What do you do if you want to discuss your career growth in sales prospecting with your boss?

Before the meeting, take time to reflect on your career goals, achievements, and areas for growth. Prepare specific examples of your contributions to the team and how you've added value to the organization.

Preparation is key. Once I began actively sharing my prospecting knowledge and experience with various tools, my career growth accelerated significantly. It’s crucial to maintain a document detailing your achievements, coaching experiences, leads converted to revenue, and educational milestones. Keeping this document updated ensures you’re always prepared for discussions about your contributions. Be open about the potential you see if given more opportunities and how you aim to add value to both your team and the company. Stay proactive, don't let it be a one-off conversation that gets put on the back burner, ask for concrete dates on when ask could potentially be achieved.

This reminds me of the quote - if you do not have a destination you have already arrived. And why I think this is important if you are going to speak about your career but have not thought about where you want to go, how much will you get out of a conversation? I would keep it simple and think about: Past, present and future. When you speak you can then go through, what you have done, what you are doing and what you are wanting to do. This will be a brilliant framework to get the conversation going in the right direction!

Request a dedicated meeting with your boss to discuss your career growth. Choose a time when both of you can have an uninterrupted conversation, allowing sufficient time for discussion.

Scheduling time is good, however, I think what is better is giving your manager time to organise their thoughts. Think of it like a sales call and what I mean by that is send an agenda and explanation of why you want to schedule time. If you do not give context chances are you will catch your manager off guard and it will not be as productive as it can be. Alternatively, if you send a high-level overview of what you want to achieve this enables your manager to also give it a think so you both arrive ready to build a plan together.

Clearly articulate your career aspirations and goals during the meeting. Share your interest in advancing your skills, taking on new responsibilities, or exploring opportunities for growth within the company.

Have fun with this section!! Pretend you are your manager wanting to up-skill and promote someone in your team. What this will force you to do is focus on both the pros and cons of what this move could mean and why it would make sense. Simple example, you would like to become the BDR-Team Lead. Pros is that you will help your manager get more from the team, con is there will be a missing BDR. Now when you raise the idea you can say on the plus side it will allow me to develop my management skills and career and the negative is you will be short a BDR so you can suggest being a player coach to make the transition smooth without loosing productivity.

Comparta con su jefe como sus objetivos personales están alineados con los objetivos globales de la empresa. Como están en el mismo sentido de la visión y misión del negocio. Es importante hacerle ver que su desarrollo personal dentro de la organización está íntimamente ligada con el desarrollo del negocio. Pregunte como puede Usted contribuir mas con el logro de los objetivos y que áreas debe mejorar en su función. Sus objetivos deben ser expresos y específicos, establézcalos de tal forma que no sean ideas vagas, sino metas claras que desea alcanzar y pida el apoyo de su jefe para lograrlas. Debe demostrar que aporta valor también al desarrollo profesional de su jefe al lograr sus propios objetivos personales.

Clarify the Requirements by finding out from your manager what requirements and qualifications are necessary to climb to more senior positions. Performance indicators, teamwork, leadership, client management, strategic thinking, and industry knowledge are a few examples of these. Find out exactly what it takes to get to the next level and succeed in leadership roles. If you want to be in a leadership position, let them know that you are interested in leading a group of sales prospecting experts. Emphasize any prior leadership positions, mentorship responsibilities, or projects where you showed leadership ability.

What my sister suggested and it has become a standard in my life is listen in such a way that you are able to send a summary. All to often you have the chat and it goes nowhere or you are still not aligned. After your meeting send a summary thanking them for their time and summarise what was discussed, the pros, cons and next steps. This has many positive effects, mainly: if there was a misunderstanding then your manager can clarify, you can agree on next steps and you hold each other accountable.

Listen attentively to your boss's feedback and perspective on your career growth. Be open to constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement. Actively listening demonstrates your commitment to personal and professional development.

After the meeting, follow up with your boss to thank them for their time and reiterate your commitment to your career growth. Seek clarification on any action items or next steps discussed during the meeting.