Page 69 - James Caan - The Real Deal

7 · The Job That Changed My Life

people living that kind of life, it’s impossible not to get high on the
atmosphere.
Reid Trevena was an early example of the brokerages and
financial services firms that came to epitomise the 1980s, and
everything the company did was designed to make the employees
sell more policies. Tom and Len arranged for motivational
speakers to come and address the team; there were sales charts on
the walls so that consultants could compare their performance
against their colleagues’, and every time they made a sale they had
to ring the sales bell. And when the bell rang, everyone had to
applaud, even if we were in the middle of a call ourselves. The
atmosphere in this place was awesome, the place was always
buzzing, and the noise was incredible. Every day someone would
walk in with a new suit, a new car, a new gadget or a tan from a
long-haul holiday: these were dynamic, hungry and confident
people, and that environment spurred the team on to greater sales
figures and bigger incomes.
I learned so much in those days about the dynamics of business
and about how people perform, how they respond to encourage-
ment and how they succeed. It was fascinating to see how people
performed when they didn’t have the safety net of a basic salary.
From watching the motivational speakers and observing my
colleagues, I quickly realised that I could use all of their sales
techniques in recruitment, and the skills I learned in the early
eighties were, without doubt, the foundation of the companies I
would go on to create in the years to come.
I remember some of those motivational speakers very clearly.
One told us how important appearances are when you work in
sales. ‘Everything about you is like a shop window – how you
look, how you sound, how you present, how you walk, how you
speak, your hair, your briefcase, your watch – everything about
you becomes the window display. If you don’t invest in yourself
why would you expect to be successful? If you don’t train yourself,

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