Taking the TIMED Approach When Selecting Your Next Opportunity

Take the TIMED Approach When Selecting Your Next Opportunity

In our last webinar, we discussed using our TIMED approach in selecting the right sales opportunity for you. The feedback was extremely positive, so I wanted to share this with our readership again here. The goal in using this approach is to have a system by which you weigh and select the best opportunity for you:

(1) Technology - Selling a unique solution is extremely important. But, while a key element, just remember: great technology with poor leadership will be trumped by good technology with great leadership every time. History consistently repeats itself here.

(2) Income- Most get mesmerized by this one, but should really be more focused on the other four components. Without strength in those four, that base of 130K and OTE of 300K will translate into a W2 of around 150K. After fourteen months, you will not have achieved your unrealistic quota and be back out on the street looking for a new position. Adding insult to injury, you will have to explain why you didn't hit your numbers during your interviews and won't have money in the bank to cushion a transition in selecting the right next job.

(3) Management - Choose a great manager who can be a mentor too. We cannot emphasize this enough! This will be the #1 reason you have the chance to exceed your number and grow as a sales rep/sales engineer/sales manager.

(4) Executive Leadership - Your great manager, exceptional sales skills and great technology are going nowhere if the captain of your ship is clueless.

(5) Details - Are you the 4th rep in the territory in the past 4 years and the previous 4 did not make their number? The devil is in the details.

Career Swamp - Avoiding the Easy Path

Taking on challenges is sometimes described as "character building." As cliché as this might sound, we take it a step further. It is vital to your livelihood as a sales professional. By taking the easy road, many end up with jobs that are bringing no value from a professional, much less personal, growth standpoint. For them, the path of least resistance becomes a career swamp.

Having interviewed thousands of sales professionals, we have seen two consistent traits in those who have had exceptional sales careers. First, from an early age they sought out challenges. This can be seen in the courses they chose in school, the sports they played and, ultimately, the jobs they took. Second, when they no longer feel they are being challenged, they move on. As professionals, this is spawned by poor leadership, no advancement, poor training, inferior products, no income growth or lack of job excitement. Often, this means leaving a position where they were exceeding quota for a new challenge.

As executive search professionals, the second point is always met with the question: "Why does he/she want to leave such a lucrative position?" Our response is simple: for a new challenge. They are confident in their abilities to succeed in anything they set out to do. Moreover, the successful sales manager relates all too well. Borrowed from our favorite little green Jedi master, they adhere to the philosophy of: "Do or do not. There is no try."

If you are continually seeing your peers pass you by, don't be afraid to make a change. This may require you stepping outside of your comfort zone, but this is how we grow and evolve. With children, we are constantly encouraging them to broaden their horizons and try new things. As adults, the principle still applies.

Stability Does Not Exist In Software Sales

This article was first written by us last year, but seems like a timely re-print. Enjoy!

These are the words of a fellow software sales professional stemming from a conversation last week about stability in our industry. We were discussing the merits of being with a large, established company versus a small/mid-sized, growing firm and how either situation relates to stability. And, with the average tenure in software sales sitting at less than four years, frankly, she nailed it.

Some view larger companies as having a higher level of inherent stability. This perception, however, is largely not reality based. Larger firms can most easily and rapidly control costs via headcount. Shutting down an office often takes place as a macro cost cutting action, and sales reps making their numbers are frequently not spared. Take that large firm, make it publicly traded and you now have the variable of Wall Street with which to contend. Steady, "up and to the right" growth is what they need to see. When they don't, and the stock is down graded, the quickest way to appease the analysts is to cut headcount. Additionally, many larger firms view their sales professionals as easily replaceable since their product suites are so widely known and recognized.

While we believe small to mid-sized companies with software unique to their space to be more stable, their volatility is still present. One upside is a more direct line exists between profits of a small/mid-sized firm and the individual sales person, making your value much more realized and identified in such a company. Conversely, assuming the firm is well funded or profitable, most up-and-coming software companies are seeking enough market penetration and marketshare to become attractive enough to be purchased. A well negotiated option plan on the front end can reward you for your efforts, but likely isn't going to equal immediate retirement upon the sale of the company.

So how do you provide more stability for you and your family? First, adjust your perspective and you will find the answer to be quite simple. Stability does not reside within the company but rather within you. Stability is not staying with the same company a number of years, it is making a consistent income by achieving your quota with whatever company for whom you happen to be working.

Making your numbers will create stability for you in three ways. First, you will make a very good income. The average at plan is $220,000 per year. If you exceed your number, you will most likely be making in excess of $300,000. Second, when cut-backs are made you are less likely to be hit when you are meeting and/or exceeding your numbers. Third, if your company does cut your position or you determine it is time to make a move, quota meeting and exceeding reps rarely have a tough time finding another lucrative software sales job (particularly if you know a good recruiter).

The Problem with Name Dropping

One of the principal tenets of legal questioning is to only ask questions to which you know the answers (or at least this is what I have gleaned from watching countless hours of Law and Order!). In The HAMMER Letter this past April, we talked about a topic sharing a similar vein: Name Dropping. But in this instance, you need to be aware of what the people whose names you drop will say about YOU.

Just this past week, I had a software sales executive interviewing with a client. He was a great fit for the organization given his track record of success and his vertical knowledge. But, in the midst of the conversation, he decided to start verbalizing his rolodex. A few of those names rang familiar with the Sales Engineer involved in the interviews, so he did the next most logical thing: He made a call to the customer whose name was dropped who he happens to know quite well. As the story was relayed to me, this customer whose name was dropped was described as very “even keeled and mild mannered.” This customer’s response regarding the software sales executive candidate, who dropped his name rather confidently, was that the next time he saw him he would “like to pin him to the wall.” The visceral nature of this back channel reference completely scuttled this candidate’s chances with the company.

There is another facet to hap-hazard named dropping as well: knowing what the person you are talking to thinks about the person whose name you are dropping. On more than one occasion, I have had a candidate interview with a client and they find a common link. Any better than average sales professional is highly networked, so the degrees of separation are few. The problem becomes when the interviewee starts getting comfortable, lets his/her guard down and comments on this person they now know to share in common. Even an innocuous comment made tongue in cheek can be taken badly when you don’t know the baseline or history behind the other person’s relationship with this shared contact. Again, just like in legal questioning, you should not question (or in this case, comment) when you do not know all the facts (the context and substance of the relationship).

Establishing commonalities in the interview process is important, so here is how I would advise going about it:

1) Keep it simple and professional. No need to comment on someone personally, regardless of how comfortable you are feeling in the interview
2) Like Mom said, “If you do not have anything nice, do not say anything at all.”
3) If you are on the fence about what a name you are about to drop might say about you, do not let it leave your mouth.

Social and Professional networking sites are great places to see if there might be a link between you and your interviewer BEFORE you meet. As you find those links and are doing your due diligence beforehand (makings calls, getting background, etc.) a good vetting mechanism for determining “to drop or not to drop” is this: If the person in question is willing to make a call on your behalf before the meeting – it is probably safe to drop the name. If not, think twice about the risk versus reward.