in sales) and found that it works equally well there FYI.
3. Some people in life are extremely dishonest and will do anything for money. Watch out for these people.
Some salesmen are more morally bankrupt than others. In Ben’s case, at least he justified what he was doing by telling himself, “Everyone needs to have their arm twisted a little bit in order to help them to make a good decision.” That was his motto.
On the other hand, I’ve also met successful salesmen who were, in my view, bordering on maniacal and evil because of the way they closed sales oftentimes using extreme manipulation.
Jeff, let’s call him, was one such closer. He would travel to every appointment with a box of donuts, a big smile on his face, and go through a variety of rapport-building schemes that lowered the prospect’s defenses. Then, he’d start his pitch and at the opportune time, he would act like he was getting a phone call from a relative that he just had to take. He’d excuse himself to take the call outside, in front of a window, or on the porch where the prospect could easily eavesdrop on his conversation.
He’d pretend to be having a conversation in which he was receiving the most horrible news imaginable i.e. a relative just had a stroke, someone was deathly ill in the hospital, someone died, or got shot in broad daylight, that type of thing. Sometimes, he’d really draw it out by talking for fifteen to twenty minutes out there in front of the window. And right after he’d end the call, he’d turn toward the prospect’s house with a serious-as-cancer expression on his face. He’d slowly walk to the front door and let himself in looking extra disheveled and as if he’d been crying, at which point he’d break the news to his prospect with tears streaming down his face and hyperventilating, the whole bit. Prospects would feel so bad for him that they’d practically hand him their wallets. It probably helped that he was this pitiful-looking fat mess, grotesque in appearance, with a chin-beard. His whole mantra was, “Make them feel bad for you.”
What Jeff did to prospects was despicable and I vowed never to do anything close to it and never did. And I was never at ease around Jeff after he told me his methods because I stopped being able to trust him, or look at him the same way. He’d probably report me to the Border Patrol or something, if one day he found out he could make money off me (just kidding, I was born here).
But, I am glad I met Jeff because he made me realize there are evil people in this world willing to commit unthinkable acts just to make a buck. It helps you to understand why the world is so screwed up.
4. The state of your soul is more valuable than any fleeting monetary gain
Call me crazy, but I believe that our existence on this earth is not a coincidence, that humankind and the amazing plant and animal life inhabiting this planet is too wondrous for all this to be some kind of cosmic mistake.
I believe that we were created by God, in His image, and that His revealed Word in the Old Testament scriptures prophesies of a coming Messiah, that Jesus Christ was that Messiah, who fulfilled over 300 prophecies in his lifetime, and furthermore, that Jesus’ fulfillment of these prophecies has made it mathematically impossible for the Messiah to have been anyone else. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, reconciling us to the Father through His sacrifice, so that we could be with Him in Heaven forever. And, lastly, that the only thing we can to do to accept this generous gift of eternal life is to ask God’s forgiveness for our sins and believe the Gospel, accepting Christ as our savior, surrendering our will to Him, so that He can conform us to His image through the renewing of our minds, which is the work of the Holy Spirit.
That’s a mouthful, I know, but that’s the most concise way I can say what it is that I believe, based on what the Bible says and my own lived experience.
But, the point is, since I believe the Gospel message, I also believe in things like right and wrong and eternal judgment because the scriptures also talks about these things. And the Bible talks directly about the ‘love of money.’
“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (1st Timothy 6:9-11).
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
“And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Proverbs 13:11).
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
I also believe that the second coming of Christ will bring eternal judgement on all mankind.
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done” (Revelation 22:12).
But, I don’t want you to think that my main motivation in submitting to Christ is fear of missing out on eternal life (although that is a factor). The truth is, once you get to know Jesus, you want to follow Him for no other reason than because you love Him, even if there was no eternal reward attached. Jesus Christ is the one person who I depend on every single day and couldn’t live without, as cheesy as that sounds. He sustains me. He’s quite literally the source of my strength, no exaggeration. Ask Him into your life and get to know Him yourself and see what I’m talking about!!
5. Get to know yourself, as well as what your strengths and weaknesses are
Sometimes in life, you should act not because it’s the perfect thing to do, but because it could be a good learning experience. It’s one of the few ways I know of that you can begin to get a better understanding of who you are, what your purpose is, and what you were put on this earth to do.
