I started working in sales when I was 19, and I remember how nervous I was when I had to pick up the phone to make my very first sales call. My palms were sweaty, my heart was racing and I had a real sense of dread in my stomach.

In fact I was so scared, I was convinced that I’d only last about ten seconds before the person I was calling would either start to shout at me for wasting their time, or even worse, just hang up on me!

I was relieved that I somehow managed to get through that first call without making a complete idiot of myself, and my nerves started to calm down a little.

As my first day went on, I started to feel really disheartened. I realised how hard I was going to have to work, and how many calls I would need to make, to just get through to someone who'd actually give me the time of day - let alone actually make a sale!

What was even more demoralising for a new starter like me was being told by some of my more experienced colleagues, who'd all been doing the job for a couple of years, that things wouldn't get much easier for me. Even with all their extra experience, they were still making a huge number of calls each day just to get one or two sales.

This meant they constantly felt under pressure, and their sales targets hung like heavy weights around their necks.

I knew I didn't want to come into work each day feeling like that. So I decided to take action to improve my situation, by reading every book about selling I could lay my hands on!

Some of the Things I Learned Came As a Real Surprise.

Not only did these sales experts really enjoy making cold-calls, I realised most of the techniques and strategies they recommended were the exact opposite of the methods I'd been using!

So I experimented with the different sales techniques the sales experts recommended, measuring how successful they were. I analysed how I could improve the best methods even further, so I could keep enhancing my skills and make selling a stress-free and enjoyable experience.