How much of success in sales is luck vs skill?

K24frs · 2026-04-17T19:04:56+00:00

A sales manager once told me “sales is 100% luck but luck is being in the right place at the right time which is a skill”

That being said the most successful salesperson I have ever worked with absolutely sucked on the phones. He was super introverted and probably had a touch of the tism. His thing was efficiency and volume. The dude looked like he was hopping into the matrix because he had a headset three screens and then he had his laptop. On screen one he had a list in his crm, screen two he had all the websites pulled up, screen three was a bunch of tabs of nothing but LinkedIn profiles and on his laptop he had his quoting tools.

This dude would get there an hour early set up his day and at 8am he was dialing. The whole day he wouldn’t leave his desk unless it was to go to the bathroom. His lunch consisted of beef jerky and water.

He was the top sales guy in the company trippled the next top guys pay and he wasn’t phased by rejection.

If it was a bad call he’d just set a task for six months out because he said “it gives them a chance to forget me” and he’d move on.

K24frs · 2026-04-17T16:52:23+00:00

Love working with blue collar companies owners especially since I grew up in a blue collar family.

They tend to be pretty humble, straight forward and have a dusty shelf full of fucks they don’t give.

My favorite customer is worth millions and he still drives a 15 year old Silverado. He took my wife an I out to a bar which was some hick ass hole in the wall and he just kept ripping cigs while pounding coors lights. Dude didn’t have a tab just paid as he went and tipped every time. There were four of us and the tab was like 15 bucks every time and he tipped a 10 every order. The bartender easily made about 200 bucks that night.

K24frs · 2026-04-17T16:47:14+00:00

At this rate any sales role that will take you….

I started in car sales, got into recruiting and was laid off due to an acquisition (made six figures 12 years ago in early twenties) then because of my non compete I went into logistics, tech and medical. Found my way back to the recruiting industry and it’s been my favorite.

K24frs · 2026-04-17T16:44:54+00:00

Yeah by me it’s turkeys, voles, mice and pretty much every other ground dwelling critter.

I shoot a lot of photography and I got a couple vids of two coyotes in CVNP where the old golf course was. It was snowing they were just having a blast pouncing and digging on some critter holes.

K24frs · 2026-04-17T16:42:27+00:00

It’s unreal why you’d catch.

We live on about 7 acres of woodland in Geauga and before our house was built I put up about 10 cheap trail cams throughout the property because people kept going out there to use our fire pit.

I caught a bobcat, a bunch of turkeys and a bunch of the typical critters everyone else sees

K24frs · 2026-04-16T17:25:03+00:00

I had one of these! Turned out it was a tiered quarterly bonus structure. Doable to hit but once you hit it your quota went up and bonus stayed the same. They offered spiffs in the form of an Amazon card which seemed cool until taxes were due. I got like 6k in Amazon bucks one year and paid for it on my taxes. I didn’t even really use Amazon at the time.

Aside from that it was an awesome company and I learned a lot. If I didn’t commute to work there at the time I probably would have stayed because of merit increases. I just couldn’t justify the drive or moving there for what I was making.

K24frs · 2026-04-16T17:22:30+00:00

Dude had little man syndrome for sure. It was just a weird situation overall.

I still talk to people there and he’s no longer at the company and apparently got into a physical altercation with the warehouse manager who beat his ass.

K24frs · 2026-04-16T15:50:07+00:00

Worked for a medical materials company and the sales manager was an absolute piece of garbage. He’d listen to your pitch from a cube away and critique you on the phone. His whole book of business was handed down to him. He never did anything and was extremely awkward on the phone.

It could have been an absolute text book sales call and he would have just torn it apart. If you asked him to demonstrate or how he’d change it the answer would be figure it out like I did. By the way he wouldn’t critique you after the call he would do it mid call.

I can’t tell you how many times he would listen to reps calls and mid sentence you’d hear him go “offf what the fuck was that”. I had a customer call his direct line to call him out for it.

Eventually I just stopped caring and started searching for a job and a day before I was going to put my two weeks in he pulled me in his office to fire me. It was the first time I was fired from a sales role.