For me, selling windows was one of those decisions. It was great because I found it to be a tremendous learning experience that helped me learn a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses.
And what I discovered about myself through this whole process was that I do not like to lie, or even stretch the truth one iota, even if it means leaving piles of money on the table.
And I also learned that I do not have the gift of administration. What I mean by that is, some people have this rare gift of being an authoritative voice, the type of person others naturally listen to in an unquestioning way.
In my travels as a closer for this window company, I discovered that the best salesman all had this quality, this authoritative quality, or whatever you wanted to call it. Whether it was coming from their voice, or their stature, or something much harder to put your finger on doesn’t matter because It’s basically an innate quality, something that can’t be taught. I guess some people just have it and some people don’t.
Yeah, well, anyway, I definitely don’t have that gifting and because I don’t, I felt that the job wasn’t a real good fit for me. The role wasn’t who I naturally was because, ever since I could remember, I’ve always came across kind of like a meathead or a himbo to a lot of people. I also have an extremely laid-back personality, so I’m not quick-witted, or how some describe people who are really good at recalling small bits of information (e.g. mind like a trap). My natural way of speaking is pretty slow (not Sling Blade slow, but slow) and doesn’t exactly convey urgency. And when I used to fumble over my words multiple times trying to remember the right sales verbiage to use at the right time, I imagine the prospect probably wondered, “Why the hell am I listening to this idiot?” which was most likely right before they would tell me, “Sorry, I need to do more research.”
Do you see what I’m getting at? So, after the year I spent selling windows, this tremendous opportunity and all, a picture was beginning to take form as the dust settled, and what I could clearly see come into focus was that these qualities of mine weren’t doing me any favors in the in-home sales/trying to persuade people to buy stuff on the spot department. But, the good news is, the qualities I possess do serve me well in both my day job and in my role here on this blog as an online coach/personal trainer, so I’ve got that going for me . . .
In all seriousness, even if I was good at this type of sales job, I probably still would’ve quit because I really despised the sedentary lifestyle and horrible hours.
6. (Fill in the blank) is better than a sharp stick in the eye
The window company I worked for had a really colorful manager and sales trainer who I’ll call Ralph. He was the spitting image of Al Pacino from the movie, “Glengarry Glenn Ross” and I say that because he had nearly all the same facial features as Pacino, was about as tall as Pacino, and he was intense just like Pacino. He was also about as old as Pacino and he very obviously wore permanent dentures because his teeth were way too white and he’d sometimes whistle when emphasizing certain ‘s’ sounds. The other thing that was a bit unusual about him was he usually sported Hawaiian shirts, you know, the button-downed sleeveless ones like they wear on Carnival Cruise, and the thing I noticed about him immediately was that he had the thickest, most authentic Philly accent I’d ever heard.
So, Ralph was in the service and every now and then he’d bust out some old school Vietnam War-era colloquialism like, “It’s better than a sharp stick in the eye,” making the comparison between a very bad outcome being not as bad as having a sharp stick shoved into your eye. At the time, if I recall, he was talking about having to go twenty down on a sale, meaning he had to give the prospect twenty percent off the final price just to close the deal. Of course, if a salesman does that, he makes next to nothing in commission, so he was saying that, as bad as that outcome is, it’s still better than a sharp stick in the eye–because you’re still getting something.
Ralph used to tell all kinds of stories. He told us this one story about how, way back when he was a young salesman, he went somewhere deep in the south to sell windows, somewhere customers all pronounced windows, “winders” and this one prospect liked him so much he said he could’ve married his daughter, but the point of the story was that he followed the sales process and didn’t rush through the script and that’s what got him the deal. He was realistic, though, and told us it was really a numbers game and that not everyone was going to buy. That’s when he’d say, “It’s not the end of the world” and “It’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.”
And that proverb kind of stuck with me. It reminded me of the old saying, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” or the Spanish version my mother used to tell me growing up, “No hay mal que por bien no venga,” which means, ‘bad things always lead to good things’ (it sounds better in Spanish, though).
