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Global Sales Operations Association
  • Planning & Analysis
    Is Your Sales Dashboard Showing you the Right Metrics?

    Is Your Sales Dashboard Showing you the Right Metrics?

    Why do I need a Compensation Plan Designer?

    Why do I need a Compensation Plan Designer?

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    7 Step Guide to Building a Profitable Sales Territory Plan (with Examples)

    7 Step Guide to Building a Profitable Sales Territory Plan (with Examples)

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

    Introduction to Sales Operations

    US Tech Market Forecast Shows a Best-Case 5% Drop in 2020

    Forecasting in a Time of Uncertainty: Tech Markets

    It’s Time to Re-prioritize Accounts and Re-balance Routes to Market

    It’s Time to Re-prioritize Accounts and Re-balance Routes to Market

    Deal Optimization – Key to Survival

    Deal Optimization – Key to Survival

  • Sales Compensation
    • All
    • ICM Tools
    • Incentive Travel
    • Plan Design

    Sales VP Compensation – Sales Plan or Executive Plan?

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    What is the Difference Between a Commission and a Bonus?

    What is the Difference Between a Commission and a Bonus?

    How much of our sales team should we include in our President’s Club?

    How much of our sales team should we include in our President’s Club?

    Sales Compensation Plan Templates

    Sales Compensation Plan Templates

  • Excellence
    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    New Sales Leader? Avoid these 3 Common Mistakes

    New Sales Leader? Avoid these 3 Common Mistakes

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    A Guide to OKRs for the Sales Ops Leader

    A Guide to OKRs for the Sales Ops Leader

    4 Keys to Successful Sales Management Meetings

    4 Keys to Successful Sales Management Meetings

    Sales Math: The Impact of Discounting

    Sales Math: The Impact of Discounting

    Revenue Operations Holds the Key to Unlocking Growth in 2022

    Revenue Operations Holds the Key to Unlocking Growth in 2022

    Sales Math – Pipeline Principles

    Sales Math – Pipeline Principles

    What’s The Purpose Of A Pipeline Review?

    What’s The Purpose Of A Pipeline Review?

  • Enablement
    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    The 5 Levels of Relationship in Sales

    The 5 Levels of Relationship in Sales

    What’s The Difference Between Sales Enablement And School?

    What’s The Difference Between Sales Enablement And School?

    Training Reinforcement: Is it Back to Business as Usual?

    Training Reinforcement: Is it Back to Business as Usual?

    Give your Sales People what they need!

    Give your Sales People what they need!

    Which Sales Methodology?

    Which Sales Methodology?

    The Rise of Virtual Selling and the Implications for Sales Enablement

    The Rise of Virtual Selling and the Implications for Sales Enablement

    A Sales Enablement Conundrum: Who’s Coaching the Coach?

    A Sales Enablement Conundrum: Who’s Coaching the Coach?

  • Technology
    Data Science and Sales Operations: Driving Greater Predictability Together in Uncertain Times

    Data Science and Sales Operations: Driving Greater Predictability Together in Uncertain Times

    Building a B2B SalesTech Stack for Growth

    Building a B2B SalesTech Stack for Growth

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    The Boom In Sales Technology

    The Boom In Sales Technology

    Setting your 2021 CRM Enhancement Priorities

    Setting your 2021 CRM Enhancement Priorities

    Do You Really Need Sales Automation?

    Do You Really Need Sales Automation?

    How the New AI – Authentic Intelligence – Can Improve Sales Productivity

    Use Tableau to Track the Virus Through Actionable Data

    Use Tableau to Track the Virus Through Actionable Data

    “You Are Doing Everything Wrong!”

    “You Are Doing Everything Wrong!”

  • Performance
    What to Measure in Sales?

    What to Measure in Sales?

    The Pipeline and Forecast are Different

    The Pipeline and Forecast are Different

    Ignite Your Sales Performance at the Intersection of Purpose and Passion

    Ignite Your Sales Performance at the Intersection of Purpose and Passion

    How Sales Reps Are Hitting Quotas Without Hitting the Streets

    How Sales Reps Are Hitting Quotas Without Hitting the Streets

    Buying Is About People, Why Isn’t Selling?

    Buying Is About People, Why Isn’t Selling?

    The secret to High Performing Sales Teams – Analytics

    The secret to High Performing Sales Teams – Analytics

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    On Measuring Sales Performance

    On Measuring Sales Performance

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

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  • Planning & Analysis
    Is Your Sales Dashboard Showing you the Right Metrics?

    Is Your Sales Dashboard Showing you the Right Metrics?

    Why do I need a Compensation Plan Designer?

    Why do I need a Compensation Plan Designer?

