All of the formal sales training I have completed in my career has been paid for and provided by the companies I worked for. I am sure most of you have similar experiences. For some companies providing sales training is a reactionary response following a tough year. Implicitly your manager is saying ‘we could have hit our numbers if we had more training’ the most senior executives hear this and provide training to avoid a similar fate this year. This is typical of how most sales people come to attend sales training. The company they work for has identified a goal or desired outcome and bingo you are in training.
Disclaimer: A small percentage of companies provide ongoing professional training aimed at developing the individual. As noted this is the exception to the rule. If you work for a proactive company like this; you are among the lucky ones.
Training Focus
If you happen to work for a reactionary company that feels training is a quick fix or an easy alternative to a manager actually taking ownership of a sales gap; I will ask you to understand the environment you are being trained in. Don’t be afraid to take this opportunity to evaluate the job your company’s senior managers are doing in running the company.
Your company has probably paid a third party company to come in and train you. A practical set of sales skills that can be quantified go into making up a sales training program bought a paid for by the company you work for. The trainer’s intention is to increase your sales skills and thus solve your company’s sales problems.
Let’s stop for a minute. I want you to fully consider now that the training is being provided to solve some imaginary short comings of the sales department as a reason why targets were missed. I bet rarely if ever have you been in a training session and the trainer starts by analyzing the business model of your company; or the poor industry fundamentals negatively affecting your company’s sales. No; the sales team is the issue!
If a trainer did; it would be the equivalent of career suicide.
Financial 101
What they don’t teach in sales training school. I learned the following the hard way; so read the next part carefully so you can benefit from my mistakes. Understand how companies are managed is of critical importance to your career. If you are working for a poorly managed organization, all the sales training in the world is not going solve the problems.
Consider the following points that have a greater impact on your career success than most sales people truly understand:
1. Does your employer make cash?
2. Is your employer in a winning industry?
3. Would you buy this stock?
Take your sales person’s hat off and put your investor’s hat on.
Cash, Cash, Cash
Your company’s financial health should be very important to you. After all you have tied your immediate financial future to this company. If your company is publicly held it will be easy for you to understand its financial position. For the moment let’s assume you work for a publicly traded company. What should you look for?
Earnings per share are one of the easiest financial measures to check to see if your employer makes money. Don’t be fooled by complex financial metrics; you can flip to the stock listings in the paper or look it up online and see very quickly if your employer makes money. Ideally you will find consistent year over year earnings per share growth. Consistent growth shows strong financial management; responsible debt levels, strong industry fundamentals, and a return on investment for its owners, all very positive signs.
Don’t quit your job if your company doesn’t make money on an earnings per share basis; however you should take note of this because it could affect you in the future. How?
You see companies that don’t make positive earnings per share are losing money. When shareholders lose money eventually there will be a management shakeup. (No one likes losing money). Managers really don’t like losing their jobs either. So, if you are the captain of a money losing ship; the easiest way to cut spending is to cut people and then count the savings as income. In such a case the manager’s short term goal is to save his job, not yours. This certainly could negatively affect your career in the future.
Winning Industry
I am not a financial expert but I know that Warren Buffet is one of the most successful businessmen ever. Warren Buffet describes a winning industry as one ‘that doesn’t take a lot of capital investment to generate growth’. In short the purpose of companies in a capitalist market is to make money; not spend money.
If your employer has to keep investing heavily in research and development or product redesigns to generate growth it will limit how much a company can grow, including limiting your career growth.
Consider the highly competitive cell phone market. One minute Blackberry is the most dominate phone and the company could do no wrong. Then almost overnight Apple introduces the IPhone and Blackberry’s fall out of favour with the public. Now Samsung is taking a run at the IPhone and the next, then the next. Competition is so fierce that a sales person is at the whim of the market, rather than their own ability to sell.
Consumers are not very brand loyal to cell phones, rather choosing the hottest phone of the month. The sale swings in this industry a large, going from huge highs one year to deep low the next. One person’s ability to influence a sale is outweighed by too many competing factors for predictable success.
If you scan different industries you will see the automobile industry has to keep reinventing its product every other year to keep pace with competition. The result is that auto companies are forced to invest heavily in retooling machinery to build the every changing car designs substantially eating into profits.
Pharmaceuticals are another industry heavily dependent of research and development for growth. If you are selling the hot drug of the moment then your career will benefit greatly. However, the reverse will happen when your drug is out of favour or even worse pulled from the market.
These swings in industry fundamentals make it very difficult for companies to delivery consistent financial results. Meaning you will be challenged to achieve sales targets that could be unattainable from year to year.
Would you Buy Your Employers stock?
If your employer is carrying huge debt and not making any money for shareholders, would you want to become a shareholder? Would you invest your retirement money in this stock?
If not, why are you willing to risk your career prospects to this company?
Most investors look for healthy companies that consistently make money. Manage money responsibly, invest in areas of growth and operate in strong industries.
You should be looking for the same things in an employer. Don’t let your immediate needs to pay the bills limit your career potential. Not all companies are created equal and some do treat their people better than others.
The key to the success in your sales career is to find a company that satisfies the above criteria and will offer you the job. It may take you sometime. It took me two years to land my present job; but the wait was well worth it for me.
The next time your manager announces you will be going through some new and exciting sales training. Don’t be afraid to evaluate your employment situation and evaluate how well your employer is managing its own business, before they make it your fault they are not achieving their results.
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