Yes, sales professionals do lose their jobs!  Hopefully it will not happen to you, but if it does this post will have you prepared.  There is no shame in losing your job if you have done your best.  Sales can be difficult but is rewarding. Be the professional…. be prepared!

At some point in your life, you may have to endure the act of “getting fired.”  Obviously, there is no positive light when this is happening, yet it does happen in the world of sales.  One of the most common reasons has to do with performance.  Performance issues happen to sales professionals of all colors and backgrounds.  They can be particularly vexing for the Black sales professional because the stigma that getting fired carries coupled with preference and prejudice issues can severely limit hiring opportunities.

You may find a few articles and publication that talk about what happens when you get fired. Most of them make sure to mention that for a sales professional, this does not have to be a “death sentence.”  Most people, sales professionals included,  associate their livelihood with their identity, and can be devastated if they are terminated.  Additionally, changes in your relationships with co-workers, many of which you may classify as friends, can be just as shocking.  This is especially true with the suddenness of a sales termination.

There is no way to ‘get fired’ gracefully as you have are not in control.  Your reactions to the activity can be calculated and professional if you follow some of the suggestions below.

Prepare for the Future

This does not have to be a “death sentence”, yet it is a separation by any terminology.  You should always be prepared no matter how well you are doing in the job.  Since losing your job can happen for of a number of reasons, including the company ceasing to do business, you should have this plan in effect even if you are doing well.

Here are the items you should focus on:

• Your Sales Contacts – Always have your prospect contact list duplicated on some type of accessible media.  Many sales professionals use a company issued phone, PDA, and computer.  Your contact’s information is on those devices, and your ability to recreate that information is limited once you are separated from it.  You have worked years to put it together, take this precaution.  As a sales professional this is ultra-important.
• Key Contact Data – Have [your] Customer Profiles of your key clients up to date, and stored where you can access it—as discussed in(Black Sales Journal 1/20 Deepening Your Customer Relationships Part II). There are many that believe that client data such as this is company property.  I believe that when I have achieved the relationship that gives me personal access to client particulars about their family and social data, that it is my personal property based on my ability to be in the position to get the information in the first place.  A customer who has allowed you to be a “business friend” has not given you clearance to share his wife’s name and their personal particulars with the new sales professional who is left there to service the account.   It is yours, and it would be wrong to let that information go to someone without that status.
• Have Your Contracts in Hand – Have access to your sales contracts.  It is important to have your signed copies in your possession, not in your files at your place of employment.  This would include your employment agreement (if you have one), your non-compete agreement, and any non-disclosures that you have signed.  This will tell you what you have agreed to do, especially including employment after termination. There is a possibility that some provisions change if you are separated by termination.
• Know Your Rights re Final Payments – Have a copy of your sales compensation plan handy as well.  This will advise you of what is done regarding your final commissions/bonus payments if you have some coming.  If you have these papers, you don’t leave this most important area up to your former employer.
• Document Your Accomplishments – Keep up-to-date copies of your sales numbers.  Your ability to get a job will be based on your ability to show past sales accomplishments.  Nothing shows this like the real numbers.

Time For New Opportunities

Now you are armed to seek out new opportunities.  If you did what is above, you have the following:

• An idea of your final compensation, and possibly a severance package which will tide you over until you are able to find another sales position.
• Documentation of your sales success. Make sure no account names are showing, as any new employer will be watching to see this evidence of integrity.
• A roster of your key contacts as well as a data sheet on contacts that you consider key enough to have developed Customer Profiles for.  Depending on your non-compete specifics, you want the ability to be back in business again at some point in the future.

A couple of notes that you should consider:

• Don’t sign anything without a good legal review if you are in doubt.
• In a journal, record all of the events that have to do with your job loss.  If you make a decision to contest anything, even your severance agreement, you will have listing of events that will give you credibility.
• Leave the physical location ASAP.  There is no reason to linger, or be told to leave.  If you do the things mentioned here, you won’t need to spend much time trying to figure out how to get your contacts, contracts, and your personal items.
• Be amicable and be cool.  The decision is not going to change, so get the “skinny” on what you need to know, and get going, as there is much to be done.

If you are not prepared in this way, you could spend the rest of your sales career trying to get back up to speed.  Be careful and judicious with your information.  Remember to be smart!  Do not find yourself embroiled in legal scrimmaging by doing the right thing.

When it happens, you will appreciate that you have done these particulars.

Your comments are welcome.

