Sales Culture and Self-development

2009-04-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here I am again. I couldn't resist adding one of my favorite quotes from recent readings out of Thomas L. Friedman's book "The World is Flat". It reads;

Girls, when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me,

"Tom, finish your dinner - people in China and India are starving.'

My advice to you is: Girls, finish your homework - people in

China and India are starving for your jobs."

How very true this is. Not that I have anything against these other cultures, but I do find it wrong of any organization to outsource it's business to others outside America, especially when our economy is in its current state of uncertainty. In doing so, they are taking away the lively hood and prosperity of America citizens simply to partake in their greediness to earn higher revenues with lower production costs.

It doesn't seem that my opinion on this matter is the only one that sees fault with it. Currently, my boyfriend works for a small tech support and web design company. It is small in the sense that it operates with only a handful of individuals. Many of his companies clients are governments agencies in which its staff members can log onto a sight for technical support of any kind. As such, there are moments when the same user may visit the chat room more than just once. Due to the fact that my boyfriends organization does not want to seem small, it asks its employees, or 'instructors" as they call it, to use different names so that their users won't see the same people assisting them over and over again. They were told to use names of different genders and ethnicity's to seem more worldly I suppose. Funny thing was, is that many of their clients, these government agencies, became offended, and mind you , offended enough to follow through on a complaint that was later heard and acknowledged. What was so offensive to them was that fact that upon entering the chat room, they were not greeted by a Michael or a Jennifer, but rather a Namiko or Amar was the individual helping them. It was interesting to me that just in seeing those names belonging to the instructors that were assisting them, elicited such and upsetting reaction. As a result of the complaints, my boyfriends companies has stopped using the addition of ethnic names, and now simply limits their imaginary staff exclusively to Americans.

Entry Two

2009-04-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

After finishing Chapter 6 of Friedman's book titled “The World is Flat 3.0”, I now know and understand the different functions and abilities that make up the general list of categories that make up the new middle jobs. The list contains jobs such as adapter, collaborator / orchestrator, synthesizer, explainer, personalizor, leverager, author of your own materials, and Green person. When finding one that best specifies myself and my professional abilities, "the great explainer" would be the best fit.

As described by Friedman himself, "someone has to go in front of that customer and explain; 'Here is what this is going to do for you, here is how it will tie into your existing systems, here is how it will benefit you, and here is how much it will cost'"(Friedman, 2005, p.289). I find myself reciting something similar to this line on almost a daily basis. Currently I am employed by a well known Fortune 500 company and do business to business sales. After conducting a needs analysis for my clients, I later come back to propose a certain product or service, being sure to include, features, benefits and incentives, and later disclose both a return on investment as well as the final pricing for the customer. The sales cycle consists of what Friedman has just summarized up above. I find peace in the fact that he find the "great explainer" to be a valuable asset to an organization.

Entry One

2009-04-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

I must admit that after reading Thomas Friedman’s chapter entitled “The Untouchables” in his book “The World is Flat 3.0”, my favorite line was one at the very beginning. It stated, "There will be plenty of good jobs out there in the flat world for people with the right knowledge, skills, ideas and self-motivation to seize the dream" (Friedman, 2005, p.278). I find that this statement summarizes my thoughts and perspectives in the career world. As a salesperson, I find those who are the most successful among us, are the individuals that embody a few specific traits. Possessing a personality that entails the motivation and ambition to get ahead and further oneself in both career and in life is an attribute of a successful sales person. In addition, they must also possess the ability to connect with colleagues and clients in a way that’s makes others want to follow.

This particular statement is deep rooted in my belief system. After much success over the last decade in my past two sales organizations, I recently found myself unemployed due to an industry collapse. I have previously valued my expertise in a sales environment and felt that my attributes and experience would be transferable into an sales industry. Unfortunately I was brought into the harsh reality, that regardless my accomplishments on paper, it was another type of documentation that future employers were wanting to view, a degree. After being faced with rejection despite a track record of success, I found that I unknowingly heeded Friedman's advice in furthering my knowledge and skills in order to attain that great job. It has become ever so evident that there are an unprecidented number of individuals, ones that are better educated and possess more career and industry experience that myself, competing for the same jobs as I am. And so, here I am...