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    7 Step Guide to Building a Profitable Sales Territory Plan (with Examples)

    7 Step Guide to Building a Profitable Sales Territory Plan (with Examples)

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

    Introduction to Sales Operations

    US Tech Market Forecast Shows a Best-Case 5% Drop in 2020

    Forecasting in a Time of Uncertainty: Tech Markets

    It’s Time to Re-prioritize Accounts and Re-balance Routes to Market

    It’s Time to Re-prioritize Accounts and Re-balance Routes to Market

    Deal Optimization – Key to Survival

    Deal Optimization – Key to Survival

  • Sales Compensation
    • All
    • ICM Tools
    • Incentive Travel
    • Plan Design

    Sales VP Compensation – Sales Plan or Executive Plan?

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    What is the Difference Between a Commission and a Bonus?

    What is the Difference Between a Commission and a Bonus?

    How much of our sales team should we include in our President’s Club?

    How much of our sales team should we include in our President’s Club?

    Sales Compensation Plan Templates

    Sales Compensation Plan Templates

  • Excellence
    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    New Sales Leader? Avoid these 3 Common Mistakes

    New Sales Leader? Avoid these 3 Common Mistakes

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    A Guide to OKRs for the Sales Ops Leader

    A Guide to OKRs for the Sales Ops Leader

    4 Keys to Successful Sales Management Meetings

    4 Keys to Successful Sales Management Meetings

    Sales Math: The Impact of Discounting

    Sales Math: The Impact of Discounting

    Revenue Operations Holds the Key to Unlocking Growth in 2022

    Revenue Operations Holds the Key to Unlocking Growth in 2022

    Sales Math – Pipeline Principles

    Sales Math – Pipeline Principles

    What’s The Purpose Of A Pipeline Review?

    What’s The Purpose Of A Pipeline Review?

  • Enablement
    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    The 21 Buying Methodologies

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

    The 5 Levels of Relationship in Sales

    The 5 Levels of Relationship in Sales

    What’s The Difference Between Sales Enablement And School?

    What’s The Difference Between Sales Enablement And School?

    Training Reinforcement: Is it Back to Business as Usual?

    Training Reinforcement: Is it Back to Business as Usual?

    Give your Sales People what they need!

    Give your Sales People what they need!

    Which Sales Methodology?

    Which Sales Methodology?

    The Rise of Virtual Selling and the Implications for Sales Enablement

    The Rise of Virtual Selling and the Implications for Sales Enablement

    A Sales Enablement Conundrum: Who’s Coaching the Coach?

    A Sales Enablement Conundrum: Who’s Coaching the Coach?

  • Technology
    Data Science and Sales Operations: Driving Greater Predictability Together in Uncertain Times

    Data Science and Sales Operations: Driving Greater Predictability Together in Uncertain Times

    Building a B2B SalesTech Stack for Growth

    Building a B2B SalesTech Stack for Growth

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    Does the size of our company determine which SPM platforms we should evaluate?

    The Boom In Sales Technology

    The Boom In Sales Technology

    Setting your 2021 CRM Enhancement Priorities

    Setting your 2021 CRM Enhancement Priorities

    Do You Really Need Sales Automation?

    Do You Really Need Sales Automation?

    How the New AI – Authentic Intelligence – Can Improve Sales Productivity

    Use Tableau to Track the Virus Through Actionable Data

    Use Tableau to Track the Virus Through Actionable Data

    “You Are Doing Everything Wrong!”

    “You Are Doing Everything Wrong!”

  • Performance
    What to Measure in Sales?

    What to Measure in Sales?

    The Pipeline and Forecast are Different

    The Pipeline and Forecast are Different

    Ignite Your Sales Performance at the Intersection of Purpose and Passion

    Ignite Your Sales Performance at the Intersection of Purpose and Passion

    How Sales Reps Are Hitting Quotas Without Hitting the Streets

    How Sales Reps Are Hitting Quotas Without Hitting the Streets

    Buying Is About People, Why Isn’t Selling?

    Buying Is About People, Why Isn’t Selling?

    The secret to High Performing Sales Teams – Analytics

    The secret to High Performing Sales Teams – Analytics

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    Variable Compensation and the Gig Economy

    On Measuring Sales Performance

    On Measuring Sales Performance

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

    “Look At Our Dashboards”

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Global Sales Operations Association
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Home Enablement

Why Now is the Perfect Time to be a Sales Professional… Even for Millennials

Barry Trailer by Barry Trailer
in Enablement, People Office
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In the previous article, I introduced the notion of Sales as a Profession (SaaP) and some of the steps that have been cataloged toward professionalism (full-time occupation, training school, university programs, etc.). While many salesmen and saleswomen today are full-time and considered successful, it is also true that the vast majority of these started out as something else before “falling into” or “winding up in” sales.

One reason, and one that is now at least beginning to be addressed is that there were few academic institutions teaching sales. As noted, this is slowly changing and just under 100 universities now offer at least a few courses introducing and/or teaching sales. Another reason is negative impressions, or misperceptions, of sellers. We asked readers what misperceptions they felt were most frequent and received nearly 200 responses (see below).

