We recently connected with Saxon Cwalinski and have shared our conversation below.

Saxon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

Prior to joining Smallwood’s Yachtwear, I was living New York City where I got my first real taste of what a high pressure sales job was. I moved there with big dreams but with no real plan. With no college degree you have to work a little harder for people to  give you a chance. The only way I was getting people to speak with me was by walking into offices, no appointment, but with a print out of my resume asking to speak with the manager. As you can imagine, I wasn’t having the best luck. Then in a stroke of luck a friend of mine who also lived in New York reached out to let me know her company was hiring. I had no idea what her company did but I jumped on the opportunity and after three interviews I was a professional recruiter for one of the largest IT recruitment firms in the world.

While recruitment may not sound like a typical sales job, it is where I learned a majority of my sales skills. You were convincing companies that the only way to fill the position they were hiring for was to use you (creating a need) and then you were finding top talent (usually employed, the best always are) and selling them on the opportunity to join this other company. This job was filled with constant objections and obstacles from both sides and that was after the hundreds of cold calls and cold emails you sent just to finally get someone to agree to speak with you. I learned how to deal with push back, how to negotiate and how stay positive in tough situations. It was one of the most difficult positions but also the most rewarding. I worked on an amazing team and still call some of them my best friends to this day.

From there I went to a tech startup, still in NYC, selling tech support. It had a lot of similarities to my previous position. Here I learned much more about the art of cold calling and cold emailing. I was lucky enough to work with a few managers that were truly experts at their craft. They taught me how to navigate multi layered organizations in order to find the decision maker you need to speak with. They taught me how to make someone realize they did in fact have a need and I had the solution. Most importantly they taught me how to turn “I’m not interested” into “lets set up a time to speak further”.

For as difficult as my time was in NYC it was 10 times more rewarding. These jobs taught me the most important lessons which are to have a thick skin, don’t take no for an answer and that the hallmark of a great salesman is consistency.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Since 1981, Smallwood’s Yachtwear has been creating customized uniforms for private yachts around the world and I am lucky enought to lead the sales team as the International Director of Sales. We are very proud of the fact that we have been, and currently are, the leading supplier of uniforms to the Yachting industry.

We are growing and with locations in Fort Lauderdale, Antibes, and Barcelona, we have positioned ourselves in the Yachting Capitals of the world. In addition to outfitting Yacht crews we are currently supplying several Restaurants, Boutique Resorts, and Luxury Cruise Lines.

Smallwood’s has a reputation for being the place to go when you are looking for something unique, when you require quality, and when you demand service. We cater to a particular clientele that doesn’t accept anything less than a 10/10 experience every time. We understand the importance of uniforms and know that often a crew or staff member in uniform is the first impression a guest or client has of the company. We consider ourselves partners with our customers. We want to be in the background helping to create and sustain a company’s image.

At Smallwood’s, our design approach is based on individuality, placing emphasis on the creativity and style in line with each of our customers. We do our homework to learn about our clients and to understand the image they wish to portray.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

ItIt has been a rewarding experience working with a company whose values and ethics align with my own. Smallwood’s has the reputation as being the company that will follow through on their promises, deliver a high quality product, and be there ready to respond quickly to any need you may have.

I had a Director who use to tell me that in every customer interaction, no matter how long or how short, they are judging you on three things. The company, the product and you as a person. Each of those need to be 10 out of 10 for a sale to close. We have a reputation of being 10/10 across all three of those. I wish there was a quick way to get there but the truth is that this reputation is from years of holding ourselves to a high standard and not accepting anything less than perfect from our team.

There will always be a new shiny company that people might go to for a little bit but it is the companies that have the reputation of getting stuff done and treating people right that will weather any storm.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Absolutely, I think every sales person should have to read the following books….multiple times.

Think and Grow Rich – Napolean Hill
How To Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
From Good To Great – Jim Colins. This is my absolute favorite.
Sales Management Simplified – Mike Weinberg
The Effective Executive – Peter F Drucker
Atomic Habbits – James Clear

I also really enjoy the podcast “How I Built This” with Guy Raz.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smallwoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallwoods_yachtwear/