Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

Want to be a Sales Executive? Here’s How:

  

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A couple of weeks ago, I ran a statistical analysis of many of the inside sales reps I've trained over the years, and 60 of them (that we could track) went on to become sales managers and executives. I'm sure there are many more. So how did they do it? It goes without saying that they became proficient in the telesales skills we teach, but they brought a lot more into it, too. A great example is Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, a company that provides software professionals on a contract basis. Gary attended my class as an inside sales rep for Pure Software, rapidly rose through the ranks, and ended up running the Pure (later Rational Software) inside sales team.

I asked Gary what were the 5 most important things he did to get to the CEO level, and his answers are below. But first I want to tell you what he did prior to becoming an inside sales rep. Gary's first job out of college was matching buyers and sellers of precision metal products.  There were manufacturers that had capacity to make metal widgets and manufacturers that needed parts made, and he helped to match them up.  He ultimately got into the business of manufacturing himself and built a manufacturing business by purchasing machinery and hiring talent to make parts directly for buyers.  Gary ultimately sold the factory and the entire book of business to one of his larger suppliers and moved to high technology, which was a more thriving industry in the early 90's. And that's when he arrived at Pure Software as an inside sales rep. Right out of college, Gary had decided he was going to be an entrepreneur and he used high tech telesales as a jump-off point that ultimately led him to becoming a high tech sales CEO.

Here's what Gary says are the five most important elements that made him successful:

1.  Old fashioned hard work. I learned early on that frequency and competency would produce results and there is no substitute for actually doing the work.
2.  Surround yourself with quality team members with the right personal characteristics. It is hard to teach personal characteristics and important that you build a quality team or you will certainly face challenges later.
3.  Balance.  Family and exercise are important to me and regardless of your passion outside of work, it is important to have balance and fun at work.
4.  Passion for what you are doing. If you are going to put so much into your career, it may as well be doing something you enjoy... having passion for your business is key.
5.  Continue to learn. My desire to grow and develop both professionally and personally enable me to continue to learn on a daily basis. When you feel like you have learned all there is to learn in a job, it is time to take on more responsibility or move on to a steeper learning curve.

OK, Geoff Alexander here again. If I can distill Gary's success message into keywords, here's what I'd use: hard work, emphasis on quality, balance, passion, and learning. Maybe you don't have a family, and you don't exercise (see #3, above.) But balance indicates that you've got something important in your life away from business. Just about all successful people do. And the reason Gary's message is so important is that there's no one reading this blog post that can't emulate Gary's success him or herself. 60 people who've taken my inside sales courses already have. If you're not applying these principles, why not start today, and you can be on the sales executive track, too? Add them to your Best Practices playbook.