An obnoxious number of sales trainers have latched on to the Cole Gordon model of charging sales reps for placement.

$5,000 - $10,000 for a few weeks of training and coaching...then we'll place you in a role.

The sales role, sold as a biz opp.

"Are you tired of being a broke bartender (warehouse worker, realtor, cleaning lady, auto mechanic,...insert role here) and you're ready to make $40,000 per month using this secret business model? Click here to learn more!"

Thing is Cole and I have known each other for a long time and I know how good he is a closing sales, he's also an insane trainer, and an even better marketer...and has built a monster of a business.

He still has unbroken records at my company, I believe his unbroken record is having closed his first five sales conversations on an offer that was brand new to him. Back to back, 5 closed deals.

He has also spent an enormous amount of his own money to grow our industry. For that I am grateful.

My hat is off to him for those reasons.

A few negatives have come off the back of his effort though...

1) DUPLICATES - There are now hundreds of subpar trainers attempting to repurpose his model of "sell a non-salesperson the dream of freedom" then place them.

2) SUPPLY & DEMAND - The SUPPLY of sales reps far outweighs the DEMAND of sales opportunities. There are now 10's of thousands of new sales reps who have been made a promise, but have ZERO experience. There are not enough consistent opportunities to allow those sales reps the ability to earn their REPETITIONS.

Closers.io has grown very large and very fast. I have zero intel on the goings on behind the scenes, but I have spoken to a clients and salespeople who have used their services and the word is grim.

For the other wannabe's selling the same model...well, NOBODY I know is reporting happy thoughts about them. Be careful out there folks.

Let me be clear for anyone who hasn't built anything that big...myself included...when you scale something with that many moving parts, you will undoubtedly find holes in your fulfillment.

That's a pretty normal thing.

This post though, is for sales reps who want a snowball's chance in hell at obtaining that freedom you signed up for.

My intention up to this point in the post has been to share some truth for any would be salespeople who have paid to be trained and then placed in a role...or for anyone who has been pitched and is considering such an offer.

The goal is to provide you with some useful information so that you can begin to form a better picture of the decision you made to join the rapidly growing industry of high-ticket sales.

Lastly, to give you a very common path of the people who are at the very top of this particular, freedom filled career path.

What I am about to type for you I am going to refer to as Time Travel for Salespeople! If you're getting started you may have a VERY skewed idea of what it takes to make it to the top of the sales industry.

So what was the journey like for myself (and many others)...

1. We did not fit in to the normal mold...be a good student, go to college, get a good job...blah blah blah.

2. Sales was the only "big boy" career that would take us.

3. We started by doing the grunt work. No sign of $10k months. We made far less early on. For me it was $1,500 to $2,200 per month selling gym memberships.

4. The only job available to us was door knocking, cold calling, or appointment setting. We did that for years...in my case, 6 years. In the street, setting appointments. "Bring back 10 appointments or don't come back."-type vibes. But we did it...every day, and yeah we bitched and complained...until we realized nobody was going to save us. Then we kept showing up. Every single day.

5. I found a mentor, Ori Bengal who worked out at my gym...he gave me the most obnoxious mentorship ever. I would ask him a question and he would send me a link that would Google the answer for me. LMGTFY.com for anyone who needs to know. I love him for that.

6. He also offered me my first audiobook and told me, "Read it 3 times and implement everything you learn without question." I devoured it, and that first book, by Chet Holmes helped me take the number one spot in my company in under 30 days.

7. I kept selling, and kept devouring knowledge. HUNDREDS of books on sales, marketing, psychology, persuasion, manipulation, NLP, hypnosis, neuroscience, business, operations, human behavior, biographies, motivation, self-help, etc... This stuff included Youtube, videos, and other cheaper trainings.

8. Studied sales call recordings with intent. Like two to three per day. I listened, critiqued and took notes. My own...these are hard to hear sometimes, but will accelerate your growth x10... and I listened to others. People who were better than me, and people who were worse. Amazing what you can learn in these focused times.

9. Networked and found people who were better than me. At each event I attended I would hang out at the back of the room. I never sat in the chairs and listened...for one, I was always bad at sitting still in a classroom style learning and for two I knew the speakers were in the back of the room or at the bar. So that's where I was. Hint: When I was there I would listen and listen and listen...I was a listener for years only asking questions to make sure I learned all I could and to make these people felt heard and important. (Thanks Dale Carnegie) After I worked at home for another few years to master my craft...then and only then would I offer much to those conversations. I would wait until I heard small opportunities to offer gold nuggets and then slip them in.

Eventually they started inviting me to the dinners and parties afterwards.

10. Did the internal work. Let me SCREAM THIS FROM THE TOP OF MY LUNGS… It is impossible to lead someone in truth that you have not yourself yet discovered. Your lead needs a version of you who has done the hard work. You cannot fake the level of self-development I am referring to here. When you see someone you look up to spitting truth and it hits you at your core…it is because that person has likely walked the walk you are on and it is undeniable.

DO NOT NEGLECT therapy, life coaching, performance coaches, mediation, journaling, alone time, nature, etc…

(Dr. Nic Lucas and Zack Blakeney are my coaches…)

12. Physical fitness. Our bodies are incredible machines and they require maintenance and nutrition to run optimally. You cannot show up for your leads the way that THEY need you to if you are not taking care of yourself mentally and physically. A mentor of mine challenged me once that it was borderline disrespectful for me to show up as anything less than my best self.

So… if you’re drinking the night before sales calls and have a little haze over your brain…you could literally alter the course of that person’s life, career, or future as a result. Yes, their family, too.

If you’re eating like shit and energy levels are all over the place…

If you’re not using exercise of some kind to increase your serotonin, endorphins, and all the happy chemicals in your brain…well you’re being disrespectful to yourself and to those who depend on you, including your family, team, and your leads. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder, but at minimum go for a walk a few times a week…even better, do something that raises your heart rate for a sustained period.

13. Lastly…do NOT be afraid to pay trainers to educate you. That is an investment in yourself and NOT ONCE has that ever been a bad decision. Money requires flow, sometimes you need to encourage that flow…when I am stuck, and yes even now, 18 years into my career I still get stuck. I have found for me it often takes me surrendering to EGO and hiring someone else to be my brain for that next period.

Some I got an obvious ROI and others the ROI came in the form of hard lessons.

A few considerations and skills and material you may not be thinking about…

- Financial education…learn to manage your money

- Investing…learn to multiply your money

- Time management…learn to control time you wizard you

- Emotional Intelligence…you have a history, explore it

- Neuroscience…how people think and the way the brain works

- Human history…biographies and autobiographies are some of the best mentors

- Customer service…I started here and it has been an incredible tool

- Poverty…everyone starts with how to get rich, but it is impossible to do until you know why you’re poor.

Find a learning style you WILL digest. Courses are a hard no for me, I do not open them and they go to waste…back to that whole classroom style of learning, lol. After you spend $50k or $60k on courses you don’t open you’ll quit doing that.

I succeed far better with a mentor and group coaching. Find mentors you align with in terms of character and culture.

Ok, folks…you’ve heard now how I did it. Go do it.

Sorry to cut this short, I was writing it before the family started moving around this morning and now it’s time to go be with them!

Love you all and I believe in you!