Ethics and Motivation: Thanked the person that got you into the business lately?
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Feb 09, 2009 @ 02:55 AM
Most of us in the inside sales business couldn’t predict
that we’d be in this profession when we were in school. We had many different
proposed career tracks, and I’ll bet very few of us had “high tech inside
sales” as a career target. But somewhere along the line, someone took a risk on
us, hired us with little or no experience, mentored us, and kick-started our
careers.
I often think of Perry Lynne at Atron, who hired me to sell
software development tools even though I barely know the difference between a
bit or a byte, or Dave Retz, one of the developers of ARPANET, who hired me (a
commission-only photocopier salesperson at the time) to sell X.25 gateways running on the
IBM Series/1. Both Perry and Dave took a chance on me, even though I didn’t
have the credentials to work for them. And very few weeks go by when I don’t
think of how much they contributed to my career by taking that chance. So this
week I called both of them to thank them.
The "thanks" was long overdue, but they enjoyed hearing from
me, hearing about my subsequent successes, and learning how they contributed to
my career, even though many years have passed. I started reflecting on how
sometimes we all forget to thank the people that got us here. In most cases,
they did take a risk, because I think few of us were all that well-qualified
for our first inside sales job. Today, I’m getting my nephew into the business.
He’s bright, great with people, and a hard worker. And someone’s going to take
a chance on him, too, and he’ll be a great inside sales rep.
Today, I’d like you to consider the person that jump-started
your career. Why not make a call out of the blue to say thanks for believing in you when you were starting out. You’ll make that
person’s day.
The other thing I’d like you to keep in mind is the value of
doing some mentoring yourself, and getting someone into the business. I know
tremendous inside sales reps that were pulled out of auto parts stores,
restaurants, and administrative positions. Someone saw their potential, and got
them involved. And this cross-pollination of people from different walks of
life is one of the things that makes our profession an exceptional one, and
never dull.
Whenever I teach an inside
sales training course, I’m invariably asked about motivation, and discussions on ethics arise as well. And on these
two topics, I think that both thanking someone important to your career and helping a
great person to get into the business carry elements of both ethics and
motivation. Add these elements to your Best Practices playbook. Maybe one
day, you’ll get that thank you call yourself.