The Southwestern Company Difference Blog
Have you ever noticed how stories of entrepreneurship have common traits? An overwhelming sense of perseverance, survival against the odds, long tedious hours and a driving determination to achieve are a few examples. Ask anyone who has started their own business.
The same traits can be found in another breed of entrepreneurs who choose a legitimate channel of business. The path that leads to your door in the form of direct selling, and more specifically, door-to-door sales.
Somewhat unconventional nowadays? Not as much as you would first think. Plenty of successful people have cut their business teeth on the experiences they gained while selling door-to-door or through direct sales. For some, it is opportunity knocking, for others, it may not be there calling. Sometimes you just have to do it to find out. For the college students who choose to challenge themselves by running their own business selling Southwestern company educational books and CD’s it is often a stepping stone to their future career. And those stones are for the individual student to step on according to a suggested guideline of proven success. As independent contractors for the Southwestern Company, student dealers are not handed a completed foundation. They build their own foundation one step (door) at a time.
With the negative press traveling sales crews receive, and deservedly so, it is sometimes easy to forget not all companies that use the door-to-door sales model are bad. Door-to-door represents a unique glimpse back in time to how business was conducted and was the birthplace of some amazing industry – and still is!
Another thing to remember – while the purpose is to make a sale, sales is an afterthought to the lessons learned by dealing with so many people and leaping out of your comfort zone. Let’s face it, door-to-door is much more than just about knocking on doors.
