Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Category: sales

  • Navigating Work and Recovery: Balancing Responsibilities During an Extended Absence

    Navigating Work and Recovery: Balancing Responsibilities During an Extended Absence

    I’m going to be out of the office for an extended period beginning the middle of next month. I have a planned vacation with one of my best friends to Cancun for a week, then a few days later I’m having surgery on my right shoulder. I googled the recovery time for shoulder surgery and it’s not definitive, but looks like a few weeks before I can get back to the office.

    My shoulder has been bothering me for over a year now. Limited motion and pain. Pain to move it, pain if I sneeze, pain just walking down the stairs. It’s not been fun. We tried some physical therapy (PT) for two months and while I did regain some motion, we didn’t relieve the pain. The Physical Therapist said that was all she could do for me and recommended I talk to the Ortho specialist to see what options there were.

    The Ortho doctor, well first the physicians assistant, said that we could keep on with the PT to see if we continued to improve. This didn’t sit well with me as I kept thinking of the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I told him that – so he called in the doc. The Doc and I then went over everything again and he said these things “sometimes” get better with time – I asked how much time – he said about 6 months… but I’d been experiencing this for about six months at that time. He said our other option is surgery, we went over that and talked about moving forward with that. I suggested we give it three more months, see if it changed – it didn’t.

    I don’t currently have any anxiety about the surgery, doesn’t mean it won’t come later I guess. Mostly my anxiety is about work and not being there. It’s not a money thing, it’s what am I going to do if I can’t work and/or play video games… really, how boring is this recovery going to be. Also, how long will I be gone… first a week for vacation then at least another week for initial recovery.

    Planning on being out is different, I have a lot of responsibilities at work. I like to think my teams depend on me for results and camaraderie. I work all kinds of hours with my team, at home I’m always stepping up to help someone with a sale or a document – doesn’t matter the time, they rely on me to be there.

    Who can you trust to step in and cover for you, to take care of your team while you’re out? I have 30 some people in my department that are capable of doing so. Some of them are swamped with prospects of their own and I think my team would be an afterthought to them. Not in a bad way, but like they have established work ethic and system that makes them successful, I don’t want to throw a wrench into that. Some of my team just couldn’t meet the challenge of a large team to help out in addition to their current duties. So I called an audible and asked my manager who I should pick. My first choice he shot down as someone with too much on their plate already, but then he threw out some names I hadn’t considered and we chose someone that should be up to the task. My manager did joke, I hope, that my team would like my replacement more than me…

    It’s a hard thing to let go of, my team, letting someone else step in and help them with their various needs… will they be fast enough, nice enough, efficient enough or will they disappoint me and my team. Most of my team has my direct mobile number and I don’t want to hear they haven’t been taken care of in my absence. It’s not rocket science, what I do, and I’m not asking them to sell my book of business, just to cover customers that call in to move forward after previous interactions. This is going to be ok, I keep telling myself.

    I have to trust my manager’s instinct. Let my team be in capable hands of my co-worker. Relax and focus on me and my recovery. I will have work to do – PT and a lot of it from what I understand – they have scheduled me for my first PT appointment the afternoon after my surgery. That I find aggressive, but probably in my best interest.

    I may invest in Dragon Naturally Speaking to see if I can get some work done. I’ve also been playing around with my left hand, seeing if I can maybe use it to get somethings done… but again, really should be focusing on my PT and doing what the doctor says.

    I’ll be ok, my team will be ok and I’ll have a pain free shoulder before I know it!

  • Journey into Inside Sales

    Journey into Inside Sales

    I’ve been working in Sales (Inside Sales) for a little over three years now. When the company first approached me with the opportunity I scoffed, not wanting anything to do with the culture of sales that I had in my head – sleazy salesmen, wearing plaid sports coats and lying to you to get a sale. The guy who interviewed me for the promotion (I had been working in the call center) assured me I should give it a chance and that I might like it. He also hinted that I could make a decent amount of money.

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    I started slow, unsure of myself and my abilities. I stumbled here and there and managed to overstep a few times, but eventually (about 4 months in) I got the hang of it Over time I slowly built up my pipeline of customer and established strong relationships with my outside sales teammates.

    At the beginning I read and listened to a ton of books on sales (Zig Ziglar’s “Selling 101“, David R. Cook’s “How to be a Great Salesperson … by Monday Morning“, Grant Cardone’s “Sell or Be Sold” and Ryan Daniel Moran’s “12 Months to $1 Million” to name a few), I was studying at night and trying to figure out my niche and all these folks had such good ideas about what to do and when to do it. It really was a lot of education for me and I think I absorbed a lot of it. But I was so obsessed with selling right and trying not to mess it up that I tripped a lot.

    My boss had pulled me aside one day and asked what was holding me back and why was I struggling so. I explained that I was studying very hard, reading and rereading many books and just trying to get it all down… he gave me really good advice – he said “just be yourself, people like you”. He did say all that stuff that I read was helpful, but ultimately selling is about building relationships and relating to people. That talk really helped me and I improved dramatically.

    I started talking to customers about themselves, sharing about myself and listened. That’s a big one, listening, hard for me because I always want to get on to the next call, the next customer, the next potential sale. But when I stop and listen I can hear the customers pain points and find a way to relate to them and talk about the solutions we offer. It also helps to strongly believe in your team, your product and your company – which I do.

    I watch my colleagues in Inside Sales and some of them can cite chapter and verse of our product specifications, some of them know the ins and outs of financing a project, others do a little of everything… and most of us are successful in what we do. I haven’t found one way that is better than the rest – yes, some of us have tools which we use to increase our reach and our message but others are just diligent about doing everything they can to sell a job and they do well.

    For the last two years I’ve managed to get into the top ten of my department. in 2023 I sold over three million with my team. I enjoy what I’m doing and the people I’m doing it with and almost every day is a pleasure to be a part of. I make a ton of calls, send a bunch of text messages and emails and hear from people of all kinds; It’s fun.

    Over the last year or so we’ve been pushing discounts, 10% here, 15% there and even one month with 20%. Last month we were again given an extra 5% to play with to try to make some deals happen. I don’t rely on the discount much – I strongly believe what we are selling is worth the price.

    It’s already been an up and down year in sales for me. January I missed my goals by quite a lot (rare for me) and yet this month I’m way ahead and it’s only the beginning of the first full week. Nothing changed about my workflow or ethic; sometimes it’s just up and sometimes it’s down. I just go into work planning to help people and it seems to work out.

    I’m planning to sell over 4 Million this year. I think I can do it with my current team, company and attitude.