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Unlike 99.99% of people in sales who end up there by accident, Austen chose to go in to the profession. He didn’t want his life choices determined by others, he wanted to be his own boss. “If I was going to fail, I was going to do it my way” is one of his humorous quotes.
So he went into selling on a self employed basis selling life assurance. After almost quitting many times in the first 2 years, he came to realize that he wasn’t as clever as he thought he was and that if he was ever going to become the salesperson he was capable of being, he needed to learn how to sell properly and professionally. He did that by reading books, by listening to (as it was back then) audio cassettes and attending sales conferences and listening to speakers. (One of his heroes was Charlie Jones who he heard speak in 1981.)
Ultimately Austen went on to be a really good salesperson but when building his first sales team he discovered he was a better manager and trainer. He built and sold 2 sales businesses, (building many sales teams in the process) and retired at the age of 49 before coming out of retirement 3 years later to launch the sales training business he runs today. He considers himself to be extremely lucky to have found something he truly loves to do and people will pay him to do it.
For more with Austen, he can be found at:
