Sales Training: Patience in Selling

by Mark Bowser

Patience is a sales weapon that can reveal miracles. Patience in selling (and in general) is something with which I have difficulty. I am a go-getter who doesn’t like to wait. But the truth is, we all need to learn patience. Through patience and persistence in our sales career is usually how success happens.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Dr. Thomas Cooper took on the tedious task of editing a known dictionary. He also improved it in other ways including adding thirty-three thousand words. Dr. Cooper had already been working on his project for eight years when his hateful, ignorant wife went into his library and burned every note he had on the project. She believed she was saving him from killing himself from too much study.

A short time later, Dr. Cooper went into his library and found the burnt mess. He inquired about who would cause such tragedy. His wife boldly and proudly said that she had done it. Dr. Cooper looked at his wife and said, “Oh, Dinah, you have just caused me a lot of trouble!” He then sat down and began another eight years of work to replace the notes she had destroyed.

Wow! Now that’s patience. My friend, do you have that kind of patience in your sales career? Do I? I don’t know. I hope I would possess the same courage and conviction as Dr. Cooper to start again, don’t you?