The Tech Sales Warrior (eBook)

Introduction

Early in my career, a company I worked for had gathered for its annual celebration on a cold January night in an elegant ballroom just off Times Square in New York City. It was the first time I’d attended the company’s annual meeting; prior to that, I had been a business development rep—meaning my job had been to make cold call after cold call. But this past year I had been fast-tracked and promoted directly to an outside field rep.

I started off feeling good because it’s the kind of event I love—everyone gets dressed up, there’s a party atmosphere, and the positive mood of anticipation is irresistible. I chose a seat in the second row and couldn’t wait for the awards ceremony to begin.

I had done “okay” as a field rep. I missed quota, but by less than 3 percent. For my first year, I thought that was awesome. I even had the idea that I might get some sort of award. But as they started calling people from my region of the country up on stage, it dawned on me slowly at first, and then faster and faster, that I wasn’t going to be called at all. My face felt hot. My stomach became a knot, my palms sweated, and my right leg bounced nervously. As I watched colleagues walk across the stage, basking in the cheers for nailing their yearly sales quota, I heard a voice next to me deliver crushing words.

“Prangley, they don’t give out awards for trying here. I guess it’s ‘better luck next year’ for you.”

My mentor in the company, someone who had been helping guide my transition to a field rep, confirmed the final crushing blow of recognition: I had failed.

In that moment I learned one of the most important lessons in sales: you either meet quota or you don’t. If you want to be up on stage and achieve financial freedom (and in some cases, keep your job), “okay” and “almost” won’t cut it.

Now, before you jump to the conclusion that my mentor was some kind of sadist, you need to understand that he was teaching me an incredibly valuable lesson (and, okay, maybe needling me a bit).

There’s no place to hide when you’re a sales rep because the numbers are the numbers. In other words . . .

Everyone will know if you nailed it or failed it.

I think the best salespeople love the challenge this represents (or they learn to love it). These elite reps discover the Tech Sales Warrior mindset, and then go on to achieve financial freedom and a sense of accomplishment that is life altering.

I made it through the rest of the ceremony, and then it was out for drinks with colleagues. I made an effort to keep a smile on my face and socialize—after all, the people who met quota did deserve to be celebrated and congratulated. I certainly didn’t want to be the sulking sore loser in the corner.

Even so, I couldn’t help feeling like an imposter. A little bit of ribbing from colleagues about missing quota didn’t help either. Some of it was good natured and some of it had more of an edge, but either way it added to my misery. If you’ve been in sales for any time at all, you probably know exactly the kind of teasing I’m talking about.

Eventually, I was able to slip away from this happy crowd of colleagues and head back to my hotel room. As I sat there alone, I recognized something inside me besides just disappointment and failure. It was the feeling of a fire being lit.

I wasn’t sure exactly how yet, but I was absolutely determined: next year, I would be on that stage.

And I was. I never missed again. As devastating as those words from my mentor were, they would also mark the turning point of my sales career. The sting I felt fueled my determination to never miss quota again. With help, hard work, and learning from my own mistakes, I’ve since figured out how to crush quota consistently.

You Can Be a Tech Sales Warrior

Learning to “crack the code” in tech sales has been life changing for me. If you’re a new rep just starting out on your journey, the strategies I share in this book can be life transforming for you, too. It can also change the lives of reps who have been at it awhile, but haven’t yet been able to break through to consistent success year after year.

I’m currently a regional vice president of sales for a leading, multibillion-dollar cybersecurity firm, but I certainly didn’t start there. Less than ten years ago, I was a new sales rep with a mountain of student loan debt and nagging worries about how to survive in the competitive world of tech sales.

In other words, I’ve been where you’ve been—maybe where you are. Some of my early sales experiences were a struggle, including that painful but memorable comment from my mentor as I watched other colleagues being celebrated on stage.

While I do believe the principles in this book can be applied successfully in other kinds of sales, this book is specifically aimed at B2B enterprise sales reps selling tech solutions.

It pains me to see tech sales reps trying but still feeling lost. I’m talking about the kind of reps who are disciplined and successful in other areas of their life, and aren’t afraid of hard work, but somehow haven’t been able to translate this into meeting quota consistently.

If you’re one of these reps, this book will show you the methods, strategies, and tactics that are proven to work. If you bring the dedication and hard work, you’ll learn how to channel your energy into the right tasks, the ones that produce results. It will pay off in financial freedom and the confidence that you’re in control of your career.

I can say with absolute confidence these methods work. It’s not just me they’ve worked for. I’ve mentored several young sales reps who’ve implemented these strategies and found consistent success. They are now Tech Sales Warriors, reliably exceeding quota.

You should wake up every single day with a mindset that matches the opportunity in front of you. Very few careers offer the earning potential of tech sales. The leading reps earn in the same stratosphere as the top doctors and top lawyers in the country. You can be up there with professional athletes and other fields that command top salaries.

Stop for a second and let that sink in. You can be compensated on the level of elite doctors, lawyers, and business leaders. It’s a truly extraordinary opportunity that you should honor by bringing your best every day. If this fires you up, this book is for you. It will show you where to put your efforts and how to unlock your potential.

This Book Is Going to Bust Some Myths

There are some common misunderstandings about sales that are damaging if you allow yourself to buy into them. I’ll go into more detail about these sales myths throughout the book, but recognizing these false ideas right from the start will put you a step ahead.

Myth #1: It’s All About Money

I’ve spent a good bit of this introduction talking about financial freedom and how you can make elite-level money. And now I seem to be saying the opposite, that it’s a myth that sales is “all about money.”

Let me explain. I’ve found that salespeople who focus exclusively on the “flash and cash”—who only want to make money for money’s sake—flame out quickly. They either don’t make it at all, or they meet quota a few times and then rapidly fade.

That’s why the very first chapter of this book is called “Finding Your Why.” If your goal is long-term success, you’ve got to have motivations that go beyond wanting to sit on a pile of money. When you have a deeper purpose, it’ll fuel you through the mundane tasks and frequent rejection that are an inevitable part of sales.

Myth #2: Sales Is about Tricking People

Of all the misconceptions about sales, this one drives me the craziest. Great salespeople are not manipulators. They’re not tricksters looking to deceive someone into buying. The most successful salespeople build relationships and truly care about what’s best for their prospective clients.

Most importantly, extraordinary salespeople want to deliver tremendous value for clients. Sales should always be a win-win, with the customer getting a painful problem solved or reaping significant financial benefits from the solution you sell.

The goal is never to be slick or deceptive. The goal should always be to deliver value.

Myth #3: There’s a Lot of Luck Involved in Beating Quota

This is a crippling mindset for any sales rep to have. It implies that meeting quota is out of your hands. This is an especially persistent false belief because sometimes luck does play a role in particular circumstances.

I’ve seen reps luck into one massive sale that makes their year. And I’ve seen good deals fall apart near the end when the rep did everything right. I’ve seen reps with “great” accounts fail, and I’ve seen reps with the “worst” accounts still crush quota. Good and bad luck happens.

But luck is not decisive over the course of a career. It’s not even the determining factor in meeting quota in any given year. If you do the work and follow these methods, you can consistently crush quota, year after year. Some years you’ll have more good fortune than others. But all that will mean is you’ll exceed quota by even more than you usually do.

The Warrior Mindset

I’ve always been a big fan of self-help and self-development advice. I’ve taken advantage of all kinds of resources and I’m grateful for the...