True Story: Sales Seduced Me

True Story: Sales Seduced Me

On Valentine's Day, everyone's thoughts turn to love. That's why I thought it would be fun to share why I'm so passionate about this crazy profession.

The truth is, Sales seduced me.

I never expected to like it. It had a bad reputation and I didn’t want to be seen as one of “those kind” of people. I took the job at Xerox so I could learn how to sell. I committed to doing it for one year. It didn’t take me long though to discover that my perception was totally inaccurate.

But love? I can assure you it was not love at first sight.

What ultimately hooked me was its never-ending challenges. From the onset, I was always looking for ways to get better at prospecting, engaging people, eliminating obstacles, giving more effective demos, handling complex decisions and beating tough competitors.

Every day was a puzzle that needed solving.

I loved immersing myself in learning new things, experimenting with new approaches and analyzing the results. I was on a personal mission to find the most effective way possible, for everything that was sales-related.

The more I learned, the more my clients loved working with me. And, the bigger paychecks were frosting on the cake. How can you not love a job like that?

Amazingly, what hooked me at the beginning still keeps me going today.

The challenges are different. But I'm still searching for better ways to connect with buyers and deal with their changing expectations. I'm fascinated by how to leverage technology for greater productivity and increased effectiveness. And I'm intrigued by the impact of brain research, meta cognition and rapid learning as it applies to Sales.

Like I said, I never expected to even like Sales, much less fall in love. But its never-ending challenges seduced me into devoting my entire career to this field.

What about you? Why did you fall in love with Sales?

Jill Konrath is the author of three bestselling sales books: Agile Selling, Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling. She's a frequent speaker at sales meetings and conferences. Check out the tons of free sales resources on her website:www.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.

Kathy Lito

Outside Sales Consultant B2B

9y

@ Handan, if you take the "selling" out of it, and try to focus on building relationships everything will fall into place.

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Handan Agbas Radosh, CPP

Retired- payroll professional

9y

My background is accounting. I took sales position three years ago without any sales experience. I read books try to learn how to sell but I wasn't comfortable with it. I gave up after a year trying and I said to myself selling is not for me. I started thinking about why gave up so soon. Why not I cannot be good at sales if I can try harder. I'm about to open my own business and I could be able to sell my products. I saw your article and start thinking why I didn't like selling. I have to try harder and getting in to selling field again. Thank you fro sharing this article.

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Janti Octavia Phang, CDCS, CITF

Transaction Banking Sales Team Leader

9y

your article here really captured what I'm feeling right now and thank you for sharing this cause you remind me again why I stay in this role for years.

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Reply

Yes, the first acceptance for the buyer is very often the People then the sale Process and the Product.

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Jim Ottilie

Love what you do, and who you work with.

9y

Great Title!

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