How to optimize your tech sales career in the early stages

Learn how to optimize the early stages in your career. Use your enthusiasm, ambition and growth mindset to learn as much as possible. This will only benefit the rest of your career. 

In this article, we will tell you how to get the most out of the early stages of your career.

From volume to value

At the beginning of your career, you will try to reach out to the masses. Your focus will be on networking & building a personal brand. 

Also, adopt the following mindset: Learning before earning. Start doing this first in your career to master enough insights on optimizing your tech sales career. 

Let’s dive deeper into the seven things to skyrocket your tech career.

1. Networking with the purpose of learning

The new way of networking is coming together in online and offline communities. We differentiate three purposes of networking.

• Networking to meet potential clients. 
• Learning best practices from peers to sharpen your skills. 
• Knowing what your peers are doing and how their (sales) context differs from yours. 

The third purpose is equally important to the first two. Early on in your career, it’s crucial to understand your situation. 

2. What context are you operating in?

The context in which you operate will determine what you’re doing, learning, and practicing daily. It determines your career for a significant part. 

If you are ambitious, you are obliged to always be curious and do your research. Great sales professionals with cool careers know this for a fact. It is their curiosity that got them there. 
Bottom line: When you start understanding your preferences and ambitions, you can build toward a suitable context/situation/career.

3. Build a personal brand throughout your career

The lesson here is to be unique and to play out authentically. You don’t have to be the next Elon Musk or Gary Vee, but your personal brand is way more valuable than your company’s brand in terms of career development. 

There is only one of you. Play that out. 

Show your expertise on LinkedIn. It’s your social media account, not your bosses.

4. Learning before earning

Throughout your career, you should look out for coaching and mentorship. In the first stage of your career, mentorship is preferred. They will be the ones shaping you from early on and mirroring the right person. Along the way, you should be looking for internal or external coaching. 

A mentor is someone you look up to. He/she is someone you want to become yourself. Your mentor shapes you for the rest of your career. 

A coach will show you the way by making you see what you need to improve, and he/she can change small habits or teach you how to sharpen your skills to reach short-term goals. 

In short:

• A mentor will tell you: This is how I would do it…
• A coach will ask you: What do you think is the best way to approach this or that? 

5.  Don’t try to skip steps

Your career and skills take shape by taking small incremental steps. See the bigger picture at all times! That’s the only way for you to have a great career ahead. 

For example, cold calling and mailing in high volume might seem repetitive and not fulfilling as a daily task at first. 

It’s essential that you understand the skills you will learn thanks to cold calling. It will make you better at:

• Communicating efficiently
• Understanding human behavior
• Spotting buying signals 
• Analyzing pains/needs
• Asking the right question

Five things you can learn already from a single cold call. Let that sink in.

6. Value the numbers

Value the numbers in the early stage of your career. The more interactions you have, the more you will learn. That parallels your learning curve. 

With the numbers, you will understand the true value of quality faster than anyone else. Match this growth mindset, and your career will run more smoothly and efficiently.

7. Adopt a growth mindset

Adapt a growth mindset to view intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort. Don’t let a fixed mindset self-limit your beliefs. 

Being in sales is the best way to adopt a growth mindset. Behind every rejection waits an opportunity. 

Cultivating a growth mindset is a constant process. Don’t take it for granted. It’s about admitting you don’t know something.

In that way, you start really seeking advice and welcome progress.

Take charge of your career

See the bigger picture. Every step you take is a step forward, even though it doesn’t always feel that way. Have faith in yourself & adopt a growth mindset. You will feel comfortable learning every day.