Failing Forward, Lessons on Sales Leadership

<p> </p><p><strong>JB:</strong></p><p>How’d you get into sales?</p><p> </p><p><strong>RS:</strong></p><p>Always fun to reflect on how you got here as you extrapolate out your career</p><p>When I finished school- got a shiny piece of paper and asked Now what? </p><p>You feel proud, excited, that you have enough and pretty quickly can become deflated trying to get your career started</p><p>I probably sent out hundreds of applications - had the fortunate timing graduating in 2008 during the recession</p><p>I figured out how to learn different skills</p><p>Traveled for almost 2 years after school, I found work, worked in Nicaragua for a few months teaching econ and learning Spanish</p><p><strong>I remember calling my bank to check my balance and told me I had $25 left, I was PUMPED!</strong></p><p>I had $25 to start my career journey, a lot of problem solving and skills I learned from traveling on how to get from here to there.</p><p>Grew up in New Hampshire and had a friend hiring for a sales role selling merchant accounts</p><p><strong>I had no idea what I was getting into, day 2/3 I knew it wasn’t the job for me but decided, If I’m in this I need to figure out how to be GREAT at something. So I stayed there for 1.5 years.</strong></p><p>I figured how to connect with the customers, the flow of a sales call. </p><p>I would set goals for myself to see how quickly I could close the deals</p><p>It wasn’t the most sophisticated sale but I decided I wanted to gain a higher degree of mastery </p><p>Reached out to Forrester research - some of the best experiences of my early sales career- Thrown into the deep end with tech buyers who had been purchasing tech & research for decades!</p><p><strong>Thought I knew what I was doing as this junior guy and I stumbled my first few months</strong></p><p>Had a great leader who was a great motivator and great coach, Michelle Allen</p><p>Put me into an underperforming  territory of Chicago and she bet on me to turn it around!</p><p>Ended up #1 in the company in sales, got to fly priva