There is nothing that is more gratifying than landing the big sale.  The ‘dance’ that happens between buyer and seller is seldom orchestrated to perfection, but is perfection is not necessary.  Impromptu changes in course and is the way this process works in reality.  You know the drill.  This post talks about the 6 points to keep in mind.

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Nothing in sales can be more exhilarating than landing the big account.   The definition of ‘big’ is left without specifics, as it is important to realize that a large sale in commercial real estate is much different than a large sale in office machines.  Both are big, in the context of the sale within their own genre.

Chasing and making the big sale is exhilarating and rewarding as I outline below, yet don’t forget your normal core business, as these sales can be elusive.  This activity requires patience, which is not as necessary in normal transactional sales.  It requires someone be more of a director than an actor.”

Maybe, a definition here would be a little more generic in the description.  A big sale is a sale which:

• Changes the game – a sale that changes your stature within the organization.  An attention getting act which gives recognition to the sales professional.
• Creates real income – A sale that provides substantial income for you and/or your organization.  Substantial income gains result from the sale.
• Changes expectations – An activity that changes your expectation (regarding your level of achievement) on your part and your organization’s part.

Landing a large account usually does not happen accidentally.  It is a planned activity which has probably brought you to the waterhole once before with no success.  It is the common result of opportunity meeting preparation.  It is a fleeting possibility for many sales professionals, as you need some luck, or heavenly intervention as well.

Some Important Points

There are some steps that you need to be prepared to take early on in your sales career that will help you when the time comes for you to perform on that stage.  These activities are great for the sale that is not career changing so it is worth it to start putting this “portfolio” together.

• Garner Credibility
• Show Credibility on yourself – Know how to make two sale at once
• Be the consummate professional
• Be a solid quarterback
• Know your boundaries
• Know how to accept assistance

Garner credibility for your company – you need to make sure that you have your proof sources in order.  You will need references on your company that show the organizations capabilities, dependability, and responsiveness.

Prepare to show credibility on yourself – I suggest you review the article Black Sales Journal 5/26/2011, The Black Sales Professional, Closing Two Sales at Once. The Black sales professional needs to be prepared to make both sales, and recognize that this is an activity which requires time to pull off.  Note the nuances posed in Black Sales Journal 3/31/2011, Credibility – The Goal of the Black Sales Professional.  Credibility plays a large role in your success.  If you are succeeding right now, it is because you have accomplished the credibility feat.

Be the consummate professional – No major account buyer worth his salt will do business with someone who does not look and act the part.  There are too many sales professionals out there looking for the sale.  In Black Sales Journal 3/7/2011, Be the Consummate Professional, we discussed how minding those particular P’s and Q’s leveled some playing fields, or at least got you in the game.

Be a solid quarterback – This one is a true requirement.  You need to be able to marshal your colleagues and others into a cohesive group.  See Black Sales Journal 4/18/2011, Mastering the Assisted Sales Call and you will see the role of the quarterback. Always remember, you will take the responsibility for an unsuccessful bid to get the account, so seize the moment early on to “get the ducks in a row.”

Know your boundaries and use your turf – Know your turf, and use all of it. Know what is the normal process, and then think outside the box.  Be creative and illustrative and give the buyer firm footing to make the case for your organization’s involvement.

Know how to accept assistance – Know when and how to ask for help from support staff and management.  You deserve help, and you will find that the cost of this help is often recognition and compliments.  The currency of ‘thank you’ is invaluable.

Above all be prepared to show value as well as the economic and operational advantages of being with your organization.  If you cannot figure out any, your chances are minimal in getting the organization to change.

A Practical Example

I once managed a sales professional who did an excellent proposal but our numbers were weak.  Having nothing else to compare to, the proposal showed the new pricing versus the last years incumbent’s numbers that were obtained at the time of the discussions about the dispositions of the quotes.

She illustrated with a graph, and some calculations to show how the difference in cost for our product versus the current product would increase their margin based on the number of units manufactured and sold.  In an industry where the operating margin was less than 4%, she calculated that changing to our product would save them .33% in their cost of goods sold.  This number would move their margin closer to 4.30% and clearly that would help them make their move to their strategic goal of 5% in a tight packaging industry.

Her figures were “rough”, yet illustrative enough that they bought the concept home.  They bought it, and never looked back.  Being illustrative is important.  Show that there is economic benefit, and that you and your organization is easy to do business with, and you can have a winner.

It might not be as clear for other customers, and other products, yet the concept is simple.  Put things in terms that show how you can save them money, or make them money.  They will see the light.

Your comments are welcome.