It’s a very important lesson and one that everyone needs to learn at one point or another, if only just to be able to mentally, “Live to fight another day” because, after all, “You win some, you lose some.”
7. Always be closing, baby
Not many people outside the sales world know what ‘closing’ is. And, no, closing does not mean ‘closing the sale’ although that is the last step.
Closing means ‘closing the doors on other options’ and it’s a psychological process most smart people go through regardless of whether there’s a salesman sitting in front of them or not. It’s a series of mental steps we go through right before and up until we finally buy something.
If you’re smart, before you buy something, you go through this process. Let’s say you’re in the market for a new winter jacket. Before you actually buy the new jacket, you first create a list of possible jackets that you like. You research all the features and benefits of each jacket, you compare those features to one another and to the price tags of each jacket and then try to decide what the best value is. And, as you’re going through this process, you’re mentally crossing-out options until you’re left with the top three. From there, you eliminate the last two possibilities until you’re left with the one final choice and once you’re at that point, you buy. Am I right? Isn’t that what you do? Of course that’s what you do. It’s human nature.
You might think, “Yeah, well, if I had a lot of money, I wouldn’t care as much and would just buy whatever. I wouldn’t think as much.” But, you’d be wrong because what you don’t realize is, rich people go through this process at an even higher degree than the middle-class does. That’s how they got to be rich! You get to know these things from being in sales. I’ve sold to people who’ve lived in trailer parks, I’ve sold to middle-income folks, and I’ve sold to people who’ve lived in the richest neighborhoods in the country and I can tell you that it’s much easier to sell to poor people, but that’s only because they usually don’t go through this mental process, probably because they’re not as smart (and I’m not saying that to be mean).
So, ‘closing’ in sales terms means helping the customer to ‘close the doors on other options’ by presenting them with information and then asking them a series of questions that gets them to physically say, “No, I don’t want that.” And every time they say, “No, I don’t want that,” it closes the door on that option, thus narrowing down their possibilities until the last possibility left is the product or service that you as the salesman are selling.
And, the truth is, when closing is done right and with integrity and honesty, it’s not a bad thing. It’s not tricking anyone, or deceiving them. It’s literally helping them to make a good decision, even the “right” decision, but it has to be done in a low-pressure way that makes the customer feel heard and like your product is filling their exact need like a glove.
The problem is, one-call close type companies, like many window companies are, train their sales reps to create a false sense of urgency by giving the prospect a ‘today only price.’ Why? Because it’s a 100% commission job, they want their sales reps to get paid and, most of the time, customers who are shopping around won’t buy until they’ve collected at least three quotes, which means two guys are spending gas money driving an hour to an appointment and spending two to three hours closing the customer, only for them to get an, “I’ll think about it” at the end. Which sucks, of course, but most people don’t care what bullshit salesman have to go through. They figure salesman are all scumbags anyway, so . . .
But, nevertheless, closing is a real thing, it’s a real psychological phenomenon anyone can tap into to persuade someone to make a decision about something. And, because it’s based on human nature, it does work and anyone can learn how to do it.
It can be used for anything, really, but in my view, it should only be used for good and to help people, not to scam people. So, use this knowledge with caution. Closing, to the person using this mental hack, is extremely powerful.
If you think about it, we’re all salesman in one way or another. In this life, everyone must sell themselves (not like that, you pervert!). We sell people on why we’re the right person to marry, why we’re the right person to do X job, why we’re right about this topic or that topic etc. It’s all sales, at the end of the day, so you might as well start brushing up on your closing skills now!
Life lessons from a former window salesman . . .
It’s amazing how often I utilize what I’ve learned from selling windows in my daily life, even as someone who works in a completely different field now.
Every human interaction is an energy transaction with one person trying to influence the other, whether it be for the good or bad. Once you understand that, you begin to understand how important it is to bring positivity and love to every encounter with another human being. It goes back to #2.
And this concept lines up with the Bible because the Bible says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1st Corinthians 13:1).
What this means is, if we don’t have love for one another, then we’re nothing. When you love your neighbor as yourself, you care about them and want to help them to make good decisions. And there’s no law against that.
With love,
Read next: 10 Reasons Why I Loved Working As A Personal Trainer