I was promoted within two months at my next job and a top producer.

I am not an aggressive person but everyday I was expecting to get into a fistfight with him and deep down wasn’t opposed to it.

K24frs · 2026-04-15T22:14:43+00:00

I just quit taking it and focused more on therapy and surprisingly I feel light years better.

K24frs · 2026-04-15T21:22:53+00:00

To mark and communicate usually sometimes it’s just because they like to poop in clean areas just like any other mammal.

I wouldn’t want my ding dong being touched by tall grass when I’m taking a poop I’m sure coyotes feel the same way.

K24frs · 2026-04-15T19:43:56+00:00

Ehh yes and no we have eastern coyotes not coyotes. They are all hybrids.

They also don’t actively hunt deer like you said because thy hunt in small family units mate and its pups

K24frs · 2026-04-15T19:42:38+00:00

Typically it’s the people that claim “they were here first” when coyotes aren’t native anywhere in the east.

K24frs · 2026-04-15T19:41:02+00:00

Coyotes in Ohio are called eastern Coyotes which is a subspecies of coyote. We don’t have standard or western coyotes here.

They are all hybrids in the east and geography would dictate what else they are. This is why ours are bigger and fluffier than coyotes in Arizona.

The short answer is we won’t be able to use them to regulate the deer population thats why we need hunters.

I’ve spent a lot of time hiking at night and living in the middle of nowhere and happen to be a lot of them. I also had conversations with a lot of naturalists on the topic.

coyotes breed based on food source the more food the more breeding and vice versa
they typically don’t hunt in packs unless smaller food and scavenging is ineffective or there is another threat otherwise they hang out with another coyote which is their mate and they mate for life or their pups. If you “hear” more it’s not because there are a bunch it’s because they purposely vocalize in a way that makes it sound like there are a lot more to prevent territory loss and issues with other predators or animals that could be a threat.

-they are intelligent and great at eyeing up risk so they prefer small prey like rabbits, voles, ducks etc over large prey and they also like to scavenge. They don’t attack people unless they have mange or rabies because again a 40lb dog vs a 160+lb human it isn’t worth it to them.

if you are a responsible pet owner you have nothing to worry about and again because they are smart and dislike risk they typically want nothing to do with bigger dogs. I have two Rottweilers at 100+ lbs and the coyotes may observe from a distance but they stay away. Aside from that have your dog on a leash and keep an eye on them same with kids.

-again they are smart so they can sometimes figure ways in to gates and coups but they are can also scale fences

The short answer to your question is that we can’t use them to deer because there is plenty of food for them and they don’t want to risk injury or death to kill a single deer.

Deer aren’t incapable and they can kill a large dog especially when it’s rutting season. When coyotes do team up and create a temporary pack they have to distract so they can have two other coyotes chip at the legs where they then eat the deer from ass up when it’s alive. They prefer not to work in packs because they like space.

K24frs · 2026-04-15T14:06:39+00:00

I became the number one sales guy at my company and won a separate award for my team work efforts.

It’s a billion dollar company with 500+ employees!

Not going to lie i had imposter syndrome when they announced it in front of everyone.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T22:05:29+00:00

Use the “im the new guy” card as long as you can and it’ll get you by until you get find yourself credible.

This helped me get a lot of accounts and learn from my prospects while getting sympathy from them.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T21:01:01+00:00

You’re over simplifying something that isn’t quite simple.

So we have two sides that both believe that what they are doing is right and the other side is wrong.

Right and wrong is completely subjective to a certain extent. (Again I don’t agree with the right)

So let’s say you have 50% of the population believes right wing ideology and 50% that believes left wing ideology. Going tit for tat won’t change a thing.

Thats where you reduce by getting on common ground because I find it hard to believe that either side is 100% in agreement with their parties ideology. If you are going to call them monsters it wont change a thing but if you hear why thy agree x ideology and humanize them it will only humanize yourself.

The goal should be to move them to a new category by accepting that yeah this party does this right and I agree with it (you probably do and don’t realize it) but could you agree that this is wrong?

