Where do Sales People go to die!
Gerald Byrne
Vice President, Channel Sales – EMEA @ Coupa | Former CRO @ Ciphr | Board Member & Advisor | Growth & Transformation Leader | Driving Success Across Sales, Partnerships, Operations & Marketing
When I started in sales, I was young, passionate, driven, unsophisticated and somewhat innocent. Sixty + quarters later, I’m slightly older (and obviously more generous in my own description!), but I’m still passionate, driven and I hope a little more sophisticated. Reflecting on my career to date, I do contemplate if being satisfied with my success is only a way for me to balance the thoughts that maybe I could have been more successful if I had done things differently. I’m a big fan of self-reflection, I believe learned experiences will point the way to improving as a person in both work and in life. As sales people, we encounter new challenges all the time and the true measure of success over many years is how we balance the burden of change or challenge with the need to have a positive outlook on our achievements, career, growth etc.
For me, the ability to adapt to change and remain positive are essential in my role and essential in my outlook on life. So whilst the question “where do sales people go to die” is extreme, I do hope it is taken it in a light hearted way. The intent was to question if it is possible to go 30 years or 120 quarters and still have the same positive outlook in sales .....only time will tell!
Where do you see yourself in 60 quarters.........
Retired PreSales Engineering Leader & Sales Enablement Professional
8 年A dear friend had the strangest photo I had ever seen, triple matted and mahogany framed in his office... a picture of a piece of molding bread. The caption: Stay Fresh or Be Fed To Ducks.
Head Customer Service Supervisor, Safety Captain 3/2021. #265. Manager On Duty On Designated Days. Love Our Customers! Burlington Stores Inc.
8 年Gerald, Good post this is a good way and motivator for all sales personnel to stay driven, passionate and actually like the products they sales for years to come. Being a sales/Marketing person myself, it is always a continuous leap of faith to keep your numbers up while staying positive!
National Sales Director (UK)
8 年How true.
联想(北京)有限公司 - Senior Industry Manager | Intelligent Device Group| Lenovo
8 年A very interesting topic, and I still remembered one old sales guy told me - choosing sales as career is just got onboard for a sailing, which never ends up... but with wonders and challenges. So we sell on every single day and enjoy the journey !
Director. Business Owner. Solutions Consultant who works with clients to find solutions to their critical applications.
8 年I have racked up over 100 quarters (ugh!) in sales related roles and this article started me thinking about why I have kept at it so long. Certainly if I had been doing the same types of roles in the same industries for all this time I would be stale and no doubt would have fallen by the wayside long ago. My 3 main thoughts are: 1. We are all salespeople and the only thing that varies is whether we have internal or external customers. We must never forget this whatever our job or role is. 2. You need to continually challenge yourself and take yourself out of your comfort zone to stay fresh. Take different types of roles, move industries, change geographic areas or set-up your own business. 3. You must believe in what you are selling and doing, and be passionate about it. Sales is a hard profession. Enjoy and celebrate the highs and plough through the lows! Good luck!