Are You in the Right Sales Job? Answer This Simple Question.

Are you in the right sales job, or is there something better out there for you? I think I can help you find the answer – provided you consider what happened to me.

Once upon a time, a large, global corporation stopped compensating its sales force on actual sales volume. My colleagues and I, working for this company, hoped the change would bring about a more utopian work environment. Maybe we would be paid a healthier salary? Maybe we would be empowered to really serve our customers and no longer have to sugarcoat the truth? Most of us on the sales force would’ve agreed that we sold first class products. Therefore, it wasn’t hard to convince customers to use them.

Such naive exuberance! The new compensation system, turned out to simply be a replacement of the tradional pay for sales system to a pay for sales metrics system. These metrics meant we were measured more frequently than ever on activities that had little meaning to us or our customers. I remember quickly resenting the loss of the old system. In hindsight, it wasn’t the money. I was still made around the same amount as before. What I really lost was the ability to craft the job on my own terms.

From this experience, I learned a very important lesson. When we complain about unrealistic quotas, we ignore the real problem – the concept of outside measurement itself. Any assigned sales metric, whether it’s sales volume or anything else, attempts to inspire the sale person into action. Yes, goals can be motivating, but only when WE set them. Taking on someone else’s goal is not the same thing. Be honest, when you accept a sales job, you’re not actually taking on the company’s goals. You don’t really care about selling over-and-above the required 10,000 widgets. Deep down, you are saying to yourself, “This job’s prescribed goal helps me achieve my personal goals.” More specifically, we accept that the money coming from the job’s achievements will lead us to our desired personal achievements.

Unfortunately, always doing (and believing) what you’re told can be the fast track to growing old. You wake up ten years later with a higher mortgage payment and no more happiness than you started with. In most salesforces, only a small percentage of sales people make the bulk of the compensation. For those lucky few who make it big and retire to a beach, there are about 1,000 of us who don’t. What’s easier to believe – only one of every 1,000 sales people really works hard, or measuring life fulfillment based on something so random is ridiculous?

Instead of focusing on getting rich, try being rich. I don’t suggest spending beyond your means, but taking a mean look at your spending. Your neighbor with the Porsche may be swimming in debt. That cruise that your teammate brags about may be collecting interest on her credit card. Real wealth is an equation:

What you make – What you spend = Real Wealth

Here’s what you really need to ask yourself: If your commissions (or other measurement system) where taken away and replaced with a comfortable salary and benefits package, could you still do your job? Are you truly inspired by the work itself? A job worthy of your time should do this. Keep telling yourself the money alone makes it worthwhile. At best, you will only ever tolerate your job. Still don’t believe me? Daniel Pink, in “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, says workers should be paid enough to take salary off the table. Research has proven, the more money you make beyond about 70k per year, not only fails to add hapinesss, it starts to take away from it. Are you in the right sales job? You now have the answer!

Sincerely,
Meaning2work

Ps: I doubt one blog post will change your mind about the futility of finding happiness from making more money. Have the courage to read Daniel Pink’s book if your belief in it is that strong. To find it on Amazon, click here.
Pss.: Are you instead wondering if sales is the right job for you, period? According to David Hoffield, you will likely be selling in your next job – even if it’s not in sales:
https://www.hoffeldgroup.com/sales-articles/the-new-reality-everyone-is-now-in-sales/