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Christopher E. Gilmore
Author of “Your Sales Career Strategy”
A guidebook for researching a successful career in outside sales
[www.salescareerstrategy.com]
Keywords: Sales careeer, sales jobs, sales positions, pharmaceutical sales, CRM, SFA, Sales Profession, Sales Career, SellingPower, why sales, top sales jobs
All rights reserve
The following is an email newsletter from Success Magazine 4-14-09. It is a great article that I thought I would share.
The legendary Earl Nightingale spent 17 years on a quest to answer one question: What makes the difference? He wanted to discover why some people are financially well off while others are poor.
His mother, Gladys Nightingale, encouraged him to read. "Knowledge is everything; everything you want to know has been written down by someone," she told him. In 1950, at the age of 29, he found the answer he was seeking in Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich. It was six simple words: We become what we think about.
To become what you think about, take Nightingale's 30-day test. It could change your life:
Read the article on Earl Nightingale in this month's SUCCESS magazine.
Let’s assume you are looking for your idea sales job. It offers the money, position, the company and industry you want. So let’s, also, assume you got the job as describe above. It is time to think backwards. If you break down the process in which you got the job, it helps if think about the process in reverse order.
Working backwards:
Without a doubt, you must start the sales career search process with the end goal in mind to achieve the results of where you want to be with your desired career goals. I wish you the best of luck with attaining your sales career aspirations and remember think backwards!
Chris
Holiday season is here! For those college students home for Thanksgiving, do not forget to network with your family members about your interest in becoming a sales person. If graduation is quickly approaching, time is of the essence to start planning your sales career.
As the turkey is hitting the table, the discussion will more than likely revolve around the economy and around how everyone’s 401K has been cut in half. It will be important for you to divert the discussion at some point with Uncle Charlie or Aunt Sue to start networking for internships and entry level sales positions.
Here is a short list of questions you can ask of your family and friends that might stimulate discussions for your benefit:
This is a starting point for you to get going. I am sure you can craft your own questions that are important to you. The main point is for you put down the game controller and ask your family the questions. If you don’t, you are missing a golden opportunity. Happy Thanksgiving!
In the late 80’s, I was playing golf with a golf pro in Florida. Being a high school golfer at the time, I was really excited about playing with him. He could really play and I wanted to learn anything I could from him. I was playing pretty well but after three holes, he asked if he could see my driver. He held the head up below his wrinkled nose and frown. He said nothing then handed it back to me. After the pro laced one out past me on a drive, I complimented him on his drive. He was playing the latest metal driver with a graphite shaft. He looked down at my wooden driver with a steel shaft and said “Chris…you need to EMBRACE technology.”
After the laughter subsided, “embrace technology” rang through my brain. At that time, the driver that I was using served me well. I had many great rounds with that driver and I was determined to not change. As time past, I began to play with more and more golfers who were driving it past me with the latest technology. My testosterone took over and I went to the range with a handful of drivers to test and find one that would help me hit it "further and straighter." In the late 1980’s, the golf club manufacturers were rolling out all kinds of head shapes for metal and acrylic heads paired with graphite shafts trying to be the hottest selling driver in the pro shops. I tested a lot of drivers until I found one that I liked that gave me a competitive edge or at least on level ground with my fellow golfers.
The lesson, reflecting back on my “embrace technology” lesson on the golf course, was that the golfers, like sales people, must set aside time to review the latest technology to make sure they are current and using the technology to their advantage. Golfers who are “late adopters” of the new technology were at a disadvantage on the golf course. This lesson is no different for sales people in the business world. As an example, the biggest opportunity for sales people to embrace technology is the adoption of Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
A company will spend thousand of dollars on researching, buying and implementing a SFA or CRM package but some sales professionals refuse to use it. The excuses are many:
These excuses are like the golfers who do not want to invest their time in researching drivers at that range or are too cheap to pay for a new driver. Don’t be lazy! The efficiencies achieved by the software far exceed the time investment to learn how to use them. In fact if your company doesn’t have CRM and SFA software, you should consider invest in one yourself.
Another easy example of your technology prowess is something you touch every day - your mobile phone. If you phone is older than 2 years old and you are a sales person, you are telling me that your personal brand is that you are a “technology laggard”. Additionally, if you can’t pick up your emails off your mobile phone and you a sales person, you must also use hickory shafted golf clubs. Your mobile phone is a simple investment that has high visibility to how you adopt technology.
As sales professionals, we must “embrace technology” that we may have the opportunity to leverage and not run from it. Your ability to learn and try new things allows you to be an advisor, consultant and leader to your customers and company. Good luck with your sales career.
Keywords: Sales careeer, sales jobs, sales positions, pharmaceutical sales, CRM, saleforce.com, Oracle CRM, Microsoft CRM, Onyx. Sage, Pivotal, SalesLogix, SugarCRM, CRM, SFA, Sales Profession, Sales Career, SellingPower, Goldmine