Sales Rep 101 – Chapter 19

Convo With Yourself

Sales is not for everyone. I know that I say that sales can be a great career and that all true. But you have to be a certain type of person to be in sales. You need to be talkative, not introverted, willing to take chances, not afraid to have a conversation with strangers. I have know many people that wanted to be in sales because they saw the success that their friend was having or maybe a family member and they thought sales was the way to go. And for many it is. But here is the truth. If you are thinking about sales for the first time you need to have an honest conversation with yourself. And maybe even talk to a friend that you know would be honest with you and ask them what they think about how you would do in sales. This is an important step, because if you skip it and think you will do fine you may be in for some real disappointment. Write down some of the things that are important in sales job and ask yourself about each topic. I think you might surprise yourself on what you really think. Maybe you don’t like to travel but a lot of jobs require driving a lot. Or maybe you might have a problem asking for the sale at the end of your presentation. Those are real concerns. So you might like the rest of the job but if you don’t like either of those then sales might not be for you. But let’s take this a step further. Maybe you have had your job for about 3-4 months and you are not doing as well as you thought you would. This would be a good time to have an honest conversation with yourself. If you fell like you just don’t like what you are doing it may be time to look for something different. Because eventually if you continue to struggle you may not have a choice and it would be better to go out on your own terms. I remember I worked with a younger guy once and he was all in when he started but he started to struggle pretty quick after starting. I took him to lunch and asked him how things were going and said he hated his job. But he wanted to give himself some more time to see if he could turn it around. But it was too late. If you start a sales job and you hate it after just a few weeks then the honest truth is that you will probably never like sales. Never say never…but almost never. So if you find yourself thinking about a sales job or you currently have one and not sure if you like it, do yourself a favor and have that honest conversation with yourself. You will be glad you did.