Why I Do What I Do: Sales

"We're here to help each other get through this thing whatever it is"

- Kurt Vonnegut 

It excites me to see how much passion for the craft of selling is out there. There's plenty of articles here on LinkedIn that highlight the thrill of the hunt, and the rush of dopamine that comes from closing a deal that took many months to finalize. And I get it, I can empathize with that but that's not why I do what I do.

I do what I do because I like connecting people (notice that I didn't say organizations) --human beings with feelings and dreams and hopes--to tools that will make their lives easier. Because the point of technological advancements is to free up time that would have been spent doing laborious work so you can focus on the things that matter.

And sure, the things that matter, in my line of work, are analysis and data-driven decision-making, both things that you'll be able to do once you leave the 'busy work' to cloud-based CPM software. But the things that really matter in life are family, friends, and enough time to lead a healthy life. That's why I like connecting people with tools that will allow them to make it home in time for dinner --and hear about their son's little league game or their daughter's part in Oliver Twist--during the annual budget season, or during any other financial process that usually requires them to stay at the office till midnight.

I don't want to come off as preachy. Like all sales people, I also enjoy closing a deal because we all got bills to take care of and paying for goods and services is obviously nice (isn’t it great to treat your lady to a nice night out?)

Selling, like anything worth doing, is both hard and incredibly rewarding. Yet what can make it even more fulfilling is to focus more on how your work is affecting people's lives because the point of life is to make the lives of those around us a little better, a little easier--to decrease the amount of "suck" in the world.

That's why I do what I do.