As I embarked on my sales career, I quickly realized that I had not followed the path that most sales people had followed. In fact, I started off on a path that could have taken me, eventually, in a polar opposite direction.
Having always liked math, I assumed that seeking a career in finance would be an obvious path for me and “stumbled” into a UK division of General Electric. I say stumbled because at the time I had never heard of them and I had them confused with the English company bearing the same name!! As I had always wanted to travel abroad, I saw GE as the best bet to fulfill my travel aspirations, so I became an accountant. I started off on its 2½ year financial management program that would eventually see me spend 12 months in Stamford, CT.
Unbeknownst to me, I had just joined one of the best companies in the world with, arguably, the best management training program in existence. Although GE is one of the biggest companies in the world, it is also one of the most entrepreneurial companies I have come across. People of all rank and title are encouraged to take charge of their business, to take risks, to hold themselves accountable, without procrastination, to make things better and more efficient. For seven years, GE taught me how to constantly look to make things better and to drive value in everything I did. I did it by listening intently to what people had to say, by capturing and analyzing the relevant facts and by acting with respect and integrity. All without fear of failure.
I was never content with being referred to as a “bean counter.” I wanted to change the score—not keep the score. After four years of endless reports and analysis and thousands of complex spreadsheets I made the decision that I had to move out of finance and move to the other side. GE gave me that opportunity.
Although I will not argue against the fact that, on the surface, this transition could have appeared to be driven solely for financial reasons (fat commissions checks here I come!!!), it was actually driven by the fact that I wanted to leverage what I had learnt in terms of structure, approach, process, and analysis.
I have applied the structured learning from GE and applied it throughout my software sales career: everything you do has to have a purpose, has to have an impact, has to have value. My initial venture into finance provided me with the foundation that I have applied with my customers ever since. Quite often my prospects treated me as a trusted business advisor, there to help them and not necessarily sell them (although the sale was never too far out of sight, or mind!!). Building value is the foundation of all successful sale opportunities and ultimately a sales career.
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