Ryan Ing

Photo: Customer named Natalie we helped out. She said the security and fire protection would give her peace of mind for when she travels, and the doorbell camera would help her screen the front door for strangers.

Before you even touch a door in BC, you have to get fingerprinted. They have pretty strict licensing out here. Without a license, I couldn’t work the first week. So I was paired up to work with my buddy Nova Mehta, the top rookie in Canada last season.

A Harold and Kumar working together, we had customers laughing out of their pants. Jokes like:

– “I’m here to set you up with a smart home, the asian guy is here to do your dishes”
– “Honestly tell me, which looks cooler, the white hat or the black hat?”
– “When you call for customer service, you get my direct line… you’re not talking to a call centre in India with one of this guy’s cousins”

Best part is, we closed a total of 8 deals in 8 days. There’s amazing consistency when you put great minds together.

Nova’s name made a reappearance, as Top #11 in all of Canada that week.

Now that the week is over and my license is in,  I’m off to work solo for the 11 days I have left here.

Statistically speaking I don’t even know how this is possible. Usually at least 1/100 in prospects are a super easy ‘yes I was already looking for this’ type of interaction.

It could just be bad luck – or it could be a sign that I’ve let something in my process slip.

I take this sales slump as a hard lesson about keeping a cool head even when things get tough.

We have a common saying in our company that goes:

“Don’t ride the highs too high, don’t ride the lows to low.”

Never get too excited or get too down on yourself. Long-term sustainable success comes from consistent action each day.

All I need to do is stay focused and I’ll get back on track.

Funny door of the day: I’ve never seen a sticker like this on someone’s door, lol.

What do you think I did? What do you think happened? Take a guess!

Returning home from work, my team members paraded me with high-fives, cheering:

“Ryan, congrats on dropping a two-bomb!!”

‘Two-bomb’ is slang for landing two sales in a single day.

In that one day, I sold more accounts than my entire my first month! Ridiculous huh?

It’s a crazy feeling to have outperformed your own manager (for once!!!)

With two guys being fired last week (they had 0 sales even after two months), our team is down to 14 members. So I’m very grateful to still be here, and to finally get a hold of things.

Work becomes much more enjoyable once you’re good at it.

From a monthly perspective, I’m still in a relatively low position on my team’s scoreboard, but if I can keep up this pace, I’ll quickly start gaining position.

Three-bombs here I come!

On Work Day 04, I made my first sale. Currently I’m at Work Day 22.

Here’s a photo of the current company scoreboard.

See where my name is? Yes, you’re seeing things correctly. It’s sitting at the very bottom. Unfortunately I’m currently #25 in my team, sitting at last place
Continue reading “Day 22: Ryan Sitting At The Bottom Of The Scoreboard”

Day 06: Today I slowly crept up to a medium sized house on the corner of the street. There was only one car in driveway, which is usually an indication that only one of the home owners are present (and consequently only half of the decision makers.. which are not good prospects) Nonetheless, I decided to go with it any way.

A friendly man opened the door, and even took a step forward onto his doorstep; a sign of interest and willingness to listen. As soon as I showed him the doorbell camera, he was immediately interested. He loved the idea of being able to check his smartphone to see when his kids come home from school, and being able to remotely unlock the doors for them in case they forget their keys. With just a few questions here and there, he was happy to sign up.

I talked to him about his work in water sanitation. He explained how some people in the rural areas of Halifax use water well systems so his work with Halifax Water ensures people have clean drinking water.

Top left: Mr. T happily standing with his wife in front of his newly installed system. Bottom left: A pack of Dad’s Oatmeal Cookies and a cup of freshly brewed green tea that they kindly offered me, as we patiently watched the technicians get their drills and wires ready for the installation. Right photo: Screenshot of the company scoreboard showing my new high score of “1”.

Continue reading “Today I Found My First Customer”

My first day of work was tough. Real tough.

The downside to such a demoralizing day of work is that it deals a sharp blow to your self-esteem, and makes you question your capabilities. You feel like you want to quit and go home.

The upside is that it forces you to re-evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. In today’s training, my manager told us quite frankly:

“This job shows you if you are weak or strong. You will know very quickly.”

I’d certainly say he’s right. Within two hours of working the job, I did feel weak. But, we know that necessity is the best motivator. I must necessarily get better at what I do if I want to stop having negative experiences with customers.

So I’ve created a system for myself to help track my progress:

I record the results of every door I knock on.

If you’re curious, “NI” means not interested. “NQ” means not qualified.

Here’s how it turned out:

Day 2: Knocked on 20 doors.

Day 3: Knocked on 40 doors. Landed 2 in-home presentations.

Day 4: Knocked on 50 doors.

Day 5: Knocked on 15 doors. Landed 4 in-home presentations. My personal record!

Sure, I haven’t landed a single sale yet. But I have numbers to prove to myself that I’m getting better at what I do. This is what keeps me going and keeps me from going insane.

A coworker explained the concept of Zorro Circles to help me with this. The following story is from the movie The Mask of Zorro:

When Zorro first started out he had no focus and no control. He wanted to do too much, too quickly. His training began with the drawing of a single circle in the sand. Don Diego told Zorro that his entire world now existed within this circle, and he had to master what was inside of it before he could move on to the next circle. Through time and dedication, Zorro mastered circle by circle. As he learned how to command his emotions and began to understand and utilise his skills, he eventually had the ability to accomplish his goal. (His goal in this case being to take on the army. No big deal.)

Source: Geckoboard

So for the meantime –  I’ll be like Zorro. Just focused on the small circles around me that I can control and master.

Have you ever worked a job where you felt so emotionally bombed that you were afraid of showing up at work the next day?

Have you ever had a rejection so visceral that you sat on the curb for 90 minutes demoralized, contemplating your life? You vindictively ask yourself “why am I doing this?”. And out crawls from the darkest corners of your mind, an echoing voice of self-doubt that whispers “maybe this job is not for me. I just wasn’t made for this. I don’t think I can go on any further.”

That was my day today. My first day at work.

Continue reading “The Most Emotionally Demoralizing Day of Work Ever”