Source: Sales as a Profession: Perceptions, Misconceptions, and the Way Forward 

RelatedPosts

The 21 Buying Methodologies

New Sales Leader? Avoid these 3 Common Mistakes

Finding ‘A’ Players for Every Role

What’s Your Ideal Customer Profile

Reps talking too much and listening too little was the clear front-runner; reps being time wasters was a distant second. So what are these reps so busily talking about?

Think Industry Trends, Not Products

Most often, the answer is: their product. Product knowledge was once considered a rep’s greatest weapon and these reps, in effect, became walking/talking product brochures. Everyone knows this is career limiting, certainly conversation limiting, and, yet, it persists. Further, with product information readily available on company websites, industry and customer reviews, and more, buyers typically have plenty, if not all, of the information they need for initial discovery. Whereas, sellers often still lack much of the information they need to advance a sale and/or assist in a purchase.

The easy answer to why this continues is, well, it’s easy. Talking about your product or service, once a rep has enough experience/familiarity to do so, takes little effort or preparation. Understanding an industry, its problems and challenges, and applying these to a specific prospect is a more complex undertaking. The data clearly and consistently show, providing buyers new information about innovative customer implementations, insights about newly emerging trends, and in some cases, challenging current thinking, have elevated reps to higher level relationships with their buyers and higher-level performance with their companies.

This lack of preparation has been exacerbated by new technologies and services. The popularity and proliferation of mobile apps/devices have seen pre-call planning go out the window. News flash: sitting in Starbucks 10 minutes before a sales call checking a prospect’s LinkedIn profile is not pre-call planning. It may be a small portion but does not answer the questions about what information you want to get and give, or what commitment is needed/desired as a result of this upcoming call.

You Still Gotta Do the Work

Similarly, with inside sales applying automatic/advanced dialing applications, inside sales reps jump on calls with little more information than the name and title of the individual answering the phone. Thoughtful list creation is needed (i.e., lead grouping) to avoid simply jumping into a conversation with nothing more than a practiced elevator pitch. Steve Richard of ExecVision coaches: 3X3. Take 3 minutes to identify 3 things that would be of interest to the person you’re about to call.

Many of the “Other” comments received suggested the misperception choices offered weren’t applicable; these didn’t comport with the individual’s own experience. So maybe sales is seen more as a profession today, not just a bunch of fast talkers. Let’s check that with this mental exercise.

You’re at a cocktail party and meet someone for the first time. You ask her profession and she says, “I’m a neuro surgeon.” No kidding, you’re a brain surgeon? How long have you been doing that? Her reply, “25 years.” Wow, you must be really good at it.

You move on to the next person and ask what he does. His reply, “I’m in sales.” Really, how long have you been doing that? “25 years.” So, you’re a sales manager or vice president? “No, I’m a salesman.” Do you have the same impression of someone who must be really accomplished? Or, do you wonder where this guy made a wrong turn in his career?

This to me speaks to the question of SaaP and what has to change. Really preparing for calls and listening more might be a good place to start. Setting out to become a professional seller and consciously considering what this means would also be helpful starting out. In response to the prior article Andy Rudin, Managing Principal of Contrary Domino, wrote to say a young person just starting out today should pick a career other than sales. He makes some good points about how sales used to be, then concludes with, “If money is what motivates interest in a job, I’d encourage a young person today to go into data science, software development, cyber-security, or finance.” You can read his blog here.

In fact, Andy concludes with “find something different” (than sales). What is interesting to me is that last year, I’d written a paper: “There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be In Sales.” Rather than debate these perspectives here, if interested, you should read them both and decide for yourself. You can access the paper here but let me share a couple relevant points. In a survey of 900 full-time sellers, 85% would recommend sales as a career to young people starting out today (15% agree with Andy).

Perhaps more interesting is why. Ranked in order of frequency the reasons named were:

  1. Job varied and satisfying
  2. Continuous learning and self-development
  3. Career with a future
  4. A great job for the right person
  5. Earnings are commensurate with effort
  6. Self-determination
  7. Working in sales prepares you for other careers

While Andy, and many others, feel money is the main motivator, it actually was well down the list of what attracted full-time practitioners to sales. Sure money is important, and having it is better than not having it, but all the mythology of reps being “coin operated” and “only money motivated,” which you can see came in 4th in last month’s survey (see graphic above), are simply that: myths.

Baby-boomers who came of age in the 60’s and 70’s wanted peace, love and understanding. Millennials today want work that’s purposeful, collaborative and has meaning. I would argue sales is the place to find these principled visions and SaaP is continuing to evolve in this direction.

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Barry Trailer

Barry Trailer

Co-founder of CSO Insights, Barry is a past president of both Miller Heiman and Goldmine—a world-class sales training firm and a well-known provider of CRM applications, respectively. He has conducted seminars with hundreds of companies around the world, including HP, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Hitachi Data Systems. Barry co-authored The Sales and Marketing Excellence Challenge: Changing How the Game Is Played and has contributed to the Harvard Business Review. He’s also a novelist, editor and author of numerous white papers on sales process.

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