Black Sales Journal

There has been much press regarding this topic.  The way you handle your social media could possibly interfere with your ability to get, and sometimes keep a job in the digital age. With Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and many other social media outlets, even the most devoted sales professional could stand the risk of distraction.

Additionally, if you allow your personal business to be made public, it could come back to haunt you.  Without the careful filtering of your participation in social media sites, you could be making your private life public.

The power of social media is amazing but utter the wrong thing and the ability of social media to go viral could change your life, or at least your employment status.

Using Social Media On the Job

This is an interesting proposition. I was in a group classroom setting, this past fall, when the professor asked if any of us knew our employers policy on social media and electronic media. Sadly, 3 out of 20 people raised their hands.  You should have a copy of it if you are engaging in any social media at the workplace , and if you do any social media mentioning your employers while on your own time.  Normally it can be found on your company’s intranet site, or requested from human resources.  In most cases it describes the things that are important, and you will quickly be able to scan it and tell if it is a templated policy, or if it has been tailored for your employer’s needs.

A couple things you do know:

• Avoid criticizing your employer in any social media. It is that simple.  On your e-mails, if on the company email system, I would suggest avoiding any negative references to your boss, your company, or your company’s information.

• Organizations have an ability to track your usage of personal media sites/social media sites in terms of keystrokes and time spent. Make an assumption that they do it! Is it worth losing your job to respond during the workday?

• A preoccupation with social media on the job is widespread. An organization called Nucleus Research of Boston; Massachusetts indicates that 77% of American workers admit to using Facebook while on the job. Think about being the employer who is trying to explain difficult financial performance when it determined that of that 77%, 87% state that had nothing to do with their job duties.

When employees were dealing with predominately e-mail 10 years ago, it was not a big deal.  After the explosion of social media it becomes evident that participation in social media can be very time-consuming.

More importantly your employer starts to recognize that it’s not just his equipment that is being used for much of this; it is your own equipment as much of this can be done on the smart phones of today. With that in mind, the employer makes an assumption that if you’re using his equipment for social media, then you’re using yours as well.

Using Social Media at Home

Your use of social media in your private life shouldn’t be a big issue. The problems occur when the theater of social media shows you in compromising situations, and is seen by a manager or coworker.

A few examples are:

• A relationship between a manager and one of his direct reports, an act which is proscribed in almost every organization, was discovered when it was posted on one of their Facebook sites.
• A rant about a manager and the employer was posted on Twitter and seen by the manager.  The words, though limited to 140 were “damning” and ended with a ‘reassignment’ of the employee to less favorable duties.
• Entries and tweets that are full of tough language and sexual connotations will haunt you as has happened to many who thought their comments were shielded.

Countless times prospective employers resort to perusing a Facebook site to determine the ‘personality’ of an applicant.  It might not feel right, yet it happens.  When they see you with the bottle of vodka in one hand and something we hope is a cigarette in the other, they may make a decision that is…well let’s just say not in your favor.

One Last Point

You are constantly being evaluated as a sales professional that is something that you cannot change.  No one needs to be afoul of the rules that govern the workplace or business as a whole.  With that in mind there are laws that govern the release of information, including electronically that are being interpreted for social media situations.  To be safe, don’t do it!

Avoid transmitting anything regarding your company on social media no matter how safe and secure you think it is.  Additionally, avoid using your own computer or hardware to “broadcast” anything on social media pertaining to your company, an employee of your company, or your work situation.

Be smart and aware.

Your comments are welcome.

Sales Representative Job Description– Individual needed to convince others to do something that they otherwise would not do! Job Duties – To make this happen, you need to be able to create interest, develop relationships, clarify the product/service and its uses, close the deal, and service the customer.  Not capable of being done by a machine or robot.

Why Aren’t There More Blacks in the Sales Profession? As a Black sales professional, or an aspirant one, you may have wondered the answer to this question.  As the question is intriguing, I attempted to research it on the basis of items written and published.  There is not much discussion in print. The only citation evident appears to have been a doctoral work done in the late ‘70s.  As that is somewhat stale I will pose some observations on this issue for 2011. In a profession that is “rubber meets the road” for most organizations involved in manufacturing and distributing durable goods, providing financial services, and others looking to put their products/services in the hands of business to B2B end users, a simple observance would tell you that Blacks are underrepresented. There are many reasons.  I will outline some major ones:

Many organizations don’t seek out Black Sales Professionals – There are organizations that do recognize the benefit of the Black sales professional and actively hire and recruit.  More organizations need formal recruitment programs.  In B2B keep in mind that only a small portion of that should be related to reaching the African American market, it should be generally to find the best sales talent available.

Lack of Confidence – Based on the fact that most buyers are white, the Black sales professional often has many concerns regarding acceptance.  This can be a serious barrier.  Mentoring, training, and general support can help here.

Difficult Assignments – Often when a Black sales professional is hired, they are more likely to get a difficult assignment.  Sometimes that assignment is related to an area or territory which has languished, or a company trying to reach Black businesses.   Black sales professionals should be very clear about the territory that they are entering and what is expected upon hire and deployment.

Lack of mentoring - It is well observed that we need more mentors, and there are many programs out there attempting to provide more mentoring.  We need to increase this activity to fill the void, as it is obvious that there are deficiencies in this regard.  Organizations need to provide more mentoring, yet mentoring from outside the organization can be effective as well.

Lack of Training and Support – Organizations who hire should attempt to provide the proper training and support. As they have made the first move, now they need to give the Black sales professional the opportunity to succeed. The Black Sales professional should request details about training, and ongoing support prior to accepting a position.

Retention of Black Sales Professionals is Difficult – Much of this is based on what is above.  A solid Black sales professional has many talents, and if thwarted by the points shown above, they will move to other sales positions, and possibly to other occupations.  Having them move out of sales positions keeps the numbers anemic.

The Professional Sales Outlook 2012 – 2018 The importance of this issue is based on the fact that as many occupations languish, professional sales is projected to grow through 2018. Let’s quickly look at the number of sales positions available.   The source of this information is the United States Department of Labor. This link will take you to the actual report.  This report projects through 2018. A quick look at the sales profession in this jobs report will show the following information:

Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Mfg 1,973,000

Sales Whsl and Mfg (Excl Tech and Sci)     1,540,000

Sales Whsl and Mfg (Tech and Sci)               433,000

The jobs pay well in the overall also:

• Wage estimates ex tech/sci– Median $51,920, with the 75^th percentile showing $74,310 in the overall.  This is wage, and does not include commissions or bonuses.
• Wage estimates tech/sci – Median $71,300 with the 75^th percentile showing $100,910 overall.  This is wage, and does not include commissions or bonuses.

Total sales employment for 2018 is projected to rise to 2,116,400 by 2018 for a 7% projected increase. All of the numbers shown are from the May 2009 DOL Report. Almost all sales positions have some arrangement regarding bonus or commission, although some sales positions are commission only.

In Summary In a country that has a reduced focus on manufacturing products, the occupation of sales has increased  in importance.  This importance comes from selling US manufactured goods as well as goods manufactured outside the US to businesses in our country.  This is basically the essence of distribution. You will note that the positive effects of mentoring are mentioned in the major areas above.  You can access Black Sales Journal 1/27, Do You Need A Mentor, Actually You Probably Need Two! Also, as we talk about  finding that new sales job in Black Sales Journal 1/24, 5 Suggested Internet Sites For Finding That New Sales Job. If you are an accomplished sales professional, consider mentoring an upcoming Black Sales professional.  It is the type of giving back that we really need. Thanks for reading, and your comments are always welcome.