Lessons from My Fourth (And Final) Rotation at TMX Group

This is it... the final article to wrap up the 2 years in the Associate Program at TMX Group. It has been one heck of a ride, and as with all my rotations, I've taken the liberty to write up lessons I learned.

Before I get into it, I just wanted to give you some context on what we're actually "selling" at the Toronto Stock Exchange. As you may already know, the TSX is the stage (or platform) that connects large public companies to investors looking for long-term value. TMX Group also owns the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture (TSXV) which connects small (venture-stage) public companies to investors looking for short-term growth. In sales, our job is to find private companies (large and small) looking to raise capital and seeing if the public markets are a good fit for them.

So, without further ado, here were my biggest takeaways:

Knowing your product/service is just as important as knowing your client

In business, cash is king. In sales, customer is king. When I first started, I was eager to grow my network of entrepreneurs, startup founders, venture capitalists, private equity firms, lawyers, investment bankers, and industry experts. I figured if I knew the right people, the selling part will be easy. But after being exposed to the many pieces that come into play in taking a private company public, I realized I had some homework to do. If I was going to confidently sell the exchange, I would have to really understand the details of my service offering and answer questions like: How much money can we raise going public? When is the right time for my company to go public? How much does it cost to go public? Can you give me examples of companies operating in our industry who have gone public and were successful? You get the point. So, I spent most of my time in the beginning studying as much as I could to understand the "how this actually works" to get me to the point where I can explain the "why this can be of value to you".

You don't have to know it all, you just have to be willing to learn

I didn't know it all. In fact, I had a lot to learn...and I mean a lot. But that's a part of what made this rotation exciting. To make matters more interesting, is the fact that I was sitting between two ex-investment bankers who had 30+ years of experience (cumulatively). Intimidating I know, but this actually sped my learning process, because I interacted with them on a daily basis and got to work with them on special projects, heard the way they pitched our business to clients, and asked the tough questions which I couldn't get answers to from Google. I knew that I wasn't expected to know it all from the start, and that's definitely not why I was hired (at 23)...but having the drive to want to learn, energy to over-deliver, and confidence to keep going even when obstacles come up is what made it possible for me to succeed at this stage.

Sales has become more about being able to sift through big data than picking up the phone and dialing for money

Don't get me wrong, I love cold calling just as much as the next salesperson - it's fun, it gets your adrenal glands pumping, and you never know what type of response you'll get on the other end...but the reality is that the spray & prey approach to sales is diminishing. We have more information at our disposal than ever before, we have platforms that allow us to search for data based on a defined set of criteria/variables, and we have tools to keep us alert on what's happening around us, in real-time. There's no excuse not be taking advantage of what's out there, and the research doesn't lie - a salesperson is more effective when, for example, the email they're sending to a prospect is well-thought out, personalized, and has actual substance.

Selling requires three things: belief in what you're selling, confidence that you can sell it, and people to sell it to

Here's a quote from one of my favorite books on sales (Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer): "If you make a sale, you can earn a commission. If you make a friend, you can earn a fortune."

That quote is a constant reminder that effective networking and selling isn't just a numbers game...it's not always about how many LinkedIn followers you have, or how many closes you make in a week. It's important not to forget that building meaningful relationships with people brings you long-term success. By knowing someone on a deeper, less-superficial level, will allow you to paint a much clearer picture of who they actually are, and understand how you can be of value to them.

Knowing lots of people and building good relationships is important, but that alone won't guarantee sales success. Being confident in what you're selling is a necessary component to making sales happen, and making them last. From your tone, to your posture, to the clothes you wear, everything about your image and how you communicate your pitch will determine how credible your clients think you are. At the end of the day, a transaction is made based on trust, so if you're caught stuttering, sweating, not making eye contact, or any cue that reveals an insecurity regarding what you're selling, the client will be turned off immediately.

Believing in what you're selling definitely helps in giving you the confidence to sell. In my case, that's not difficult to do, because our job ultimately is to help companies raise the money they need to be successful. An example of a success story we like to highlight is Shopify - who went public with approx. $100m in LTM revenues (in 2015) and had an IPO valuation of approx. $1bn. Two years later, the company is now worth $10bn, and was able to use the public markets to grow and get liquidity/profile.

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Having completed the 2-year rotational program at TMX, I'm happy to announce that I'll be continuing full-time with the Sales/Business Development Team focusing on uncovering new listings in the US. I'm definitely excited for the challenge ahead and will be sure to keep you posted on the lessons I'll keep on learning. Cheers!