A discussion about sales, sales tips and advice, and about those who land the deal

First in a series:

We're talking to Jim Holvay today, former gold record songwriter and musician with The Buckinghams.  They were huge back in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  Jim wrote more than a few hit songs for the group, including "Kind of a Drag", "Susan" and "You Don't Care" and "Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song."  Jim was hanging out with Elvis, married to a Playboy Bunny, and loving life.

Until the band folded, and his music career started to dry up.  That's when, around 1980, Jim Holvay traded in his guitar and a life on the road with a hit band for a salesman's life in Southern California.  After two decades of success in sales, Jim now finds himself as a regional manager for the business services division of Office Depot.

This is his story...

Jim, why sales?

"Well the reality was that my music career was over.  It was fun...I had a gold record, had appeared on Johnny Carson and with Dick Clark...it was a great career and everything.  But I knew I had to find something else."

"One day, I literally just bumped into a guy at a 7-11 in Los Angeles.  He was one of those guys that followed the band around from town to town, and was a huge fan.  It was weird that I bumped into him out of the blue, but he recognized me and we started talking."

"He asked me, 'Hey, when is the group going to be back playing in Vegas?', so I had to tell him that we had broken up the band and weren't playing anymore."

"He asked me what I was doing now, and I didn't want to tell him I was wandering around unemployed so I lied: I told him I was working for a record label.  So he says, "That's too bad, I always thought you'd be great at sales.  Sales is all personality, and you were always the friendliest guy in the band."

What happened next?  Read the next post...