New Beginnings: IT (Information technology) Sales Career

So, it has been some time since ive updated this blog. This has been due to my involvement in a recruiting process for an IT firm called Eigen Development, a firm that creates POS software for business' all around North America. I went to through a month long interview process which involved 5 trips to the company (which is located in Vancouver). I had three interviews with the HR Manager, the Sales Manager, then an interview with both of them plus the President of the company. This last interview was 2 hours long and filled with numerous behavioral questions!

So, yesterday I get a call when I was en route to Nashville for a sales conference. I believe I was in the Dallas airport. This was the beginning of my IT career. My interest in IT sales has mounted from my masters degree and from informational interview conducted with key individuals.

I am very excited. While it is not a comission sales job (which is somewhat odd), there are many incentives including profit sharing, promotions and free hockey tickets on top of a pretty decent salary.

While this may mean the end of my book selling days, i see it as a new beginning and an awesome one at that.

New updates and teachings will come. Patience.

PS: Please feel free to connect with me on facebook and on linkedin. Cheers

On Not Giving Up: The Philosophy of: "It Does Not Matter"

There comes a time in life, work, relationships, etc, where it becomes unbearable to continue on the current path. Something is hindering your continuation and slowing you down. You are so inside your head with worries and disbeliefs, which most of the time are not real, you stop. On the sales field my first year working with the Southwestern Co. I came across a hindrance that halted me in my tracks. I was knocking on doors selling educational material and was getting rejection after refection. Compared to my teammates, I was not producing to my desired level of standard. I remember sitting in the middle of suburban northern Edmonton unable to continue on. I was devastated. I knew that I could do this job but my mind would not let me and it was only my third week out there. I think back on this now and laugh. I had lofty goals of 3,500 units or approx. 20,000 dollars profit (which was pretty good for a first year dealer). I was not meeting these units. Why was I so in my head then? Why did I let other people affect my mood so much? I thought about quitting, nevertheless I knew I was better than this. So I followed a manager the next day to get some ideas. I calmed myself down and went out the next Monday with the air of indifference of whether I sold something or not. Immediately, I started to get better and sales were good because I did not care and people saw this, so they were less defensive. I ended the summer selling a little over 3,000 units (not so bad) and winning a free trip to Mexico. I won every single award there is and was 39th out of 1500 first year dealers internationally. The lesson here is that I don't know how id feel about that summer if I had given up. Getting out of your head and seeing situations objectively is the key. The phrase I used that helped me out was "It does not matter." So if your car breaks down, or it is raining, or if you have a zit on your face and you have to give a presentation, just think "It does not matter." It really does not. People worry about so many things that aren't real. getting out of this state and controlling your mind is key. Laugh at life and you will succeed.

Giving Up Control: Why Some Managers Fail

You cannot control another person! YOU cannot motivate them. These are errors in belief that many managers hold. While all this may sound highly negative, there are important lessons to be learned from these two phrases. This summer, I discovered the difficulty in motivating another person to work when they did not want to. In my defense, I was new to the whole management side of the business. Motivating someone to do a difficult job like sales was foreign to me. I was coaching three individuals on a regular basis; one was a top sales person the other two floundered in self pity and skepticism. Why the complete polarity in their behaviors? It has come to my attention that there were many external forces contributing to their failure; forces that I had no control over. At the same time I believe I could have gone about the situation in a different way. I had the belief that I could motivate people, whereas I should have had the mindset of coaching them through their issues, asking questions, so that they would uncover for themselves what would motivate them. Instead of telling them to have a positive attitude I should have asked questions. Sales is asking questions, uncovering a pain and then showing them how doing something will heal this pain.