The Making of a Salesman

Some of my friends call me Homerun.

Besides having "Homer" as my first name, they have coined the term as a recognition of my sales career. Having had numerous hard-won victories in my long sales career, companies hire my services when a heavyweight batter is needed to create and push sales teams. Advertising has been my home stadium though some industries such as IT and recruitment have hired my services to create and make their organizations conducive to sales homeruns. At 40, I think I've seen it all. I mean I have been able to profile who would be great salesmen and sales managers. I have spotted them and have been able to coach and mentor many mavericks.

This leads me to what many have asked me through the years: "Are supersalesmen born or made?" Let me tell you my story.

I believe I wasn't born into sales. I didn't even recognize the gift of gab. As a kid, I wasn't talkative or even had the trappings of a young politician. I never networked. I had a handlful of friends or playmetes and that was it. I used to write poems and believed I was a loner. But living in a small rented apartment near a squatters area in Makati City, this little kid had big dreams.

Finding a Personal Need or Want

I used to play with penlight batteries replacing toy soldiers which I didn't have. I once picked up a plastic toy cyclist on the street and had it as my first favorite toy. It was the mid-70's and a small plastic red helicopter I fancied was worth 80 centavos. My dad didn't want me to buy one though. Maybe we couldn't afford those extras or maybe he simply wanted me to just concentrate on my studies. I also wanted playcards known as "tex" but I didn't have an allowance to save up with. We were studying in private schools but I believe all our money went into our "privileged" education in Don Bosco Makati.

One day in school, I saw kids claiming deposits for bottles of Yes Cola softdrinks and Vim Chocolate drinks they bought for recess. "Hmmm," I thought. We had some old Vim bottles at home hidden under the old sink. A lightbulb lit up in my little kid's brain -- "maybe if I claimed deposit on them, I'd get some money." I did.

That single incident sent me into motion. I searched for bottles in school and at home to sell. Well, I was able to buy that red plastic helicopter. But I didn't stop there. I bought the playcards as well.

Lesson learned: find your personal need or want. What drives you towards finding a way for you to satisfy that need or want? It may be a car or house you've been dreaming of having. Or your new born baby whom you want to provide the very best.

My bosses have always given me or my teams sales targets or quotas. I give my sales teams dreams to fulfill. I usually would ask each sales person what would s/he want to buy or have by the end of the year. Whatever answer I get, I'd tell the sales person that that would be his or her target in terms of commissions or incentives s/he would like to earn. Simple enough, huh?

So when I promised my wife that I'd buy her a house and two cars before I was 30, I worked hard to make sure I kept my promise. I was into media sales for a global publication and I was 27 when I made that promise. In two years and at age 29, I fulfilled that promise.

My practical advice? Dream big. Make it happen.

Being Enterprising

I loved Choc-nut when I was a kid. Since I didn't want to blow all my earnings on toys and chocolates, I tried to think of a way to make more money. An aunt once told me that if I bought Choc-nut by the box at a store near the wet market, I can save 80 centavos per box. I asked my friends, classmates and even our househelp if they would buy Choc-nut from me at a lower price than the store's. Of course they said yes. Thus, everytime I bought Choc-nut, I literally ate my profits -- 80 centavos worth of Choc-nut. At 5 centavos each, I ate 16 pieces per box, then replenished my stock. I was now both filling a want or need by buying and selling Choc-nut. I moved a notch higher and became enterprising.

But since I wasn't making real profits as I ate them, I had to find a way to increase my money. I found a way through renting out comics.

I noticed that many students in Don Bosco were being fetched 2 to 3 hours on average after dismissal in the afternoon. Some were into sports and games while many more were bored waiting for their "sundo." I laid out about a dozen comic books one time and rented each for 10 centavos. On the side, I played tex. Each week, I replenished my stocks since my parents bought us kids (we were 3) new comics every Sunday. Inventory replenished weekly, in about a month, I was able to earn 400 pesos. That was big during those years when a jeepney ride was only 10 centavos. As an entrepreneur, it is always important to learn about inventory, cashflow and target market.

Lesson learned: be enterprising. Find what others need or want, then fill them. I believe that we will never run out of needs and wants as we create new ones each day. Technology and media are two of the most influential sources of these.

My practical advice? Be creative but grounded. If you can find opportunities in problems, then you're well on your way.


