I love sales! There is a challenge in making the people connections . There is a challenge in gaining people's confidence. There is a challenge in closing the sale.
But I don't sell anymore.
I was born again in 1978 very quickly afteward was recruited as a distributor for Shaklee Corporation. I loved the products, the plan and the people. I got rid of everything in my house that could be replaced with Shaklee products and started contacting friends.
In a short time we were assistant supervisors then supervisors. We traveled to the plant in Norman, Oklahoma and to states where top sales people held conferences.
I had seen the signs which were none too subtle. Neil and I attended Jewish Marriage Encounter (during the phase when Neil was trying to woo me out of Jesus back to Judaism) and met a couple who couldn't get enough of us. Sada said, "Whatever you two have, I want." Instead of leading Sada to the Lord I signed her up as a Shaklee distributor. We spent hours and hours and hours together.
We attended a conference in which Scripture was used, and instead of Jesus, Shaklee was inserted. People were given the opportunity to purchase busts of Dr. Shaklee.
Everyone I saw became a candidate for Shaklee: they needed the business opportunity, the better health, or a non-poisonous way to clean their homes.
I was addicted to adding people into my business. I did not have one friend to whom I had not sold or whom I had not recruited.
Many people can do business and also ministry. I was told by leaders that if I could just blend the two I'd be a phenomenon of success. But I couldn't. I had to choose. I chose evangelism. I chose fervor for Jesus. I simply could NOT justify spending minutes talking about a business when I could be attending the soul and spirit.
I did finally share my faith with Sada. Since she is also Jewish I gave her a jewel of book called Raisins and Almonds which is simply a compilation of stories of Jews who saw the truth about Yeshua. She called me saying, "Our friendship is over. I have never felt so used and betrayed."
Interesting: she never felt used when I was building my business on her sales ability, but she felt used when I offered her a free gift of a glimpse of my Savior.
More! I had recruited ALL of the members of our Jewish encounter 'family' into Shaklee. The"Love Family" met once a month sharing stories of ourselves and our marriages. It was wonderful! The Love couples became some of Neil's and my best friends. After Neil joined me in Jesus we decided that we needed to 'fess up' and tell these Jewish folks who we were. I invited all of the women to the Magic Pan for lunch and told them the story of how I came to faith in Jesus. They listened politely and even smiled at me. At 8:30 that evening the phone rang. It was a husband of one of our Jewish love friends. "Our Love family is one couple too big." I thanked him and told him it must have been difficult for him to have made that call. We never saw or heard from any of them again.
I gave up my business because I simply COULD NOT mix Jesus with my profit. Was it right? I don't know. I still use the Shaklee products. If I sold anything, it would be Shaklee. But I sell nothing--except the joy and love in my heart for Jesus, and that's free.
Being in sales gave me one gem that I've kept in my heart all these 32 years. "80 % of sales are made on the fifth call." I learned to be tenacious. Just because someone doesn't want to hear about how Jesus changed my life the first time or the second time or the third time doesn't meet it is a forever 'no'.80 % of the sales are made on the fifth call.
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