Rose Sarro wasn’t supposed to be a salesperson. It was 14 years ago that, after working in a couple of different industries, she joined Promo Direct (asi/300477), the company run by her brother-in-law Dave Sarro (the CEO and president) and her husband Dan (the director of operations). Rose was hired to help with samples and invoices, but one day the calls were flooding in and the company was shorthanded. Dan asked Rose, “Can you help on inbound calls?”

“I was hesitant when that happened,” recalls Rose. “I thought, ‘I’m not ready for this, I don’t know if I can do this. What am I gonna say?’ I was told just answer the phone and see what the client wants. And when I answered that call and closed the deal within an hour, I told myself, ‘Hey, this isn’t hard. I can be good at this.’”

Sarro turned out to be a natural, and today the VP of sales at Promo Direct is billing millions of dollars’ worth of orders – success that has earned her the title of ASI Media’s 2024 Distributor Salesperson of the Year.

In this podcast, Sarro offers her advice to other reps and walks through how she and Promo Direct executed the company’s first million-dollar order last year. She also explains how she achieved sales records despite taking a five-month sabbatical in 2021 and giving away practically all of her clients. And lastly, she covers the importance of listening to clients, and why she’s addicted to sales training podcasts.