Preface: I met John Callies in our very first sales training class for IBM. We were at Endicott, New York, where most of entry sales training was conducted. Through our first year, every few months we’d see each other in Endicott at another class. We lost track of each other–John ended up going to senior executive levels in IBM, eventually was the General Manager of IBM Global Finance. We stumbled on each other about 10 years ago, at Dreamforce. We renewed our relationship, discussing things we had seen happen over our very different careers, periodically catching up an exchanging ideas.
John’s commentary gets into the issues that caused me to start this initiative. In his final paragraph, he talks about how much selling has changed in the past few years. It seems we have lost so much of the “joy” we experienced in selling. Hopefully, John’s story and those of others will help more sellers find the joy we have found.
Why I’m So Interested In Selling
I chose to be a seller out of college because it was a profession which I felt rewarded me for my direct contribution. There is no ambiguity on success or failure in sales, you either “make your numbers” and get rewarded or “miss your numbers” and don’t get rewarded. I remember telling my young wife early in my career, when you pick up the IBM annual report and look at the revenue line item, I could point to the amount of revenue I generated personally.
Once I became an experienced seller, I found different rewards from the profession which you only experience after a few years. I found tremendous value being an integral part of my client’s extended team. I became a trusted advisor, found ways to help my client’s company operate more effectively and developed deep relationships because I was viewed as an “advisor” not a box seller. I also found there was a “camaraderie” and fraternity which developed among experienced sellers. This fraternity was very comforting and rewarding, significantly increasing the joy I felt being a seller. This “fraternity” gave me support and encouragement and allowed me to develop the beginnings of “coaching and mentoring”, which became so valuable as my career developed.
As a member of a Board of Directors and father/father-in law to technology sellers, I see a completely different environment among sellers. The technology sellers I have direct experience work remotely, usually in their homes without any face to face interaction with other sellers or many times clients. The profession has become a very sterile individualistic profession with very little training. The concept of working with clients, coming back to an office to “pick the brains” of experienced sellers on how best to deal with client challenges does not exist. The modus operandi seems to be to sit at your desk at home, submit bids compete on price and hope you win. The personal relationships do not exist nor are they encouraged by the employers.
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