Life of a Salesman

Luke Goldberg shares his 28-year journey as a salesman in the aftermarket imaging supplies industry.

I started this odyssey way back in 1991, right here in southern California working for a company called Future Graphics. I was selling toner and OPC drums to a fledgling, and rapidly growing base of remanufacturers in the U.S. that would reach 7000+ strong by the year 1995. I didn’t know much but as a recent college graduate who loved learning, I dived in, avowed to know everything I could to hone my craft and to bring value to my customers.

Since then, I have been privileged to work for the best companies in this industry which I represented to the best of my ability and invested with complete confidence that my customers would be better off partnering with the companies I represented. Today, I am proud to represent Clover Imaging Group which has empowered me to bring my ethos of service, value, and consultative partnering to serve Clover’s global base of customers. I have been honored to visit more than 60 countries in these years and to gain a better understanding of the unique challenges, opportunities and cultural underpinnings of each.

I have met some incredible people over the years and have had amazing experiences. In short, I have been blessed to be part of this forever-in-flux business of ours. I have been blessed to make a living in a business that engenders consumer choice, enriches the lives and livelihoods of countless entrepreneurs while providing an environmentally sustainable option to global consumers.

I was asked to write about what I have learned in these 28 years. I don’t know that it can be encapsulated in just a few hundred words but I will aim towards brevity which has never been a strong suit. I have always had certain maxims that have driven my personal and professional life. Fundamentally I have learned that developing certain core principals and staying true to them can be a recipe for success. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t evolve, we need to continually adapt to a changing world, and changing industry, BUT we have to stay true to ourselves and live and work with integrity.

In my experience, here are some of the absolutes that I have tried to honor in life and in work:

1. You can’t fake it: be passionate about what you do and what you sell. No one wants to buy from someone who doesn’t believe in what they are selling and a lack of commitment will come across every time. A big part of whatever modest success I have achieved is that I am a true believer; I believe in the value of our market’s business proposition, and I have always steadfastly believed in the companies I represented. I did then, and do today, firmly believe if I created a new relationship that both parties would equally benefit from that association. If I stopped believing it, I could no longer represent that company and it was time to move on.
2. Be a student of the game: learn and absorb everything you can about your product, your industry, and your customers. Become an active listener; don’t be so caught up plotting your next sentence that you cease to listen. You will always learn more listening than talking.
3. Sales 101: mean what you say and BE your word. Early on, I succeeded because if I said I was going to do something the person on the other end KNEW I was going to do it. Sometimes circumstances or outside forces can make this difficult but you need to do everything in your power to be reliable, consistent and most important; truthful!
4. Face to face visits: they are STILL critical and will never be replaced by technology. To create real relationships your customers need to see you and get to know you. I have seen this over and over again, especially in my international travel where the appreciation that I travelled 6,000 miles to see someone cannot be overestimated. You CANNOT understand a market, its customers, and its opportunities unless you get off your ass and go there.
5. Learn to manage every encounter with your staff or customers with empowering context. Don’t worry about being right all the time, worry about being effective. Early in my management career I was passionate to the point of volatility; I was respected and feared. It didn’t help that I am 6’2” (188cm), 230 pounds (104kgs), bald and ugly. I look like a Russian hit man crossed with the villain from the Avengers Infinity War, Thanos (see picture courtesy Marvel Cinematic Universe). I obliterated phones, computers, anything I could get my hands on. It was never directed towards anyone, just those inanimate objects. But, how did it occur to those who saw this behavior? Hardly empowering. Since then, I try, whenever possible to make sure anyone leaving my office doesn’t leave feeling defeated or deflated, but motivated and empowered.

I want to thank the companies that I have worked for, and the executives who I have learned from and who entrusted me with marketing and positioning their companies. All of them have provided me with vehicles to learn and grow personally and professionally. I am not done yet and I am just as bullish about our industry as I was when I was selling those OPC drums for US$32.00. I will leave it at this; there is never a time when we should stop learning other than when we leave this mortal coil; being a student never ends, we are all works in progress and I have enjoyed the last 28 years with all of you in this industry all over the world. Thanks for helping to shape the Luke of yesterday, today and tomorrow.