The 5 Most Important Things to Remember When Launching A Sales Career

My inbox recently had an interesting request arrive courtesy of LinkedIn. Authored by Ryan Hicks in South Florida, I liked the fact he cared enough about his new job to ask it, plus I thought it was a heck of a good question.

Ryan is beginning a brand new career as a Service & Solutions Executive at Xerox and asked, “If you could identify 3-to-5 habits that contributed to your success in this industry, what would they be?”

I invested 20 wonderful years at Xerox during a fun time in the corporation’s history and was rewarded fairly for overachieving my goals. But, like Ryan, all I had at the start was ambition, a desire to learn, and a willingness to work hard . I had no clue how corporate life really was but dove in and gave it a try.

Back then Xerox was terrific about developing its people and was world famous for doing so. I benefited from that commitment in two ways: I was shaped into an effective professional sales executive, plus I was lucky enough to be selected to be a senior sales instructor at their esteemed international training center. Both of these things put me on the road to a wonderful life and career.

As a sales trainer I did not have to work with the starry-eyed newcomers. Instead I facilitated one-week and two-week sessions with the corporation’s best sales talents. Like all good instructors, the harder I worked to serve my classes the more I learned.

My Xerox experience was not planned to span two decades. I was a starving newspaper reporter when I went there and thought I’d stay just long enough to make some cash and go back to writing. But one year turned into two, which turned into five, which brought along a house, a family, car payments, and obligations.

So much for the jump in, jump out strategy of perpetual freedom. Life morphed a job into a career.

When my time came to leave, I knew it. The years served — 20 in all — had flown by but I reached a point where I knew there was more to life than toner, paper jams, revenue, units, and end-of-each-quarter stress. I walked away without a clue what I’d do next but quite comfortable that I was long overdue to find out.

I followed my passion for the profession and blended what I had learned about how Xerox methodically made great salespeople with one new, important thing I thought the company should have taught but didn’t: how to be develop better “people.”

My life’s work ever since has been extraordinarily gratifying. Few things in business have provided the joy that goes with an ambitious young man or woman passionately chasing what he or she is capable of becoming. I have a funny feeling that Ryan Hicks of South Florida will some day be one of those. Seek advice and take it. We are never too old to do the same.

I thought about Ryan’s question for several minutes before deciding what to write. Here is what I said:

1. Work hard, in good faith, to represent your company with integrity. All the greats I have worked with, interviewed, and studied have one thing in common: They enjoy working hard. None avoid it.

2. Spend your customer’s money like it’s your money. When you do this, you never have to remember what you said. You also sell with such great passion and conviction your closing rate will increase. So will your repeat business, client loyalty, and referrals.

3. Honor the profession (of selling). If you do, it will honor you. Sales is a profession, just like being an architect, mechanic, engineer, or dentist. The more you invest in yourself, the stronger and more effective you will become. You are your greatest product so invest in yourself!

4. No stinkin’ thinkin’. Stay positive and encourage others to be that way too. The presidential campaign teaches all we need to know about how distasteful trash talking, negativity, and self-serving deception is. There is no room for negativity in professional selling. Not at the beginning of your career, the middle, or the end. Stay on the high road and remain positive, even during the tough times. This is important for several reasons:

• Positive people look at disappointments and losses as temporary setbacks. Negative people look at them as validation.
  
• For a positive person, the urge to persevere is undiminished. For a negative person, the urge to persevere is reduced.
• Positive people always outsell negative ones. This is part of the beauty of the profession. Sales is fair — it rewards those who sell better than others.
  

Because selling for a living rewards those who invest in themselves, it rewards those who honor the profession and those who stay positive and persevere.

5. Be proud of your wins and learn from your defeats. Never lose the same way twice. Selling for a living is great but it is hard. By nature it is an objective sport — there are winners and losers. When you win, be proud. When you lose — and we all lose, even the greats — figure out how you got beat and commit to changing tactics next time around. Whoever beat you will replicate his or her behaviors. They will be predictable. By changing what you say, how you say it, your pitch, your value proposition — you will be unpredictable and better positioned to win.

All of us have keys to success. These five are mine.

Best of luck, Ryan. I’ll be pulling for you.