The comment was made while I was sitting down with my contact at Saint Vincent
de Paul where I had just finished helping serve over 700 homeless people. Each
Monday for the past 10 plus years, Jimmy Walker who sells insurance to NBA
legend Michael Jordan and created Celebrity Fight Night brings in a speaker to
encourage the people that SVDP serves.
“Watch out for Michael he is a salesman” was the comment made as the gentleman
as he passed by. I was meeting to discuss the development of our own signature
charity program for MedHealthIQ which will help the children of the families they
serve in career choices.
Yes, I am a salesperson and I am proud of it.
As my Life Coach Arnie Fonseca likes to say, there are two ways people make
money in this world. You sell something or you inherit it.
My first job out of college was with a company that is ironically based in Arizona.
I was a field representative for Avnet Electronics back in the
Baltimore/Washington DC area. I followed that up with a very successful sales
career with a division of Honeywell, going on to set records in both revenue and
profitability and benefitting financially myself in ways I had never imagined.
I even spent a few years out of the sports and entertainment business selling cars.
Now that is a tough gig especially if you are a transparent and honest person like
myself.
So when this gentleman said what he did my first reaction was “is that how I am
viewed’? After all, I own multiple companies, have pulled together many
resources in all of them in my role as CEO and I was meeting with a charity to help
others.
Well as I have learned long ago after reading The Four Agreements, you can’t take
things personally.
Selling is something that comes naturally to me. I love to help people and hearing
what their needs are. I also surround myself with respected people and quality
companies, many of which I have successfully done business with. With past and
current agency clients that have included respected brands such as Apple, Hershey,
the WTA Women’s Tennis Tour and Tommy Bahama, there is no denying that I
“sold” someone on hiring us.
So this week when MedHealthIQ finally settled on our CBD manufacturer Alpha
Therapeutics, I asked them what were their greatest needs. Geoff Dada their CEO
said sales.
After spending a year evaluating different manufacturers including the two of the
largest worldwide, Kannaway and Folium Biosciences, I am glad I settled on
Arizona-based Alpha Therapeutics. Geoff runs his company with a similar
mindset with full transparency. The ingredients are listed on his packaging as is
the company that did the testing. There are less expensive products on the
marketplace, but since we are serving the professional and serious athlete
marketplace we want the best, not the cheapest.
With samples in my possession I set out to do a sales call yesterday to Vibrant
Health in Scottsdale. They are a full service health care practice and I completed
what I am confident will be the first in many more sales successful calls. In fact, I
plan to build a global network of like-minded sales people that want to help
athletes by providing the best in products, services and devices grounded in
Naturopathic Medicine.
So if you are in sales please take pride the next time someone makes a comment
that they may view as a put down. After all, a quality sales person is one of the
most important positions on the planet.
Michael Benson
MedHealthIQ CEO and Veteran Sales Person