My first year in Sales by Tony Green

My employment in the sales profession now totals one year in duration. As an engineer entering sales at almost 40 years of age plenty of ups and downs would be experienced.

My motivation for joining the sales force was to use my technical background to help solve customer’s problems while at the same time earning at good living.

The requirement to perform while learning on the job presented me with many challenges. In my view, part of the reason was the existence in Silicon Valley of plenty of folks who are technical trained with previous sales experience. From my first year sales is something where you would prefer someone with experience even though you need to start somewhere. The result was I landed many interviews but received no offers.

One of the things I learned from those who are in sales is persistence is required. So I continued to push in search of the sales job when there were many other non sales jobs whose qualifications I met. Finally, I got a break and landed a sales position.

After doing the job for a year it became clear a company might be better served to hire someone with previous experience. Companies should seek to hire someone who wants to go the extra mile for customers who are the essence of what sales is about. How would I grade my performance as a professional in sales? I am still waiting to close my first large sale. The journey has had ups and downs; however, through everything I always try to focus on the customer.

Hopefully, the customer is where my focus will stay, on the person writes the check at the end of the day.