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This is where many salespeople are to be held responsible for sales marriages gone wrong. They are too easily blinded by the hopes of more dollars in their wallets. They fail to look at all of the criteria that affect success. Don't get me wrong. Money is important, very important. However, focusing on money as a primary decision point makes the dollars a mirage. I remember those old Indiana Jones movies where Indiana would be thirty feet away from the treasure. A few quick steps and the treasure would be his. Or would it? Lining the thirty feet of cavern were the dead bodies of those who attempted to merely grab the treasure. Indiana strategically approached the treasure to ensure he got it, and equally important, survived the venture. The treasure for salespeople (also known as commissions) can be wrought with the same peril. If the employer presents a $250,000 opportunity, but the skills or activities required are not your strengths of, will you ever see those dollars? Highly unlikely. When I lived in the Washington D.C. Metro area during the dot-com craze, I saw many of my friends leave solid sales positions with Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco for the chance at millions of dollars in stock options. For most, it was truly a mirage. Why? Imagine, for a moment, you are calling on an IT manager representing Cisco. Just say the name, "Cisco," and poof, you have an appointment. The same is true for Microsoft, Oracle and other big name technology brands. Changing gears, you are now selling for ABC IT Services. You place a call to the IT manager and it is not received with a welcoming reception, but rather skepticism and disinterest. The successful salesperson needs the skills to get in the door with this IT manager before any buying facilitation can begin. If your background has been selling household brands and you haven't had to do this before, how likely are you to be successful at doing it unless the company is willing to teach you that skill? For salespeople to put together a healthy, successful sales marriage with an employer, they need to formulate a profile just like employers do when hiring salespeople. For salespeople, it is the profile of the ideal sales opportunity. To formulate the profile, a historical and futuristic perspective is needed. The convergence of the two yields the profile. To begin the exercise for formulating your profile, answer the following questions for each sales position you have held. Be totally honest with yourself in performing this exercise. 1. Historical Strengths Once you have completed this question series for each of your sales roles, the next step is to review your responses to those questions in search of commonalities in your background. This will allow you to complete the statement below which specifies your historical strengths. Historical Success I have extensive experience in selling a ____, _____, ____ (1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d) product that is _____ (1e) positioned in the marketplace. My role in the buying process included: _____, ____, ____ (1f, 1h, and 1j) which included working with ____(1i) -level executives in a buying cycle that averages ____ (1g). Moving to the second part of formulating your ideal sales opportunity profile, you will identify the criteria for your next sales role. What is important to you in your next home? Answering the series of questions below sheds light on that direction. 2. Future Desires With part 2 complete, you are able to provide a laser-focus direction to your search. This is extremely important when communicating with recruiters or searching for jobs online. This allows you to say: Future Role The type of role that is best for me is with a company that is ___ (3a), that is a ___(3b) offering a ___ (3c) solution. I operate best in environment that offers ___ in terms of buying process support and (3d) ___ (3e) for sales management support. An environment that is ___ (3f) and offers me the opportunity to learn ___(3g) is best for me. Putting these two components together, rounds out your ideal sales opportunity profile. You now have clear direction on your historical strengths and future desires. What do you do with this information?
Lee B. Salz is a sales management guru who helps companies hire the right sales people, on-board them, and focus their sales activity using his sales architecture® methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects, the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” Lee is an online columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, a print columnist for SalesforceXP Magazine, and the host of the Internet radio show, “Secrets of Business Gurus.” Look for Lee's new book in February 2009 titled, "The Sales Marriage” where he shares the secrets to hiring the right sales people. He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a business consultant. Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitecture.com or 763.416.4321.
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