Salesmanship + Entrepreneurship

In high school, I sold subscriptions to Reader's Digest and World Executive's Digest. It was by chance that I saw an ad soliciting community representatives to both magazines. Besides my fancy in reading those magazines, I found out I could earn extra by just sharing them with others. I stumbled upon the basic concept of being a salesman.

At first, I used my basic network: family friends, relatives, and co-workers of my parents. I asked for referrals and those referrals gave me their own referrals. Soon, my network grew -- and so did my income. But you know what? I loved it more when my network of friends and acquaintances grew. It's as if I broke out of my shell.

By college at the University of the Philippines (in Diliman), I was organizing rock band concerts and contests, selling jewelry, and wholesaling eggs.

I wanted to be a musician but didn't have much interest in the long hours needed to practice the guitar. I thought of going one step higher -- I produced the shows myself. So, together with some friends, we organized campus rock concerts and band contests. Some projects failed but we carried on. It was fun anyway!

One day, I stumbled upon an ad in the classifieds looking for young people who might want to sell a new line of fashion jewelry. The concept was direct selling under the master trainer Harry Pound (who I would be working with again 18 years later). I was 18 then. I invested a few hundred pesos and pushed on to be become the youngest sales supervisor in the company's history.

On the side, I also wholesaled eggs which came from an over-production at the Magnolia Farm. It was a short-term opportunity. I hired a salesman -- our houseboy -- on commission basis. Making the rounds of the community "sari-sari" stores and the small public market outside our village, I was able to make good money for more than a year.

What was good about my venture into the eggs business was my having trained our houseboy into a being a salesman than as a full-fledged entrepreneur. From selling commodities in the Zapote Public Market, he now grows, manages and sells cut flowers in Dumaguete City. He uses a one hectare land of the seven hectares my mom owns. This was my first mentoring and coaching experience, just before I graduated from college.

In my sales ventures, I was refused a lot of times. However, I was relentless instead of frustrated. Whenever I got a "no," I always found ways for my prospects to say "yes," may it be for me to simply repeat their name and ask them if I was right. Somehow, those little "yeses" moved closer and closer for them to say "yes" to my sales pitch. Also, I had to make sure that I got to present to more people till I got a "yes" so as to lessen the impact of the number of "nos" that I received. As I always say, "sales is a numbers game." The more pre-targeted prospects you have, the better your success ratio becomes.

Lesson learned: salesmanship with entrepreneurship is about managing your frustration levels creatively and with determination. Failures will always be part of the sales process. It's not how many times you fall, but the number of times you get up is what matters. Be strategic. Pre-target as many prospects as you can before making the actual call. Also, success is sweeter if you've been able to learn from your previous mistakes.

My practical advice? Work smart, instead or working hard. Do your homework. Learn about the product or service you will need to sell before hitting the streets. Know about your target market. Go first for niches.

Years of Learning and Practice

Right after graduating at the University of the Philippines with a Communications Research degree, my first job right was again selling magazine subscriptions and book sales, though this time to both corporate and individual clients. I even won a silver award in my rookie year, besting the veterans. I practically did building sweeps besides getting endless referrals. I also began to understand the need for targeted or niche prospecting. Instead of doing a shotgun approach to finding prospects, I did them by industry. This technique I still do until this day. I refer to it as a street-by-street and block-by-block guerilla sales approach. Traditional, but still massively effective.

Wanting to try my hand at advertising, I cut short my sales work and got into McCann-Erickson Philippines, the top ad agency at that time. After two years learning the ropes in both media and account management for the San Miguel Beer account, I was taken in by San Miguel Corporation's Magnolia as it's very first Media Coordinator. Both experiences have opened the doors for me to learn more about strategic marketing techniques from my mentors Ting Jarme (my former boss and Account Director at McCann) and the late great marketing genius Bert Anido (my former boss and Marketing Director at Magnolia).

I realized that if you wanted to learn how to do strategic selling, you've got to learn marketing. I did not only learn basic marketing, but I attended lots of seminars, read numerous books and practiced what I learned. I even fell in love with marketing communications as a sub-specialty. This, I acquired due to my love of media.

As a media coordinator at Magnolia Nestle Corporation, I had four ad agencies who supported my team of three. Four media managers were at the forefront of these hot agencies of the early 1990's servicing our account namely Emma Deloso of J. Romero & Associates, Bing Aragon of PAC/BBDO, Jon Gatbonton of Ace/Saatchi, and Suzanne Capistrano of McCann. I loved my support team. They were my mentors, especially Emma who was so patient with a 22-year old media head as a client. Candidly, she taught me a lot. Both Bing and Suzanne were to move onto the supplier side while Jon was destined to be Saatchi's top media honcho. Emma would later be a media consultant.

