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3 Ways to Keep Your Sales Job

3 Ways to Keep Your Sales Job

Sales

Here are three ways to keep your job if you’re looking for a career in sales.

1. Make Your Numbers

You may be a nice person, but in the end even nice people with lagging sales get let go. People who are not nice, but make their numbers get to stay. Why? Because it’s business.

Every salesperson either makes or costs the company money. Costs come from the training you’ve received or the car you drive. Maybe you earn a draw against commission. Your company has to pay its bills. They don’t need you if you’re not selling. After all, you’re not helping to pay the bills.

You have to earn your keep.

2. Have a Specific and Unique Experience

Imagine what would happen to your sales career if one day through no fault of your own you lost your largest account. It might happen when companies go out of business.

The next day you go from the #1 salesman to dead last. Rule #1 says your job is in jeopardy. Are you starting to panic? Don’t reach for the Pepto Bismol just yet.

What do you think would happen if you were the only member of your sales team with unique industry or product knowledge? Suddenly your value to your company increases. This happened to a salesman who was a paper industry expert.

A number of competitors would have hired him had he lost his job. His company, instead of firing him, created a new position as industry manager where his selling role changed. Instead of being responsible for just his sales, he was now responsible for helping other salespeople keep their business by providing his industry expertise. He kept his job.

3. Have Great Connections Throughout Your Company

I’ve seen it before where the people who knew a lot of people throughout the company had a strategic advantage. Their customers got help first when they had problems. Why? It’s because people knew them and wanted to help them.

If you think that just doing your job and making your numbers will be enough it's not. There are times when companies change their job requirements and they have to pick who gets to stay. Sometimes good performers are let go. The ones that get to stay typically are the ones that have a lot of connections throughout the company.

Making your numbers is just the first step to keep your job. Becoming more valuable through your knowledge and contacts is the other way to develop your job security in sales.

Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.