Aspirations for a Career in Sales — Something to RUN TOWARD!

A story of career transitions and great advice by Greg Boyd, Vice President Customer Excellence at Uvaro

I joined one of Uvaro’s newest classes last week, and rather than delivering content for the first hour, I participated in a VERY lively, hour-plus long group discussion. I came away with a profound shared commitment for the type of sales professionals we want to build and become. The conversation led me to do some reflecting on my own career journey, and some ‘simple’ words of wisdom from a mentor and friend that changed my life.

Years ago, I was close to resigning from one role, and making a lateral move to a sales role at another tech company. Perhaps counter-intuitively, I brought it up with my manager at the time who gave me some profound advice in the form of a simple question:

“Are you running away from something here, or are you running toward something you’re aspiring for?”

The advice struck me, because I knew the answer was that I was ‘running away’. Encouraged, I stayed at the job for another 8 months, fixed a number of the problems that were fixable, acknowledged the problems that were outside of my control, invested time in my personal wellness and skills, and in a search for a new opportunity (which happened to be outside the company) that was worth ‘running toward’. Turning down that ‘lateral move’ turned out to be one of the defining decisions in my career and life to date.

When I joined class last week to launch their 12-week journey with us, these words of advice jumped to mind as the conversation continued. Our discussion circled around the following two questions:

• What are some of the things you HATE about sales people, and that you’d never want to become?
• What are some of the things you ASPIRE FOR as a salesperson?

The insights that emerged from this group of people who are seeking to start or grow their careers in sales were so rich that I wanted to share them, as they net down to a set of principles that are TRULY aspirational, and worth running TOWARD:

Things to AVOID becoming in Sales:

• Serve own, selfish needs rather than the needs of a customer
• “Take Away” (money, time, integrity) versus “Give” (value, purpose, solutions)
• Forcing decisions on a false or manufactured timeline
• Push a product/solution that you don’t believe in, and that your customers don’t need
• NOT LISTENING!!!

Things to ASPIRE to for a career in Sales:

• The opportunity to change someone’s perception of Sales — take a “Challenge Accepted” stance to the skeptical prospect/customer!
• Help Solve a Problem!
• Listen, and offer customers a chance to choose a solution that Meets Their Needs
• Get comfortable with constant Evolution and Growth with UNLIMITED Potential!
• Earn good money, and an Independent Living!

So what? I noted above that advice I received was not just valuable from a work perspective, but for all aspects of life. Looking at the aspirations of the Uvaro community listed above, it’s not just about being a better, more effective salesperson — it’s about being a person that you’d be proud to be. It’s about becoming a human being who works to help others every day.

The bottom line? 11-weeks from now, we’ll have a new cohort of Uvaro program graduates who will launch or advance their careers in sales. By practicing these aspirations every day, each one of them will inspire their customers and colleagues to think differently about the work they do — putting their customers first, solving problems, and being deeply and genuinely human in their approach.

I offer this as a call to action from 2021–2 to all Uvaro community members and all who are reading this: building a Sales Career that follows these principles is TRULY something to aspire to.

Finally, I’ll close by offering this as Uvaro’s commitment to 2021–2 and all members of our growing community: we’re with you every step of the way, not just in this 12-week program…but forever. Together, we can live out these aspirational qualities, and forever change the face of sales!

At Uvaro, we take pride in the growth and success of all of our students, and we’re just getting started! If you’d like to step into tech, you can apply to join our program at uvaro.com

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.