TORONTO, Ontario, January 28, 2021 – When you look at the lives of the most successful entrepreneurs, one may find some unique qualities these tycoons appear to share. Seemingly immune to rejection and adversity, the traits of successful entrepreneurs are often used as a gauge by others to determine whether they’ve got the right stuff to succeed as business owners in the future. But Josh Pocock knows from personal experience, that people aren’t necessarily born with these traits – they can be learned. And earned.
Josh Pocock, founder of Executive Stride, always knew he wanted to work for himself – he wanted to build his own business and be his own Boss. Recognizing that he would need to acquire many different skills to succeed as an entrepreneur, Josh made personal development and skill acquisition his main priority as a young adult.
“When I was in high school I started reading anything I could get my hands on about business and success. I also started enrolling in a ton of online courses, learning everything I could about sales and entrepreneurship. But I think some of my greatest business learnings happened pounding the pavement in my first job as a 100% commission door-to-door sales agent.”
The ability to sell is one of the most important skills an entrepreneur needs to master; If you can’t sell your product, service, or ideas to others effectively, your chances of success are slim. But Josh was a hard worker, and at 16 years of age he was pounding the pavement 10 hours a day. It was a crash course in sales, Josh says, facing rejection and overcoming adversity that no college or university could possibly offer. Through his entire first month, he never made a sale. Within a year, however, Josh’s perseverance had paid off and he was able to create a team of ace sales agents. And by the age of 18, he’d become the top sales manager in the company. All the while, Josh continued to study and learn.
“I did the math. I knocked on thousands of doors and pitched hundreds of customers. I worked in every weather condition you can think of – summer heat waves, snow storms, torrential rains, and everything in between. I learned how to sell, but I also learned how to build teams, how to manage money, how to set goals, and a number of other valuable skills. In hindsight, it was the hardest but probably one of the most career-elevating experiences of my career.”
At 18, when he launched his own business, Executive Stride – a digital marketing company focusing on Lead Generation – Josh says that the learnings he’d gained in door-to-door sales were invaluable.
One of the biggest hurdles for most sales people is the ability to deal with rejection – but Josh had already learned never to take a negative vibe from one interaction to another, having faced rejection literally thousands and thousands of times.
“Customers can sense it if your attitude is even a little bit negative. You just can’t let a ‘No’ impact your mood for the rest of the day. If you need time after a particularly distressing encounter – take it – but remember that every new prospect deserves to experience you at your best.”
Another strategy Josh learned selling door-to-door was to focus only on the aspects of the job that he could control.
“I could control my activities, like the sales process and the number of doors I chose to knock on each day. But I couldn’t control the results, and whether or not the person at the door was going to buy.”
Once Josh had mastered the ability to focus exclusively on process, replicating those processes day-after-day, the sales inevitably came. And he no longer wasted valuable energy worrying about ‘results’. Josh says he implements this same strategy running his own business; he’s designed rock solid processes and procedures for every business activity and he’s learned that by following these proven processes, business results will materialize.
Finally, Josh says that selling door-to-door taught him the value of ‘knowing his numbers’.
“When I was selling door-to-door I tracked everything. At the end of the day, I could look at my tracking sheet and see exactly how many doors I knocked on, how many decision makers I talked to, how many presentations I gave, and how many products I sold. In between each step of the sales process was a conversion rate. Knowing what the numbers meant helped me identify which steps in the process I needed to improve.”
Whatever industry you’re in, there are always key performance metrics in your business that warrant tracking. And when you track key metrics, you become better equipped to make good decisions. In door-to-door sales, Josh learned that by tracking his numbers, he was able to identify his areas of opportunities, implement new strategies, and accelerate growth. As Executive Stride CEO, Josh says he tracks his own numbers and his clients’ numbers vigorously.
When he launched Executive Stride, Josh’s objective was to build a full service digital marketing agency to help other businesses grow and prosper. But like most other business owners, Josh needed a rock-solid system to keep his sales pipeline full of qualified leads. Out of necessity, Josh created his own system of automated lead generation – he started offering the service to his customers, and now Stride Lead Generation is Executive Stride’s primary offer.
“That’s another important thing I learned selling door-to-door – I learned how to adapt. Sometimes just a few small tweaks in a sales script can make all the difference. And if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you also need to be able to adapt or you’ll be left in the dust. The ability to evolve and be responsive to your environment can keep you in the game and lead to further growth and success.”
Josh is committed to constantly taking his business to the next level through continuous learning experiences; he’s always evolving processes and procedures to better improve Executive Stride Lead Generation services for the businesses who need them.
By implementing all the skills and knowledge he’d gained through door-to-door commission sales, Josh was able to grow his company fast. And after he’d established a proven system for building profitable online businesses, Josh wanted to help others looking to escape the 9-5 rat race. The Executive Stride Training programs were developed for budding entrepreneurs looking to build a sustainable income from the comfort of their laptop. These programs include step-by-step guidelines with everything you need to know about setting up a fully automated client lead generation system that works 24/7/365.
Executive Stride is currently offering its Lead Generation and Stride Training services to businesses in North America, Australia, and the UK.
If you’d like to learn more about Executive Stride and the services offered check out their website executivestride.com. People who are keen to learn more about Josh can visit his personal website, joshpocock.com.