Hi everybody!

 

The Sales Throwdown team and I are going to try something new. Not new to the internet or anything, just new to us. 

 

It’s a blog. And it’s a blog written by me, the person even more behind the scenes than Paul, the producer.

 

My name is Melissa. I edit the videos for YouTube, write emails, and manage a lot of the social media. I’m the one trying to make sure that everybody knows how great this podcast is and how awesome the four people you get to listen to are. 

 

Full disclosure: I am also the girlfriend that John talks about occasionally. We’ve been together for 16+ years, we have an awesome 8-year-old daughter, and two stinky yet adorable pet rats. We had a beautiful little pug, but she reached the end of her life in August. It was briefly referenced in an earlier episode, and I think everybody should know how wonderful our Bella was. 

So, why am I writing this blog?

Well, I have never been a salesperson in my entire life. I worked in retail for an excruciatingly long time, but that’s not REALLY sales. So, I’m even more new to the world of sales than the newest newbie. 

 

For a very long time, I believed what most people believe about selling. You were either born to do it or you weren’t. 

 

But through John’s studying in both sales and psychology and his incessant talking to me about it, I now know that it’s just not true. By all accounts, John never should have been a salesperson. But, as cliche as it sounds, that dude can literally sell ice to eskimos. 

 

Even though I am not currently a salesperson, listening to their podcast is still very helpful for me. 

 

First of all, the kind of communication they talk about is relevant in way more than just sales situations. I can’t even tell you how much better communication started to get between John and I when he started learning this stuff. When they say it improves relationships, they don’t necessarily just mean client/salesperson relationships or business relationships. 

 

Second, I want to start my own business soon. Helping the Throwdown team is awesome, and I really love it. But I’m not getting any younger, I have knowledge around writing that could benefit others, and I want to be my own boss and help other people grow their businesses and livelihoods. 

 

So, I may not be a salesperson now, but I’ll have to start selling myself and my services soon. 

 

The plan for this blog is to tell you what I’m learning from them, being a newbie and untrained sales conversationalist. Each episode, I want to break down what I learned, how I might struggle with it, and how I felt about the episode in general. 

 

Whether you’re also new or you’re already a sales pro, I hope you enjoy my take on their podcast. Sometimes hearing how other people feel about something might bring a new aspect of it to light for you. And I’m really excited about this! 

 

If you have any questions, please ask. And feel free to let me know if I’m getting something completely wrong. Because if I am, somebody else might be misunderstanding it too. 

 

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon!