I think the title says everything that we need to know, right? Sales is a tough gig folks. Been in sales ever since I started my career 12 years ago and I moved up the ladder fairly quickly. I was managing my own sales team year and a half into my first gig in sales.
This was back then when I didn’t know what the hell CRM was. Ha. Good times. I still cannot get used to the fact that every month the goals reset. It’s like a constant grind. There is no down months or quarters, it’s hustle, hustle and hustle throughout the year.
Honestly, the only time I feel at ease is around Christmas. It’s the last week of the year, I always take it off and spend time with the family. Fireplace, food, family and presents. The perfect combo.
Ok, so Syed what does all this got to do with sales being hard? Well, glad you asked.
You know I’ve been managing salespeople for a over a decade now. I have seen many struggle, many succeed. Many succeed and struggle at the same time. It’s a never ending vicious cycle that every sales person goes through. There are times and months when I see reps that feel truly defeated and I don’t see the level of pressure that the sales teams go through in any other department.
Truth is, my experience is limited. So I don’t want to diss on other teams, it’s just I know sales very well. I know exactly what us folks go through, how unappreciated at times we feel, and how overlooked sales teams really are. So yea, i’m not exactly painting the perfect picture for anyone wanting to start out in sales and that’s fine.
Perfect time for a shameless plug about my blogpost on why sales is the perfect first job ha.
I love this profession and frankly if given the choice, I would choose this line of work all over again. Because despite all the long hours and hard work, I just really really enjoy selling. That feeling when the money hits the bank account. Well as my boy Zak would say it, it just hit different.
Why I’m writing this at 10pm
Alright so why am I writing about sales being hard at 10pm, well as all good things start with me, it started with a reddit post. haha. No seriously.
I read a thread where someone was just tired of all the nonsense. They work hard, take advice, listen to what the manager has to say, they are on top of their stuff, being a top performer and all and still get shit on.
There are days for reps and we have all been there where you just feel exhausted. You drive home or make calls, maintain a pipeline and you just feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. Repeating the same line over and over and over again, the same demos, the same format, no matter how much you try and mix it up, the whole thing just becomes a drag. Day in day out.
So I don’t know who out there needs to hear it or needs to read this. I understand you very well. Been there way too many times. But yes, us salespeople we act tough, we keep our shit to ourselves, no moping about it on 1:1s, keeping our head down and just grinding. No pillar to rely on because “well maybe, others have it worse”. Add in the fact that you’re an immigrant, well, you just lost all excuses because our parents worked harder than us and never complained.
It’s tough. I know it is.
You know it’s times like these when you need a solid support structure. Your family, manager or friends, folks that you can rely on to help you get through those dark moments, because you bet they come and they attack hard.
Don’t suppress these feelings like I did for a long time and let them out. The longer you keep them inside of you the harsher the crash will be when you finally burn out. Or well when you have the “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment.
The truth of the matter is no matter how hard we all try, we never really are appreciated as a sales person (and like I said before, I’m sure it’s similar for other roles out there, I just speak with my limited experience about sales).
You are only as good as today, not yesterday or tomorrow. Everyone remembers the goals you let go, no one remembers the goals that you save. It’s a shitty cycle.
