podcast ·Nov 02, 2026

Two Weeks of Quota in One Afternoon | Jay Setchell

Jay Setchell had a rep named Craig who'd sit in the office all day making calls that went nowhere. So Jay walked in, told him to get his ass out the door, and rode along on his afternoon appointments. They started at noon. By 5:30 they'd booked two full weeks of Craig's quota.

That's 1982. GTE, the Yellow Pages, a sales binder 8,000 pages thick. The phone book is dead and almost everything Jay did with it that afternoon still works on a Tuesday in 2026.

He's got six decades in this business. He's also died three times. On the 4th of July 1981 he broke his neck, drowned, and came up paralyzed from the shoulders down at 31 and a half years old. He was out almost a year. Two days before it happened he wrote a $1,640 order in Minneapolis against a $20 a day budget… 82 days of quota out of one call.

The part I keep chewing on is the sidewalk. Jay had appliance dealers tell him everybody in town already knew who they were. So he'd walk them out front, stop strangers on the street, and ask if they'd ever heard of the place. Then he'd ask where they'd look if their washing machine died. Roughly half said washing machines, half said appliances. The guy was invisible to half his market and had no clue.

This Episode You'll Learn

➣ How Jay got a call-reluctant rep to book two weeks of quota in one afternoon, and what he made him redo before they ever left the office
➣ The sidewalk test that shows a business owner, in about 90 seconds, that half his market has never heard of him
➣ Why Jay set his own quota at 225% of what the company asked for, then kept raising it
➣ The two-choice appointment ask that gets a yes from almost everybody, and why Jay still calls it old news
➣ What a great salesperson says after the proposal is on the table (nothing at all, and for as long as it takes)
➣ How to turn a $30 a month upgrade into an easy yes by asking what ONE sale is worth
➣ Why Jay asks for a tour of the plant before he pitches a single thing to a business-to-business buyer

📲 Connect with Jay Setchell

☛ Website: https://neverquittrying.com/
☛ Book: *The Strength Within You: It's Always Too Soon to Quit*, on Amazon

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Frequently Asked Questions

How did Jay Setchell book two weeks of quota in one afternoon?

His rep Craig liked to sit in the office and make calls, and over the phone it's easy for everybody to say no. So Jay looked over Craig's proposals, made him redo one he didn't like, and said he'd be back in 20 minutes. They hit the road around noon and closed the last guy around 5:30. Craig needed to net $40 a day, and they came back close to $400 up. In Jay's words: "I had his budget for the whole damn two weeks in one afternoon."

What's the sidewalk test for showing a business owner what they're missing?

Jay sold Yellow Pages ads, and appliance dealers would tell him everybody in town already knew who they were. So he'd walk them out front and stop people going by. Had they heard of the store? And if their washing machine broke, would they look under washing machines or under appliances? It came back about 50-50. "So he was missing 50% of the potential sales and the people didn't know it." His fix kept the bill sane: shrink the big ad and spread that money across more headings.

What should a salesperson do right after making the proposal?

Stop talking. Jay's rule is simple: "once you've made your proposal, shut up." He coached the same way. After a call he'd tell a rep he left money on the table, ask what he missed, then sit there quietly while the rep worked it out. "A good teacher will point you in a direction but not give you the answer." One rep finally got there on his own. The dealer serviced towns outside his main phone book, and he'd never been offered a spot in those other books.

How do you make a small upsell an easy yes?

Ask what one sale is worth, then bring the number down to one the owner can't argue with. Jay's dealers wanted to say $500 a job because it sounded good. Fine, call it $300. How much of that is profit? The owner says $150, and Jay says call it $100. Then the add: a one-inch ad with a little logo under five headings in another town's book, $6 a month each, $30 total. His question: "what if you get one sale for that 30 bucks?"