Historically, a lot has been said about our profession, some good but mostly negative. I have had the pleasure of having to explain to family, friends and colleagues in other professions what the true meaning and the purpose of a “Sales Professional” is and should be.
This post somewhat tries to encapsulate the “True” representation and “Traits” of a Sales Professional.
Traits of Sales Professionals:
- Many sales professionals are of the belief that the best trait of a sales person is one who speaks the most on a sales call/engagement or the loudest vocally, I on the other hand beg to differ. Essentially, the best trait of a true sales person is the ability to listen and actively engage in a conversation.
- Defining what you want and keeping it S.M.A.R.T ( Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound) – This means you need to set your criteria around Personal expectations, Professional expectations and Financial expectations.
- Another key train is your attitude/character, having a clear end goal, good morals and a positive mental attitude ( PMA ) drives your actions which is an essential requirement to be a sales professional.
- You need to have a desire to learn and acquire knowledge, with vast amounts of data available to everyone, todays buyers are well educated and as a sales professional you need to be armed with useful insights in order to be credible and stand out from the rest.
- Criticism is part of the role and excelling at it, and you will need to be open to being challenged in a constructive manner. Don’t be afraid to take rejections, in fact, the response NO means “ Next Opportunity”.
You will face challenges but always remember, SUCCESSFUL SALES PEOPLE see challenges as “OPPORTUNITIES” for “SOLUTIONS”
- Empathy, willingness to solve customer challenges through putting yourself in their shoes and seeing it from their perspective.
- Last but not least, always be confident to ask for their business since they will be expecting you to, otherwise your competition will.
Challenges to expect in a Sales Career:
As with every great opportunity there are hurdles to overcome, and a sales profession is no different. From the outset you will potentially be overwhelmed, due to the refining process you’d need to undergo. This refining process varies from one organisation to the next and also varies depending on the role, at the core of it, it’s YOU and how you’re willing to enhance/improve your old habits.
It’s important to emphasize that you do need to be yourself at all times and not put on a pretence. Your customers would always buy into you as the individual. Old habits that would need refining could be improving your time keeping, your organisation, self management and relationship management, self awareness and social awareness, listening skills, ability to retain information and many more. A specific blog on this to follow.
Career Progression within a Sales Profession:
There is a tremendous opportunity to grow professionally within your sales career. From starting out as an Inside Sales Professional or a Business Development Representative ( BDR ) you have the potential to work your way up to become a Sales Manager, Sales Director, Regional Vice President ( RVP ), Area Vice President ( VP ), Vice President ( VP ), Managing Director ( MD ), Chief Revenue Officer ( CRO ), Chief Information Officer ( CIO ) or a Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ).
This is certainly in no strict order in terms of career progression, in my career to date I have witnessed Sales Managers being promoted to RVP’s and Sales Directors to CRO’s. If you have a goal and a plan, and you work towards these, then success is possible.
Why embark on a Sales Career:
You have a desire to help businesses innovate, to help them grow, to help them succeed, and for you to learn and benefit financially through the process ( win / win ). You want to grow as an individual, you would like to have access to some of the best mentors whilst growing into a mentor yourself. You have entrepreneurial spirit and can see yourself running your own business someday.
A sales career can offer you all of the above plus more.
How to build your Sales Career:
There is no scientific way to approach this topic, this really is dependent on what stage you’re currently at within your career or education. If you would like some advise on how I mapped out my career or have any questions relating to a sales career, you can contact me for some advise here.
Taking the first step:
Every opportunity or challenge starts with making that first move, as a suggestion you could start by finalising your long term planning – i.e. defining your WHY and visualising your end goal in a Sales Profession and planning backwards. It’s vital that you decide which industry to kick off your sales career within, there are Financial Services, Technology, Retail, Manufacturing etc.
Now that you have a plan with an end goal and decided on the industry, the real work then begins with formulating your CV and aligning yourself with the specialist recruitment firms or applying for roles directly.
Linkedin would be a vital system that could offer you an insight into these organisations, and also help you research into the careers of other sales reps and their journey thus far.
Tools to help you take off:
Refer to our blog post entitled Research – The Bowtie & Diamond Effect for some tips on useful tools.
Winning strategies for success:
Many tenured sales professionals would be familiar with the 3 T’s ( Pronounced 3 Tees ), Timing Territory and Talent – Meaning if you join an organisation at the right time, with the right territory coupled with your talent, you stand a great chance of succeeding.
Now, although this somewhat may be true, I’m an avid believer in having a specific process and formula for success. With this, you may only have 2 T’s and still have a successful career, more on this to follow in subsequent posts.
If you found this useful, feel free to comment, your contribution is greatly appreciated. Remember, this is a learning blog and our WHY is to use these blogs as a platform to support others.
P.S- do contact me at mike@metricdrivenselling.com should you need any further questions or support.
To Our Growth
Mike