Many months ago, I wrote about side hustles and how I ruined my relationship with playing guitar. This is a snippet from the blog -

‘That became my first business and my first sales job i.e finding customers and convincing them to pay me money. That’s a story for a different day.’

Well, today’s the day!

I was 17 when the decision was made - I’d make money by teaching guitar. This was 2010, social media was in its early days. I had the brilliant, totally original idea of sharing my plan on social media! That should bring in a few customers. I posted on my facebook , got a few likes and comments encouraging me but no sale. Damn! This would require more work.

I told my father (a career salesperson) that I posted online but got no traction. He smiled and asked, “What are you going to try next?” I got the sense he didn’t think I would actually find a customer.

That night, I worked on creating a poster - pretty simple premise - Wanna learn guitar? Call at (phone number) I also added a picture of a guitar so there wasn’t any confusion about my services.

I was going to go around the neighborhood and put these posters up. I went to the stationery store and asked them to print one sheet. Then I went to the other store and asked them to photocopy 100 copies of it (It was cheaper to do that, every penny mattered at this point)

Armed with a stack of posters, I was ready to build awareness about my business and close a sale. It’s a hot summer’s day. Mumbai summers are humid and get pretty draining. I decided to call for help. I asked my friend to help me with putting up the posters and in exchange I’d take him out for a drink in the evening (Maximum 2 drinks. Cheapest rum on the menu. Every penny mattered) Promise of free alcohol worked and he came along. We spent 4 hours plastering this poster over every possible spot I thought would get attention. Some posters got taken down within minutes of us putting it up - in hindsight I should have asked before putting it up.

I returned home sweaty, and tired but excited about the future! I kept looking at my cell phone, waiting for the barrage of calls to come. The next day, the phone rang but it was someone trying to sell me insurance. The second call was a potential customer!! He asked me how much it would cost and I blanked. In my excitement to get this started I hadn’t thought for a moment about how much I should charge customers. Rookie mistake I know. I floundered and started beating around the bush while I did some mental math. The guy realised I was an amateur and hung up and didn’t return my calls either. In that moment I felt broken, I’d lost the one deal that was going to kick off an empire. Lesson learned, I wrote down 3 pricing options for customers to choose from - Objective was to get started and then word of mouth would take care of the rest.

However, no one else called. This time I decided to be a little more hands-on. I printed out another 100 posters (1 print, 99 photocopies, every penny matters) I walked through all the floors in my building and slid the poster under every door. Everyone will pick it up to look at it right?

It worked! My phone started ringing. The first 7 told me to not do that again. They weren’t happy about spam. It gave me energy though, because this was generating engagement! That meant people were looking at it. the 8th call was a potential customer. A gentleman in his 60s, just retired and looking to learn a new hobby. I was ready this time with my pricing, he said he would think about it and get back to me. I saved his number and did a little dance! I followed up with him the next day and he agreed!

I was so excited I started running around my home! When my dad got back from work, I told him I made my first sale! He immediately hugged me and we both couldn’t stop grinning from the rest of the evening.

Over the next couple of years, I went on to teach more than 50 students across different demographics. I still remember every sale clearly. It became apparent to me that I enjoyed selling more than teaching guitar, so I stopped that and became a career seller. The thrill and high of closing a deal still gets me out of bed to this day.

Like most salespeople, I am an accidental seller. I stumbled into it because I wanted to make some cash. 10 years later, I’m still selling and smiling :D

What’s your first sale story?

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