Location, location, location! In business, location is an important factor when it comes to business success. Have you ever considered how important it could be for your own sales career?
As outside sales professionals, we work remotely and our parent company’s home office could be located in another state or even different country. The importance of location comes into play as you progress in your career, and you are looking to add additional skill sets to your resume, we are limited in terms of options when we are field based employees.
This is where location comes into play. If you live in California, but your home office is located in the midwest, then for you to do a stint in marketing, while keeping your tenure, is to pack and move your family to gain the experience. This is easier said than done and should be considered when choosing a company to establish a long term sales career with.
By having a sales career plan, you can look into the future and foresee possible advancements you might want to have with your sales career, so you can plan accordingly and consider sales job opportunities based upon your career goals. Some sales professionals are flexible when it comes to geographic locations, but by limiting yourself in terms of residence, you have fewer options to grow and expand your skill sets.
LOOK LOCALLY
One of the ways to prepare for the future growth with your career is to look for home offices based near or around your desired geographic locations and seek for job opportunities with those companies. You will only know where you might be open to living is by taking the time to develop a well thought out long term career plan. Look locally and see what target companies are nearby your desired locations.
TEMPORARY RESIDENCE
If you are truly looking for a change in your sales career and want to spend some time at the home office, ask for a temporary assignment with a set time frame. Most temporary assignments are for 2 years, but are rare since sales territories will suffer when a skilled sales person leaves and returns after 2 years. It doesn’t hurt trying or asking, but knowing what you want in terms of career growth is important when advancing in your career.
Another idea is to take a position and plan to move back when the right opportunity arises. Many people go back to the home office and build a solid internal network and different skills that are valuable to your sales career as well as to the company. It does take sacrifice and patience.
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Before accepting your next sales job offer, consider where it fits in your sales career plan and if it is in line with your long term plan. If you are fine with being a career field based sales person, that is fine, but if you want some home office experience such as sales training, marketing, sales operations or any other department, then working in office is a must. Just be sure that the home office location is a location you don’t mind living and working in .
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