Many of my business contacts share a career in sales or are involved in a leadership position that includes selling the services of their firm Renowned sales trainer Tom Hopkins says that "Selling is the highest-paid hard work & the lowest paid easy work there is." I saw Tom speak about 15 years ago and that phrase has carried with me ever since.
For the early part of my career I was in leadership with a national financial services company beginning as a branch manager in Pittsburgh & eventually transferring to California as an Executive overseeing about 300 employees. Our staff performed a wide variety of tasks including sales but one of the failures of our firm was to teach selling in a professional manner. We talked about making solicitation calls, provided some basic scripts and rewarded success but very little in the way of professional level training. Moving to the mortgage industry I saw the same thing & selling became thought of as a profession for an outgoing person. While that helps, the best sales professionals have been highly trained (usually seeking out the training on their own) & have systems for everything that they do.
I say this because we are in unprecedented times &sales skills will become an essential tool in remaining successfully employed in the years to come. Yes, you must maintain your technical skills but companies will see the added value in a professional that aggressively promotes the growth of the firm.
Do something to sharpen your sales skills starting today. It will reward you handsomely.
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