First Knock on the Door

It was an overcast Fall afternoon. I took the thin 8.5x11 colored two-page pamphlet and started on foot out my front door. I figured I needed to walk a little further away from the current blocks that surrounded my house, so I ventured towards Old Farm Road.

I got a few houses in from the turn, walked up the sidewalk and the single concrete step to the house, and rang the bell. A middle-aged man answered and I shyly asked, “Would you like to buy something from our cheese and sausage catalog?”

He replied, “No.” And then shut the door.

Offended, hurt, and dejected, I walked back to my house teary-eyed. I hiked up the long concrete sidewalk to our front stoop and appeared back inside a mere 15 minutes after my one and only sales attempt for the day.

My dad was in the kitchen and I proceeded to tell him what happened. His response surprised me. Instead of coddling, which I wanted and expected, he said curtly, “So you got a no. Are you going to give up just because of that one?” He knew me pretty well and that if I was challenged, I’d rise up and want to win.

After sulking a bit, I did return to my sales effort. I didn’t outsell my brother who had a supernatural ability to win others over, the little stinker. I had wanted to win the prize, which back then might have been a new disc man.

Decades later, I have no idea why our school chose to sell cheese & sausage, snacks, nuts, and spreads—think of it like a local Harry & David mid-90s option—as our fundraiser. But it was highly successful and we were required to do it as students. Either that or my parents decided it would bring good character-building moments for their kids to get involved in door-to-door sales in middle school.

I know I’m dating myself as this is a bygone era when kids could go and knock on doors without the supervision of their parents! But I have never forgotten that experience. As a social person, I thought the guy was so rude to not engage me in some sort of conversation or at least inquire a bit about my school or little life and then let me down gently. But at that time, I could only see it from my decade-long personal experience.

Today I want to share 5 little lessons from my story that apply to the present business climate:

1.) Sales is in everything.

You sell yourself to get an interview, during an interview, and during the onboarding process. You sell your services to attract and win new clients. You sell your point of view to pitch a new internal project. You sell yourself to date or to become engaged for marriage.

Everyone, everywhere, at some point, has had to sell himself.

2.) Strategically choose your audience.

I chose to go to the houses that were further away because I expected my classmates who lived by me to have already hit up the neighbors. I didn’t know that they had done this. I assumed it. Big mistake! And while I’ll give my 10-year-old self some credit for creativity to reach a larger audience, I missed a key ingredient in sales: sell to those who know you. A cold pitch is always harder than a prospect who has been warmed up.

3.) Embrace the rejection.

We will hear no. It’s not sales rocket science to grasp that another no is one step closer to your next yes. It takes training and persistence to learn from the no’s, to mitigate resistance that leads to maybes or eventual yes’s, and to become much more strategic with your outreach so you are targeting the right audience. I knew absolutely nothing about the people who lived in that first house I knocked on. I was only thinking about me and my check box for the first sale. A surefire way to fail is to focus on your needs instead of the customer. Perhaps if I’d started with a question about his day and how was he doing, I might have generated a little conversation before my cold pitch that led to a closed door.

4.) Know what motivates you.

If I had to swear to what the prize was for the top seller in the cheese and sausage campaign to raise school funds that year, I couldn’t do it. But it was cool enough to make me get out in the cold and overcast skies of a Midwest Autumn and call upon strangers to see if they’d be willing to bite. Your “why” could be very simple like a prize trip and it can be more complex like time to spend with your aging parents. But everyone has a “why" that ensures you’ll get up after a knockdown.

5.) Getting up after failure is winning all day long.

I still remember being annoyed (a reminder that I was a pre-teen) with my dad’s response. But as per usual, he was right. And I did get back out there. Now think about if my dad had handled that with coddling? Would I still have that kind of fight in me to persist even when things are hard? No. And frankly, it’s what we need more of in this business climate. Coddling the next generation will not create better leaders down the road. Tell it straight. Make room for people to make mistakes. And collectively we need to avoid the turn towards “Excuse Lane.” 

Failure is inevitable, so learning how to respond when it happens and move forward with new understanding is critical. For the record, I strongly dislike losing. So this one is still tough for me. Not the getting up part, but the falling in the first place. The good news: we still have another day to learn something and get better. Together, let’s make it a good one.

Michelle Rademacher is focused on providing insights into the real-world challenges we all face daily. Please follow her on this platform and subscribe to this monthly newsletter to receive wisdom, inspiration, impartation, and practical tips to see success come forth in your life.