The memories to which I refer are particularly related to my mindset and the mindset of those around me, when I gained my initial sales opportunity.
I has a happy chap. Armed with my English “O” level, (I lied and said I had an additional two…. Art & Engineering!) I’d clawed my way up from being a cleaner, then a butcher and finally reaching the dizzy heights of a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport. This was a great job – I’d worked out that if I did as many double shifts as I could, I could accumulate three consecutive monthly pay slips which, along with a friend adopting the same approach, could justify us getting a HUGE mortgage – and we could get on “the property ladder”. So, this is what I did.
Then it dawned on me – this was going to be it! At 22 years old I would have peaked! Being a Baggage Handler didn’t have many transferable skills which could lead to better career opportunities. I hadn’t been to university – in fact, I was born too early – there were no fancy terms which could be applied to justify my lack of academic achievement at my local comprehensive school!
Then, one day someone had said to me “You talk a lot – you should be in sales” (please!) – this led me to understand the term “OTE! so, I started buying the Evening Standard every Thursday and applying to adverts for sales jobs. Off I’d go to the odd interview in my Ford Capri, in my suit which was slightly too big – all off set beautifully by my white towelling socks!
After many disappointments, rejections & complete wastes of time, I finally landed my first sales job! And, so to my point.
Upon starting my first sales job I was madly enthusiastic! My ears were open, my heart pounding. Inside I was leaping up and down – keen to impress these people who were earning money my father didn’t believe! I was impressed by their suits, watches, cars, phones, charisma and on occasion – arrogance (OK, they’d earned the right!) They drove Ford Granada GHIA’s – some even Mercedes & BMW’s! They reportedly lived in DETACHED houses!
There was a week’s initial sales training course where I was one of twelve or so additional new joiners. All were just as enthusiastic as me. Many had a lot more experience. Each of us had plans, a vision as to how successful we were going to be and how this would further enhance our lives. When the training finished, we given a desk each in the sales office. It was noisy, energetic, animated – the air often being filled with the sounds of celebration & even louder profanities!
I’d been trained and now I had to dive in. Shaking I made my initial calls – and more calls – and more calls. Getting slowly better, I was desperate to impress. I’d listen to anyone who had done what I wanted to do – who had achieved what I was desperate to achieve, prove, shout about! I’d be the first in, the last to leave – mostly I failed, mostly I was rejected – but I kept going. Ever focused on why I was there and what my alternatives WERE’NT! Driven largely by the fear of failure – of having to tell my parents, friends, girlfriend – I’d been sacked, whilst ultimately knowing I could have avoided this if I’d have given it 200%…. every day. I was going to do this or die trying! The next time I went to Heathrow Airport it would be as a passenger – not to put someone else’s case on a bloody jet!
That was my life for the next 10 years – bloody brilliant. I won awards, earned some great money, got sacked, rode many disciplinary processes, spent too much time bitching about how unfair things were! But I kept going, kept turning up and crafting my art (slowly!).
So, back to where I started – maybe my memory is playing tricks on me? But I just don’t see this attitude in people in the volumes I remember it being when I was at comparable levels or stage in my sales career. Certainly, it’s still there – but much harder to find in recruitment?
So, are we attracting the right people? Are we paying enough money to attract who we need? Are we being honest regarding the role and what it takes? Or, are we getting the best we can for the basic salaries we pay? Are we relying on HOPE as our strategy? Are we employing the wrong people at the right salaries for our businesses, who, negotiate ever lower fees and make ever lower volumes of placements? These are not accusations – but genuine questions.
Regardless of social media, internal recruitment teams and LinkedIn, has sales and recruitment really changed? I say not! Are we honestly seeing enough new colleagues join us who remind us of ourselves – I suggest we need to be! Are we accurately describing the realities of a person establishing themselves in those early, relentless months? Are we providing the genuine levels of guidance, support and assessment to them in their early & crucial months/initial year?
Maybe we are, but are not supporting them correctly? Maybe we aren’t?
If any of this hit a nerve, we can help.
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