The Southwestern Company Alumni Blog
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One of the challenges that I encountered when recruiting college students for the Southwestern Company summer program, was conveying to a non-business major how sales experience would benefit them. Most of us quickly learn once we leave academia that everything is some form of sales. That statement has been validated every time I talk to a Southwestern alumnus that is not in sales.
“In my current roles as author, artist, restaurateur, and mother, not a day goes by that I do not draw on the skills I learned both selling books and recruiting a team. I am constantly having to convince someone about something. It is ALL sales and it is ALL about how well I can communicate with people.” Whitney sold books with Southwestern for four summers (1992-95). She was a top salesman, top recruiter, and a top manager–a triple threat. Fourteen years after leaving the bookfield, Whitney came back to share how tapping into your right brain can positively impact your success. “The right brain voice is completely present, while the left brain is thinking past or future. The left brain gets frustrated with specific details, while the right brain looks at the big picture. I think you have to be in your right brain to be open to ‘coincidences’ or trusting that even though you’re not in your comfort zone, that things will be provided for you.” After leaving Southwestern, Whitney began helping hundreds of people find their creativity as founder of the Creative Fitness Center. The Center first gained national recognition on HGTV. Today she continues her outreach leading corporate seminars, teaching art classes, and as a creativity expert on television & radio. Whitney is also an artist, a wife, a mother, and a co-owner of Rumours Wine Bar that builds communities around food, wine, and art. Whitney recently published her first book, The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit (Turner). In Whitney’s book she discusses the principle of tapping into your right brain in order to use all of your resources in everyday decision-making. “I had a blast speaking at GRS because I know what it takes to be successful as a recruiter and I have had 14 years since my Southwestern career to gain valuable hindsight that I was excited to share. I feel all of my experience has led to this moment when I am busy selling and promoting my book. The message in my book is so important because it proves that our right brains have a powerful voice that we are not hearing, a powerful perspective that we are not seeing and that it has access to valuable mental skills that we are simply not using if we do not access this voice! My last summer on the bookfield was my “right brain summer”. I went from 5000 units to 8900 units and from a 35 person team that sold ZILCH to a #3 team. How? I accessed the RIGHT side of my mind that did not get caught up in the details or frustrated at individual results. I was completely tapped in to my vision of selling a TON of books and having a top team. Because of the strength of my vision and the right brain voice inside my head, I trained my team more effectively and I hit steak EVERY single day on the field. It did not matter what temporary circumstances tried to trip me up, I knew it was all going to work out and it did! That is a ‘right brain performance’.” It seems that the sales experience can benefit the artist and the artist can also positively impact the sales experience. Learn more about tapping in to your right brain at creativelyfit.com.
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,-Whitney-2008.jpg "Whittney Ferre, Southwestern Company")
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
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Sales is more about communication than it is about talking. It is about knowing how to ask the right question at the right time and to really listen to the answer so the person talking really feels heard. So many of us are so quick to say what we’ve got to say that we either don’t listen or don’t listen effectively to really “hear” what the customer is saying. Find out where they are coming from. What is it that is their bigger struggles? What isn’t going the way they want it to at this point?
Now in just thinking of those three comments what profession do those NOT apply to? They apply to every. There is a very narrow and unwise mentally that gets developed and it is very myopic and that is if I am in engineering I must get engineering experience. If I am in medicine I have to have medical experience. And the list goes on and on. 1st of all in your first three years in any profession you’ll have so much experience, you won’t need anymore experience. Something to consider doing is something that will help you grow and stretch in areas you will never pursue in the normal course of events as a Doctor, Dentist, Lawyer, Engineer. After all what will 99.9999999% of all the other students in those majors have done? Get experience in their major. So when you back away and THINK that may not be your best bet.
As Zig Ziglar says, “If you want to be like everyone else, do what the average person does. But if you want to be above average, then do what the above average people do!” Above average people don’t let “experience” in their major be the criteria for what they do with their summers dictate what they do.
They are working to develop confidence in themselves that no matter what the situation somehow they will be able to make a go of it because they are developing personal self-development skills. That’s what SW is about—a great self-development course where you “have to take a look at yourself.” You can’t avoid it. There are no others to point fingers at. One must take a deep look inside oneself and rise to the occasion that lies before them and by so doing they become a stronger person.
So here is the Major every college student in the world should major in: Personhood. What do I want to be like in years to come and what are decisions I am making today to become that? It’s a cinch by the inch and hard by the yard.
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