Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

5 steps to fast-tracking your career move to upper management

I read a very good article today on career development strategies, written by Kriengsak Niratpattanasai, a management consultant who writes periodically in the Bangkok Post. While his article is geared to people already managing, I'd like to take a more basic approach, and suggest that if you're a Business Development or Telesales rep right now, I think it's a very good idea to look at your career in its current state, and design a plan for your next career step.

A good number of inside sales reps fail to do this, primarily, i think, because many of us landed in this profession by accident. Inside sales was just something we'd do to bridge the gap to our next real job. And now, 5 years later, we're making real good money, have exciting conversations with prospects, and know an awful lot about business in general. But we're still not thinking career, when perhaps we should be.

Consider a model that could work like this. Say you're fresh out of college, and six months into your role as a BusDev rep. There isn't any reason that you shouldn't set your sights on eventually managing your (or another) BusDev team. By working hard and smart, you could easily be there in 5 years. As an Inside Sales Manager, you could set your sights for a director position in 5 years. Complete the model until you project yourself to be a VP.  The model suggests that if you work hard, continually exceed quota, develop your career and business skills, you could be a VP 15 years from leaving college. If you started the whole process at 25, you'd be a VP at 40.

If this sounds crazily aggressive to you, consider the fact that over 150 people I originally trained as reps are now in management. This didn't happen by accident. So I'm going to give you some steps to execute that can get you started:

1) Determine what job function you want to have in 5 years. List your 10 and 15 year plans, too.

2) Conduct a critical self-analysis on your current skill set. The questions you should ask are:
   - Are my current skills adequate to perform my current job at optimum proficiency?
     - What skills will I have to improve or obtain to exceed at the management job I'd like to have in 5 years?

3) Once you have a list, meet with your own manager to discuss your "5 year plan." Ask him or her for a brutal assessment of where your skill set is today, and where it needs to be to move to the next level.

4) Armed with those two improvement lists, start a plan to make immediate improvements. If those include additional training your company won't pay for, figure out a way to acquire those skills through other means. Books and Toastmasters come immediately to mind as two possibilities.

5) Keep your manager in the loop, by meeting occasionally to discuss the progress you're making, and to get additional feedback. Remember that your own manager is on an upward career curve, too. These discussions will be great for both of you.

So there's your 5 point plan for becoming a VP in 15 years. You don't have to be 24 years old, either. As far as I'm concerned, you should start this process at any age. Chances are you won't be doing this all at one company either. If you've taken all the right steps, you very well may be interviewing at another company eventually for that high-level position.

One of the great things about living in tough economic times is that you're forced to really think about what matters in your career. So the challenge I'm throwing down is this: think proactively, not reactively, about where you're headed, and start taking some notes today about where you really need to improve to get to the next level. You won't be alone, as all successful people beat themselves up over something they could have done better yesterday, then figure out fast how they'll do it better next time. So add a process for fast-tracking your career to your Best Practices playbook.