Most people have an aversion to sales. Plus, they find it hard to say no. You’d often take things the way are and also feel that negotiation is something politicians do.
If you did exactly what everyone else did, you’d always end up with what everyone else has got.
Most people might not take it this way, but we are all in the business of selling. Yes, even us “non-selling” types. In fact, according to Daniel Pink – popular author of the book To Sell is Human, we are all moving, influencing, persuading, and selling — all the time. It doesn’t have to be just products or services.
Your decision to become a train conductor is one thing; how well you do at it is something else. Here are a few tips to make sure you build something else off you, apart from your CV:
Be the best you can be
You can’t get to any of the below tips without this: be the best you can be. Put in more training hours than any of your peers.
Study the hardest. Work the hardest (and smartest). If everyone averages 60 hours of training in a week, you pull up an average of 80. Go home late. Come to work early.
Learn to negotiate
You won’t get anywhere if you just had to take everything lying down. You won’t have it your way if you let everyone else eat the cake. Negotiation skills are greatly undervalued and no one is teaching this in schools.
You either get lucky, or you don’t. It doesn’t have to be this way. Learn how to negotiate better by being willing to walk away from anything – it’s the single biggest secret to winning great deals (that might just include your train conductor job)
Challenge status quo
Have you ever heard any of this?
“This is how we do it here”
“Sorry, it’s the company policy”
“The rules state that.”
None of that should matter to you. Prepare to challenge the status quo. If someone got to you with statements like this, just say:
“I know. But I’d like…”
Be assertive and get your way through.
Do your due diligence
Going for a interview? Read up on your employer. Plus, stay informed about the economy, the country, a wee bit of politics, and almost everything else under the sun. Doing your due diligence puts you in the zone of winning from strength. If knowledge is power, doing your due diligence is the starting point for that strength.
How are shaping up to be? What special things do you do in your quest to become a conductor?
