Sales People are Just a bunch of Job Hoppers

I have been in Telecom since 1999. The first Telecom company, I was with them for 3 1/2 years and the next one I was with 2 1/2 years, and then I had a string of companies where I was there for 1-2 years.  Many would (and probably will) tell me that I must have an attitude problem or I am a quitter or "you fill in the blank" problem. I am the first one to say that anytime a person resigns or is fired there is blame on both sides. Today I thought it might be valuable to evaluate some of my personal experiences and also talk about some unfortunate truths out there today.
Unfortunate truth #1, there is no loyalty in the business world. I am referring to employers and employees. The days of someone taking  a job and keeping it 30+ years and then retiring are LONG gone ( for one thing, most of us need to work 40-50 years now, depressing but true). I received an email from a friend of mine asking me about my competition and if it was true that they would not hire sales people who "appeared" over the age of 40. WHAT?! A company would discriminate against someone simply because of their age, or gender or "you fill in the blank?" In a word.... Yup. I also think it is the only way some HR managers keep their jobs. They put you the candidate through an extensive screening process and then once you are hired, they look for any and all reasons to replace you. After all, if they don't need to hire someone, then what good are they? I actually had a job offer held up a few years ago because I reported that I worked at a company for 12 months but the company reported that I worked there for 24 months. To which I responded " so they have their dates wrong" and the HR person responded " If I cant get someone from that company to corroborate your dates of employment then we can't hire you?" Really, so the job before and the job after all checked out? And it is perfectly reasonable that the dates I gave you match the dates between job 1 and job 3 but this unknown person from a previous employer that has little or no vested  interest in getting my information correct is going to be the reason I don't get hired? I called up one of the owners, explained what happened and they agreed to contact the prospective employers and give them accurate information. It seems that the business world at a large is SO PARANOID about hiring the wrong person that they go out of their way to exclude the right people at the same time.
Unfortunate truth #2 the salesperson honeymoon. With every sales job, the first 6 months go very well. I am producing,the boss seems happy, lets me do what I need to do and all is right with the world. Then somewhere between month 6-9 something changes. All of the sudden the boss wants to know why I go to all these networking events. "Are you really getting ROI from all this time you invest?" and " where have you been for the last 4 hours?" and "why did you com into the office today at 10 am? where were you?" Now I want to be fair, these are all perfectly legitimate questions to ask. But if you think they are reasonable and valid then they should have been asked from day one, not after I have been on board (producing at a high level I might add) for 6 months. My job is to sell, let me sell. Unless you got a complaint from a customer or a senior manager about me, then leave me alone. On that note, if you did get a complaint, sit me down and discuss it with me? Maybe it is legitimate, I screw things up all the time, I'm not perfect and I would like to learn from my mistakes. Maybe the complaint is unfounded and based on erroneous information. Maybe, the complaint is just crap and someone trying to stir the pot because they have nothing better to do with their time. It seems to me that every company has one of these people on staff. Their sole reason for existence is to find out what you are doing and why you are doing it. Even though it has little to no bearing on their "legitimate" daily activities. Now let me be clear. As a sales person if I am not performing up to standards then that is a legitimate conversation and we should sit down and figure out why it is happening. Am I lazy? does the competition have a perceived advantage that we can or should work on with our products? Do I need sales training to better the number of customers I bring on board? Does the company need to evaluate how they go about  finding new potential clients for me to pursue? Has the company brand taken a PR hit that has negatively impacted sales? Is the company missing a brand identity in a target market that negatively impacts sales? Has something happened in my personal life that (on the short term) has effected my ability to sell?

It is my experience that very few people in sales are missing quota because of an inability to sell. It is often a combination of factors that end up frustrating the salesperson and their sales begin  to fall off. A friend of mine changed her position in the company we worked at and went from an indirect manager to a direct sales rep. I asked her why she did it and she listed a number of factors that were relevant to her at the time.  She told me about all the things she was going to do to support the other sales people on her new sales team and I responded "that sounds like a sales manager to me, what is he doing with all his time?" Her response was very revealing, she said "Mike the sales managers are so busy with meetings and running things that they don't have the time to work with the sales people." Yup! You read that correctly the "Sales Manager" is so busy that they cannot work with their sales team..... I must be from different planet, where I come from, the sales manager's job was to work with their team and do everything they could to support them and help close and manage sales and the sales process.

And maybe that is the problem. Maybe that is why I become so disenchanted with companies so quickly. I have never taken a job thinking "Well, in 12 months I'll be outta here." But that happens, and not just to me. I have looked over the profile of many of my friends in sales and I have seen a definite trend. Many of them (like me) had early track records of 3 or more years with the same company and then a string of 1-2 years with several other companies. Maybe it is an age thing, I have been at this so long, I know what works and what doesn't and when I see something being done in an inefficient manner I try to change it. And when they can't or wont change I realize that long term employment probably isn't a real option.

I really am open to feedback on this topic and I am sure many people will just tell me I'm an idiot. It's okay, I'm used to it. After all, I am a salesperson, you wont be the first person to tell me I am Lazy, or I am doing it wrong or I am a troublemaker.


Thanks for reading today

Mike S.

BTW, please read and share my fundraising blog www.40milesforautism.blogspot.com