Preface: Pete Tapley has been a friend and client for about 12 years. I first met Pete when he was running North American Sales at a small technology/professional services company. He went on to senior positions at Cognizant, CSC/DXC Technologies, Telus International. He’s now Managing Director of Data and AI at Accenture. Here’s Pete’s story.
My father sold insurance. From an early age he explained to me that sales was the only field with unlimited income. That was interesting to me. In middle school he started taking me to occasional breakfast meetings with clients. One summer, he had attended a sales conference at Hershey Park. While my mother and brother were riding roller coasters, I joined Dad in an afternoon sales conference session. Maybe you could say it was in my blood?
When I started with a consulting company out of college and told them I wanted to sell, the VP in charge of the office suggested it might be helpful If I learned what they did, so I might actually be able to talk about it with an executive. Fine idea. I implemented telecom billing systems around the world for a few years and was able to talk to executives about it as Paul had suggested. At age 26, I got lucky and was given my own Fortune 500 account to manage and grow under the tutelage of a senior, experienced sales executive. I loved it and have been involved in direct sales ever since.
So what do I like about it?! People and problems. I like meeting new people, learning about their businesses, and learning about their problems and needs. Remember how I started off in consulting? A decent salesperson is really just a consultant…a consultant who shows up before the paid consultants arrive. Taking a bit of industry knowledge, mixing it with some technical knowledge, understanding constraints on both sides of the deal, and crafting an impactful solution and commercial construct is consulting. TO this day my favorite parts of the sales cycle are first meetings (who is this person, what are her problems, how might I or someone I know be able to help?) and contract negotiations (given what they need and I need, how can we introduce a creative commercial term to that serves both?).
Then there is the science of sales. I am a nerd about this. The processes…the tools…the best practices. I love it. And having developed a sales playbook over the years, the joy is now sharing it. That is back to people, too…but now it is the people on my team. I can provide coaching and mentorship to grow newer sellers and give them a taste of success and knowledge to pass along to someone else.
As consumers, we are all exposed to sales—sometimes good…usually bad. For whatever reason I see it as a bit of a personal mission to give buyers a great buying experience. And I want other sellers to do the same. The energy of a deal is certainly a rush. Leaving the field a little better than I found it is about fulfillment.
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