Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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We have subscribers from many different countries. Today’s post is meant primarily for my U.S. readers.

I’ll admit it. My eyes water every time I hear the U.S. national anthem. Here’s why.

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. and it’s a holiday that honors the men and women that have given their lives in military service. This holiday does not honor war itself in any way, but rather gives tribute to those that have made the greatest sacrifice as a result of it. Because they have given their lives, we enjoy many freedoms. One of these liberties is the ability to pursue the career and destiny of our choice.

If you are a U.S. citizen celebrating Memorial Day today, please pause, if just for a moment, to remember what these men and women, and their families, have done. All of us are beneficiaries of their heroism.

© 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Fact: As sales professionals, we are ultimately in control of our sales career. This isn’t a good thing, this is a great thing! But it also requires us to take on certain responsibilities if we want to maximize this control.

The following are five truths about our sales career:

1. We are our own best sales career counselor. No one cares as much about our career as we do, not our
employer, our manager or anyone else.
2. We are responsible for our own development and training. This may mean getting our employer to train us or for us to seek training on our own.
3. We must think beyond our current sales job; we are in a career, not a job. As I’ve written in another post, Sales Staff Turnover, few sales jobs are permanent.
4. We are ultimately our own best motivators; no one else can motivate us over the long haul.
5. The most successful sales professionals are those that stick with it. I’ve never met a number one salesperson that got to that position in 3 months - it took years and usually spanned over several employers.

Do we have 100% control of our sales career at all times? Hardly. The “Divine Director of Sales” in His heavenly office can grab the wheel from time to time, but our individual actions, and inactions, will have a huge impact on our sales career.

© 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

In the 1973 movie, Magnum Force, Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) says his now famous line, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

No matter how inflated our ego is or how much we suffer from low self esteem, we all have two things in common: a key selling strength that must be optimized and a key sales weakness we must navigate around. It’s how we are put together by the big man upstairs. No one is exempt.

Highly successful athletes, politicians and actors are examples of people that showcase their greatest strength and do their best to conceal their greatest weakness. The key to all of this is that they know these things about themselves.

Since sales success is so critically dependent on a number of skill sets, doesn’t it make sense that we should be aware of our greatest strength and use it to our advantage? At the same time wouldn’t it be helpful for us to be cognizant of where we are not strong?

Tiger Woods is generally considered to be one of the best golfers that has ever lived. He acknowledges that his short-irons are a weakness for him, but he also knows that he can hit a driver like no other. Guess what his game strategy is? He uses his driver (his strength) in a way to avoid as many short-iron shots (his weakness) as possible.

We might be tempted to ask, should we work on our weakest sales skill in order to make it stronger? Yes, but I have a few rules for this:

1. We must work on our weak area only after we are sure that our strongest area is razor sharp. Our strongest area is our money maker.
2. When in front of a customer we must be sure to leverage our strength to the maximum; this is not a time to be experimenting with improving our weakness.
3. We can and should use a coach (e.g., sales trainer, sales manager) to help us with our weak area.
4. We can’t always avoid exposing our weak area, so we should ensure that we have at least an adequate and acceptable strategy for handling it.

Sales professionals can be either weak or strong in the following areas: prospecting, account management, presentations, customer meetings, product knowledge, account planning, time management, record keeping, etc. This is a concept where sales management can play a valuable role in helping their individual team members fortify their strength and manage their weakness.

Now go to work on making your sales strength even stronger and your weakness manageable.

© 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

The sales profession is increasingly moving toward a more scientific approach. Students of sales are demanding a more objective and scientific orientation to the science of sales. As evidence of that, there are a number of outstanding universities in the US that have top flight programs where you can major in sales.

I’ve noted in past posts (What Colleges Teach you About Sales Careers) that many university environments are not too sales friendly. Fortunately, that is changing, as evidenced by the top quality sales degree programs being offered by the universities listed below.

There are many different choices to consider when it comes to a sales career; no longer can we just say that we want to be in “sales.” Please see As a career salesperson where do you best fit? for more information. Sales degree programs can really help a young person (or even someone with years of sales experience) hone their skills in the type of sales career they want to pursue.

If you have a son or daughter that is interested in a formal sales education, one of the following universities might be a great place to steer them. Of course it’s also never too late to consider a formal sales degree program for yourself or someone in your organization.

The following list of universities offers some of the best sales education degree programs in the US. All of the following are accredited universities where students can major in sales.

Baylor University, Waco, Texas, Internship Required
Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois
Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia
University of Akron, Akron, Ohio
University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, Internship Required
William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey

I am very pleased to see that the sales profession is becoming more academic. These university programs provide a career launching point for young people interested in a sales career. They also are an avenue for experienced sales professionals to sharpen their sales skills and earn a degree in the process.

© 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

I received an email from Courtney of Seattle, Washington asking the following questions, “Scott, can you share with everyone your feelings about using our faith in God to help us in our sales job? Is this a cop-out?”

Courtney,

Sales can be an extremely rewarding career for all kinds of reasons. At times it can also be incredibly stressful. I’ve directly managed literally hundreds of sales professionals over the years and I’ve found that many of them rely on their personal faith in their sales careers.

Some might think that relying on faith smacks of desperation instead of determination. Before we throw out faith as a possible legitimate aid to our sales career, let’s consider just some of the challenges that we have to contend with, many of which are out of our control.

1. Sales budgets to reach each month/quarter/year. Sales success is measured by one metric and one metric only, total sales. Nothing else matters to employers. Worse yet, at the end of each month/quarter/year we have to start all over again. A sales career is the poster child for, “What have you done for me lately?”
2. Rejection, rejection, rejection. I know we’re supposed to be thick-skinned sales professionals and all of that, but, at some level, we have to feel accepted by others. If we are in a heavy prospecting mode over an extended period, the avoidance behavior of prospects can take its toll.
3. Competition. Have you ever tried to explain to someone who works at the home office what it’s like to have people (i.e., competitors) trying to take your job on a daily basis? I don’t think I’ve ever found anyone outside of sales who understands the pressure this puts us under.
4. Work hours. We can’t even imagine a 40 hour workweek. A hard hitting sales professional knows that we must contact customers and prospects during the day and attack the colossus of administrative tasks at night or on the weekends.

We all like to come across as tough and capable people in our sales jobs, but most of us need help that extends beyond what our sales managers and employers can provide. Sales is a very demanding profession and, quite frankly, it scared me when I thought about the goals that were expected of me when I was a salesperson.

I have no problem in admitting to you that my faith has helped me to feel more complete and confident with many things in my life, including my sales career.

Courtney, use your faith; it’s a valuable tool. I think that if you shared these thoughts with your sales peers that you would find that you are far from being alone. Thanks for your question.

© 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer