A Twist on Sales Failure

Complete Story

03/04/2026

A Twist on Sales Failure

Source: Bill Farquharson, March 2, 2026

Lightbulb Moment

If you’re new to sales and frustrated after 30 days with no results… good.

When Thomas Edison was asked how many iterations he has endured in his attempts to invent the light bulb, he answered, “10,000.” “But,” he added, “that does not mean I have failed. To the contrary. It means I have succeeded in finding 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Here’s the thing: Sales is hard.

The act of finding the right people to call on is hard.

Getting their contact information is hard.

Coming up with something worthwhile to say…Psyching yourself up to make sales attempts...Knowing how to leave an effective voice mail message?

Hard—Hard—Hard.

Then there’s enduring the pain of rejection, making a second attempt and experiencing a second rejection; overcoming the “I am going to be fired any day now” and “I am probably the only one who can’t do this” destructive thoughts; and showing up the next day to rinse and repeat.

Weeeeeee. Are we having fun yet?

But the mistake isn’t struggling. The mistake is thinking you’re failing because you are struggling.

This is the first mindset shift I teach to Sales Vault members who are new to sales. If this is you, too, know you are not alone. Know this is normal.

Sales is hard. But what if you looked at it differently and could see you are focused on the wrong thing?

What if, instead of seeing your failures, you see yourself as successfully experiencing the difficulty of starting out in sales?

Well, in that case, congratulations are in order, don’t you think?

Watch Bill present this week's sales tip

The Sales Vault, created by Bill Farquharson, is a subscription-based resource and sales community featuring a calendar packed with live workshops, on-demand sales courses, peer-to-peer discussion groups, and 35+ years of sales training content all searchable by sales challenge. Think of it as a sales conference where the seminars and workshops, full of instantly applicable ideas, are ongoing and more programs are added constantly.

The Sales Vault is available on a monthly subscription basis, normally at a no-brainer monthly price of $45/participant, but… GMA members can take advantage of an exclusive offer: FREE membership for 30 days followed by a discounted monthly subscription price of just $40/participant.

Bill has been a friend of GMA for many years and is, no doubt, known to our members as a top sales trainer and content creator for the graphic arts.