My work allowed me to meet a lot of media suppliers. One particular TV blocktimer, whom everybody fondly called Tita Glo, became close to me. I even made her a godmother in my wedding. One day, she asked me a favor. She wanted me to go with her to meet rock n' roll great RJ Jacinto. She was offered to market his FM radio station in Manila. Politely turning it down, Tita Glo told RJ if he instead wanted to hire me. RJ offered me the job right there and then with a big smile on his face. He gave me the terms privately and I accepted. That was the start of my media sales career.

Now armed with a media and marketing background, I plunged into advertising sales for DZRJ-FM as marketing director. I was 24.

When I arrived at the RJ Ventures office in Makati Avenue, I was a bit shock by the adhoc nature of the sales and marketing organization. There were two freelance marketing agents and I had to build the team from scratch. I had to bring in a fresh team of young and good-looking guys and a lady who looked as if she came out of a fashion mag. I got my college friend Will Maligalig from the radio station of GMA-7 to lead the team as Sales Manager. We had a formidable team. I got Robert Velhagen (who eventually became ABS-CBN Marketing Director), Jude Garcia (who went on to become Aliw Broadcasting VP for Marketing), and two others -- Paul and Claire (forgot their last names). Eventually, Anna Cawaling, one our freelance marketing agents, left to set up Target Marketing with my friend Winnie Baling, selling cinema spots. Only the veteran Marsha Cacho, the other freelance agent, helped my young team market RJ.

In 6 months, we were able to turn the company around. We helped build the station into a 6-station network. Admittedly, Will was a big factor in pushing the sales promotions into unprecedented heights. We had back-to-back movie premieres in Silence of the Lambs and Robinhood Prince of Thieves. From a rock n' roll format that was shunned by advertisers, we were able to create a funky niche in our "Good Times" slogan. Ramon Jacinto's DZRJ and Bistro RJ became a hit among the oldies and the yuppies.

Lesson learned: go to a field that you will come to love and enjoy working in. Along the way, study your craft more than what's required of you to learn.

My practical advice? Don't learn the tricks of the trade, learn the trade. Find a mentor.


Sales as a Passion

When I was hired by the Asian Sources Media Group (now Global Sources) to be the Country Sales Manager for the publications World Executive's Digest (a.k.a. WED) and Trade & Travel magazines, I believe that's where I found my passion in sales.

When my old friend Bernia Jiao, then WED Marketing Manager, asked me if I would be interested to be the sole sales rep for the magazine, I was excited. I have been a fan of WED since college. I sold subscriptions of the magazine and knew its readership profile. However, I was to pick-up ad sales from a 15-year marketing arm. "Tough act to follow," I thought. Sales were also in the red. A reversal of its trend. In my mind, it's another turn-around task. This time, it's a tougher industry -- publishing! I was also up against regional and global sales managers as WED was now part of a global publishing group. Oh, and I was alone. The stakes became higher indeed!

Resorting to fervent prayer more often, I geared up for an uphill climb. I was relentless in my calls and forged partnerships with some high-value clients for long-term deals. After 4 years, I looked back and saw a 500% increase in sales. We were also already in the black and I was eventually awarded a Sales Person of the Year Award besting other nationalities. As far as I know, I was (and still am) the only Filipino who got that award. I also realized that 80% of my sales came from 20% of my clients -- the Pareto principle!

Having moved into various media including that of dotcoms, billboards, TV, and even a stint in recruitment sales, I realized that success comes with passion. It is waking up everyday embracing the prospect of a deal. This is where the adrenalin rush comes from. It's in the negotiations and crafting of proposals where the mind works more than the tongue. It's when after each presentation, faith sets in.

Lesson learned: many sales persons lose the game when they lose the passion. If you can spring back into action despite a setback, that's passion. If you're mind races into imagining solutions while the client is briefing you on their challenges, that's passion.

My practical advice? Be genuinely concerned in helping a customer or client find a solution to their challenges. See through those challenges as opportunities. In the end, it's how you got to closing the sale is what matters. This is where learnings come from. You solve a client's problem, you got a sale for your company. Think win-win -- genuinely.