Alone we can accomplish a lot, but through the wisdom and viewpoints from others, such as a mentor, we can grow and learn in our own sales career. If you don’t already have a mentor, it is wise to seek one out to help you be successful in your own sales career. Having a mentor could really make a difference in your sales career and if you follow and listen to the lessons from those who have been successful before you, you will reach success much quicker than those who learn by trial and error alone.
You will need to take the initiative to find a good mentor that meet the needs of your sales career. Not everyone will meet the specific needs, so be selective in your selection of a mentor. Since having a mentor is not a mandated action item, you will be the one who will initiate and ask for the guidance and assistance in your career. As you progress and succeed in your career, you might be sought after as a mentor yourself and to help guide future ambitious sales leaders.
Having a mentor can benefit you by having a sounding board to bounce ideas off of and to help you make important decisions in your sales career. Successful mentors who have climbed the ranks of their organizations have gone through the tough process of being selected over numerous other highly skilled and successful professionals. You are also not held to having only a single mentor as well. Seek out different mentors for different areas that you wish to improve upon. You can seek a mentor for career growth, a mentor for advanced selling skills and any area you seek to improve upon in your career. One of the key benefits of listening to the lessons taught from mentors come by way of learning things you don’t know and only by having someone point out opportunities for you, can you pursue them with the best chance of success.
CONNECTOR OF PEOPLE
A mentor can also serves as a connector of people and help you develop your professional network from those they know. You can gain access to leadership and others in the organization that you might not have known before and get a warm introduction from your chosen mentor. You professional network is the key to possible future advancements or different roles in divisions. As people progress and move on with their careers, they move to different companies and different roles. Having and maintaining a professional network will help you find new opportunities and access to information not known to every individual inside or outside your organization.
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
Mentors can be a source of inspiration and a person other than your sales manager to motivate and push you to improve by giving you constructive criticism and advice for you to take action. Like all jobs and careers, a sales career can get stagnant and redundant, and with the help of a seasoned/successful mentor, you can learn the different methods that was used to get over the slumps and find new ways of motivating you to reach even higher accomplishments in your sales career.
Paul Hutchison says
Hi
I am an independent mentor working with Technology sales professionals; for sales and sales management, the ICT workplace today is more challenging, dynamic and fast-moving than ever.
Business Development Executives and Account Managers work long hours in a stretching and often complex sales environment with ever-increasing targets, and their activity and productivity levels are usually visible to all stakeholders.
The mentoring that I normally provide can help salespeople to:
Advance your career
Improve your sales performance
Maximise your income
Develop your skills and knowledge
Deal with performance issues at work
Build your network
Change your market
Improve your employability
A good example of the broad range of mentor support requested is a Technology salesperson whom I am assisting to transition into a financial career in the City, through introductions in my network.
Core themes of ‘sales’ mentoring appear in almost every conversation with a mentee, but equally I am never surprised by the ‘left field’ requests that arise!