Helpful Sales Person

Anyone who has been in high-tech sales knows that it can be a pretty cut-throat environment. Generally, people are attracted to sales who like to compete and win. Many companies have a President’s club or similar form of recognition for their top sales people, and being in the club often means lavish trips, bonuses, and plenty of bragging rights. Even if there is no President’s club, measurements of your performance (dollars and percent of quota attained) are out there for everyone to see throughout the year. You don’t want to be at the bottom of the ranking.

Your commissions are based on what you sell in your territory, and “kickers” (higher percentage commissions) come into play once you exceed your quota.

Couple that with selling into a changing environment – where your customers’ software and engineering teams may be spread around the company and around the world – and you have a potential dilemma. How open do you want to be among your colleagues – your competition for the top sales positions? How much information do you want to share with someone who might use the knowledge to surpass you? How hard do you try to determine exactly where your products are being used, when it might mean losing some or all of your commission if you find out the development site is in a different territory?

It is no wonder that in many organizations, the sales people don’t share information, work deals in other people’s territories, and adopt a negative, back-biting attitude toward each other. Although most of my colleagues in high-tech sales through the years have been men, I’ve seen this type of behavior from both men and women.

I like to win, but I need to do it organically and honestly. That includes being open about the opportunities I am working on, and asking the customer early and often where the developers are. It also includes sharing helpful information with other sales people, such as templates for customer emails or ideas for generating new leads or ways to effectively communicate our value proposition to customers.When new sales reps come on board, I reach out to them to volunteer my help learning the ropes. I pass along useful information I have received, and make myself available to answer questions as they come up. The reception I get for this effort varies: women tend to gratefully take the assistance, and men tend to look at me suspiciously and wonder what my game is. I’m sure it comes from years of working in cut-throat environments where trust is not an option.

I’ve got no game. My dad raised me to treat the customer right, and be honest in all my dealings. My mom showed me that kindness and helpfulness are their own rewards. Years of working in male-dominated industries taught me how to navigate the politics of the workplace, and through hard work and treating people right, achieve success.

I’m plenty competitive, don’t get me wrong. Seeing the numbers on the dashboard and comparing my performance with my colleagues pushes me to excel. Helping others do well keeps raising the bar, and I am extra motivated to exceed it. It doesn’t hurt that my compensation is based on my sales, either.

I was the top salesperson in my company for the past two years, hitting 187% and 164% of quota, respectively. The women in my company cheered at the awards dinner, especially since the top 3 reps (out of 10) were women. Some of them will be tough competition in the coming years. We plan to help each other, as we push ourselves to even greater performance.It’s the right thing to do.