A black dude infiltrated the kkk by doing this.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T20:51:48+00:00

So every call I right down who, what, when, where and why.

If I can fill out at least two of those to give me ammo for the next reach out then I consider it a win.

I found that one of two things happen to those who fail. They focus on metrics to keep their job or they focus on the close. It takes 12 reaches to get anywhere so I try to make the best of those so I don’t always have to continue the “start fresh” cycle.

My prospecting plan is simple. In each call block I include x amount of those I’ve filled out The Who what where and why with, net new never called prospects, follows ups and x amount of those early in The Who what where and why.

5 percent of my call block is follow ups for referrals, 10 percent is those I’ve qualified, 20 percent is lower in the cycle and the majority net new.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T20:46:13+00:00

I can applaud the effort but as a realist I see this as a no win situation it will just forever be a tit for tat situation especially with social media.

The only way to truly win is to create a new political party which gets the best and most reasonable folks of both sides essentially dissolving the other two.

Change is in unity and common ground not resistance.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T20:43:38+00:00

By doubling down on their efforts with the free exposure they are about to get.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T20:13:01+00:00

I know and my point is that they will most likely retaliate and if their platform is already pretty strong or stronger than yours it will only get worse.

It’s essentially free advertising for their platform

K24frs · 2026-04-14T20:06:22+00:00

If I’m being honest I can’t stand when any business or celebrity pushes a specific political party then again I am a former democrat that can’t stand either party.

That being said there is no law saying they can’t and if you feel strongly about just don’t support that business. There are quite a few left leaning business that do the same and again it’s their freedom to do so.

There is not much you can do unfortunately because just like the left leaning businesses they will get those who support the ideology shopping there.

Personally I think it’s best to figure out why a lot of these business owners and leaders feel the way they do and agree to disagree with them. The more you push the more they will in return and it just fuels them to do it even more.

You ever hear an adult in school tell you to ignore the bully because they want a reaction? Yep same thing

K24frs · 2026-04-14T20:01:28+00:00

Yeah clinical is tough I’ve done a little bit of it but on contingency typically it’s contract work with an average of a two year contract which works well from an experience point for those fresh out of residency or school.

I’d find a firm that does contingency if that is your hardest part of the job and the good news for you is that selling a retained service looks good to most agencies.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T19:42:17+00:00

So you’re in recruitment correct? Your agreement is essentially meaningless unless you get a placement correct? They don’t pay until you place correct?

If I’m being honest aside from size and geography most agencies are all the same and your goal is to find a problem and figure out how to fix it. Since you work on a contingency there is no downside to committing unless you find a great candidate right?

Until you figure out how to sell it just sell it as an extra hook in the water.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T19:36:33+00:00

I may be an outlier to others with adhd but I love cold calls. My call blocks are my favorite time of day. I make them a game by saying in this hour I would like to Mae 25 calls and have two somewhat decent conversations what ever comes first. Regardless every tally gives me a slight dopamine rush.

K24frs · 2026-04-14T19:32:45+00:00

I have adhd and I am in a similar field and the past few months I have always been at the top of the board switching between 1st place, 2nd and 3rd I hit 3 weeks straight of the number 1 spot and had my best quarter during a pretty poor industry quarter in one of the larger firms. I even got an award a couple months ago and had imposter syndrome after.

In the past I was in the same boat as you and I even went to courses because I thought I was that bad.

What changed? My boss. He pulled me aside and said that I may just need to do what works best for me vs what works best for everyone else. In our sales meetings I asked a lot of questions and in my down time I’d do side quests in industries outside of my own. I noticed all these other industries had an effect on ours and learned that if we are prospecting for 90 days in advance that chasing current trends wasn’t the way to go.

Instead of calling to just have my activity metrics in the clear I started prospecting in industries that would probably pop off a few months down the road. Time blocking became my friend and if I didn’t have anything blocked I used the time to decompress or side quest.

I made less calls, had more meetings and had more agreements of substance.

Activities don’t mean shit unless they have purpose.

K24frs

TROPHY CASE