Take Control of Your Sales Career

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Sales people fret and stew over hitting quota and a host of other items. As a manager they would come to me and ask what they should do? My advice was always the same. Stop worrying about your quota, performance plan, and what others think about you. Are you happy? Are you making the income desired? Are you hitting your goals? If not… why are you letting someone else run your career?

Let’s see if you’re in charge.

What do you do to further your career on your own without being told to? (Training-certifications, health-appearance, dress for success)

PRO-ACTIVE

If you know the company you’re working for is having financial problems are you already looking for another company or are you waiting for the lay off?

PROMOTING

Do you update your resume regularly or just during unemployment emergencies.

CHANGE

Do you pro-actively ask others (peers, managers, assistants) how you’re doing or do you wait for a review?

EXPERT

WINNER

GOAL

If you’re not taking your sales career by the horns and riding it for everything its worth then you really have missed the point. Sales is tough but can be extremely rewarding. It takes a lot of guts and tenacity to be a great one. Don’t waste your time and your company’s time with a mediocre attitude and performance. Take control of your sales career.

About the Author

Chris is a proven Sales Veteran that currently holds the positions of VP of Sales at DataTel Communications and President of Lottspace.com. Web Designer and established Sales Success Author. Dad

<Businesses are living breathing entities.

You are either feeding them or they die. Sales success is not any different. What new idea, new process, or new excitement have you brought to this venture? Is this your responsibility? Success is 100% your responsibility It is so easy to get wrapped up on the daily duties that there’s no planning, educating, motivating going on. I’ve talked about business/sales plans Setting Goals: 1-2-3 Sales Plan Success™ before. Taking this a step further… Have you looked at your market trends? What is your competition doing? Are you capable of directing – understanding how to keep up and excel? My industry is not any different. I talked about holistic selling Holistic Approach: 1-2-3 Technology Sales Success™ before it was popular to do so. Very few understood where I was going with this. Now we have virtualization of phone systems, location based integrations, and cloud based services. Our competition is not only from traditional players but now from search engine companies, etc... Presenting this to my sales team I found them terrified of the implications. They are going to have to re-think, re-learn and the hardest part… change. Unfortunately most won’t until too late. Over the years I have watched prosperous businesses and sales professionals fail because they simply could not keep their minds open to a changing world and market. They wanted to stick with “tried and true” processes that made them successful for years. I watched as a router/switch company became a phone system company and changed my industry overnight. Many couldn’t make the change to VoIP and are either dead or dying. Today those that are selling solely phone “appliances” and not services, (hosted, virtualized, cloud based) are going to find themselves behind the curve and possibly in trouble. My guess is this example can apply to pretty much any industry. A bit of advice Do you find yourself in this same predicament? Here’s a bit of advice… Do not change everything. But do change. Take some time to look around, investigate, and understand what is happening to your market. Educate and wrap your arms around this information. Put it into your newly developed business/sales plan and execute. Most importantly become an evangelist and an expert. You will most likely find your career and business less tedious and possibly gain back some of that mojo you had when you first started.

Take Control of Your Sales Career

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<Businesses are living breathing entities.