Preface: Alex McNaughten, his co-founder, and I have been spending a lot of time talking recently. Alex and Alistair have a vision for one of the best AI based coaching platforms I’ve seen, Grw.ai. Alex’s story is fascinating, but one of the things Alex raises is similar to what many other participants have also raised, and what drove me to begin this series. He writes, “The (sales) profession is not in great shape……. This is the reason I am still in sales-I am determined to fix it!
“Why I am so interested in selling,” Alex McNaughten
I started in sales completely by accident just over 11 years ago. I was 19, not particularly enjoying my Finance and Accounting degree at university, and applied for an internship at a tech startup. They brought me on, I was given a list and told to start calling! 8 weeks later I was their first sales hire, but not long after that I became the VP of sales and built the sales, marketing and CS team as we took the business from 0 to $2M in a year. After this first sales experience, learning fast, solving problems for and serving customers (and my team), I was hooked. From there, I was shoulder tapped 3 times: 2 US tech giants and then a series A startup in various sales and leadership roles. From 2018 onwards, I’ve built 3 companies supporting the sales org.
I learnt quickly that sales is nothing like how it is portrayed in the movies. Sales is service. Your job is to help people to uncover, understand and then solve their problems. If you can’t do that, help them in some other way such as by pointing them in the right direction. Never try to fit a square peg into a round hole – no one wins! The best way to succeed in sales (and probably anything else in life for that matter) is to learn voraciously. If you aren’t getting the learning and development you need from your boss, take charge of your own development and find the answers. Never stop learning!
What inspires me most about the profession is that there are so many supportive and giving people in the sales community. Not only do they put out incredible content every day: podcasts, books, blogs etc. but I’ve personally found so many incredible people around the world extremely willing to jump on calls with a youngster in New Zealand, generously help and open so many doors! I’ve stayed in sales for a number of reasons: 1. It’s a profession that has been very good to me, that’s given me opportunities to travel the world, live an interesting and incredible lifestyle and meet fascinating people. 2. Sales makes the world go round. 3. The profession is not in great shape. 14 month average seller tenure, 16 months for leaders and only 39% quota attainment. This is the reason I am still in sales – I am determined to fix it!
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