Sales Managers Don't Sell; They Teach

by Robert Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter

While I was doing my market research on the different network marketing businesses, I found many successful people who worked very hard and could sell, but they were not successful with their business. The reason they were not successful is that they were selling for those who could not sell. For example, I went to this meeting and a new business owner had invited several of his friends and family to come learn about the business opportunity. As I sat in the room listening to the presentation, I realized that the new business owner's upline sponsor did the entire presentation. The new business owner said nothing.

After the meeting, I asked the new business owner if his upline leader spent any time teaching him the nuts and bolts of selling. He said, "No My upline just wants us to get people to the meeting. He's the only one who does the selling because he is the best salesperson."

Right there I knew there was a flaw in this particular network marketing company's educational system. First, the training was a joke. Secondly, it only wanted people starting businesses to bring their friends and family so the better salespeople could sell them. It was not a business school. It was a sales school.

While I was at Xerox, my sales manger, Charlie Robinson was on of the best teachers I ever had. I would make the appointments and Charlie would go along on the sales call with me. During the call, he said very little. After the call, we would go back to his office and we would analyze the sales presentation. We would then discuss my strong and weak points. After the lessons and corrections, Charlie would then run several sales training drills and exercises to strengthen my sales skills, especially the skill of overcoming rejection. That is how I became a sales person. I became a sales person because I had a great teacher. Although a great salesman himself, once Charlie became a sales manager, he had to become a teacher. And a great teacher he was. That is why he sat silently on most of my sales calls. Occasionally he would step in to show me what to do, but most of the time, he sat silently letting me make my mistakes. The message is to be successful in network marketing, you have to be like Charlie Robinson: a great sales person and a great teacher. Once you learn to do that, the business becomes a dream come true.