Let me tell you about the time I sold a tractor.
I am not mechanically inclined by any means; I am not a great salesperson either. It’s hard enough for me to come out of my introvert shell and sell my books, let alone try to haggle someone about a piece of machinery I know hardly anything about. Don’t get me wrong, my negotiation skills have definitely improved, I just can’t bluff my way through something I don’t know anything about.
So when I was home over the summer my husband texts me saying some people might be coming by to look at our Kubota tractor. I made it very clear via text that I was not comfortable with that as I only knew about the problems we had discussed on the tractor. The battery was out and put on a charger; I wasn’t sure if I even knew how to crank it.
Later that day my menstrual cycle decides to go into high gear and I am in pain from cramps while trying to go to the bathroom. That’s when the doorbell rings.
I ignore it at first, hoping it was a salesman or something and they would leave me in my agony. But nope, the person starts to knock.
I make myself presentable, and lo and behold, it’s a person that’s come to look at the tractor! I put some shoes on and lead him to where it rests. The guy was really nice and hooked up the battery for me. He even did his own inspection, turning it on himself, using all the levers (it was a stick shift with like ten different sticks). I told him about some of the issues I knew about, and also told him what worked. In the end, he thanked me, said he had others lined up to look at that day, and mentioned if he was still interested he would check back.
Cue my move back to the toilet. That’s when I saw my husband’s text messages about multiple buyers coming by today. Multiple?
Fortunately the next buyer arrived after I had finished my business. He loved the tractor, and also took the extra brush hog we had as well. I got to drive our new Jimna tractor, a bigger and infinitely easier to drive model, to help lift up the brush hog and move it towards his trailer. There were moments when I had to quickly call my husband to ask where a feature was, and to his credit he answered and helped me out. I got the brush hog unloaded, and the guy drove the Jimna up onto his trailer to set it down since I was a little weary of doing that.
Apparently my husband watched the whole thing on our camera system and told me later I did a great job. The whole time though, I was completely out of my comfort zone and worried I would blow the deal or would break something on the new tractor. But I got the job done and now we are back down to one tractor for the property.
What have you done outside your comfort zone lately?