In sales, the first thing you should know is that no one really knows what they’re doing. Some say it’s a science. Some say it’s an art. I think it’s an 80/20 mix and, for the most part, replicable.
Everything after that comes down to three things.
First, you have to be a skilled communicator. Not smooth. Clear. People buy from people, and people buy from people they can understand. This goes whether you’re narrating the future state of an IT team’s productivity if they buy your SaaS, or narrating to parents which MacBook Pro specs to get their kid going into university for history. Must be building 3D models of Napoleon or something.
Second, you have to be competent. Make mistakes, make them fast, but learn from them. You learn as much from failure as you do from success, and early on the failures should outnumber everything. That’s fine. That’s the job. But at some point, if the failure is still outpacing the success, you have to check yourself. It’s either you or the company. If it’s you, fix up. If it’s the company, jump ship. The grass may not be greener, but there might be more of it, and then at least you’re eating.
Third, and the most important, take ownership of the opportunities in front of you. The leads, the territory, the comp plan. Whatever it is that works in your favour. Own that shit and milk it dry. Because when the company realizes people are making a fuck-ton of money, they will fix it. Nobody hands over their best accounts. It’s the second and third tier that inadvertently become your tier one and tier two. You find out who’s buying, you get in front of them, and you’re there before anyone tells you to be. Time management means doing the right things, at the right times, to earn the right to be in the room with a seat at the table.
Have all three and you’re prepared for the most important piece of the pie: luck. In sales, that’s the whole game. Luck comes for everyone. It passes through most because they weren’t ready to capitalize.
Remember, you do not control the results. You control whether you’re ready to step up to home plate in the major leagues and take a swing.
There is a lot of kumbaya stuff that I only believe in sales. It’s just - being a month into the fiscal year, all refreshed from an on-site SKO - this is what I know now.