What do you wish you had done to prepare
yourself for a career in sales?
For sales—it’s important to read books about initial cold calling and initiating conversation such as Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear and Rejection from Cold Calling. This industry is a lot about trying out what works for you and finding your identity as a salesperson and that only happens with practice in conversation. Learning how to more effectively open and begin conversations is a prerequisite to this and reading about different strategies provides ideas on how to find your own style. Every book you read you will find at least 1 to 2 nuggets of information that will shape your identity.
What skills are essential for success for a career in sales?
Hard skills: Salesforce or other CRM (customer relationship management) knowledge. Negotiation.
Soft skills: value based selling, diligence, follow through, humility, team-oriented, and internally motivated
How would you recommend to “try-out” this line of work?
Sales can be “tried-out” as a summer job—my recommendation is a door-to-door job to see if you have the stomach for rejection. This style of rejection is extremely valuable for sales because it forces you to move on in 10 seconds because that’s about how long it takes to go and knock on the next door and will definitely prepare you for a career in sales. One of the best methodologies to reframe rejection is doing backwards math on your deals. For example – if you know that your average sale would get you $1,000 in commission and it takes 10 conversations to get one sale and it takes 10 doors knocked to get one conversation, you know that it will take 100 doors knocked to get a sale. That means that every door you knock that rejects you essentially is 10 dollars in your pocket. This backwards math enables you to reframe what a “rejection” is as it is just part of your sales process.
10 verbs that are useful for a sales resume
1. Researched
2. Follow through
3. Generated
4. Created
5. Closed
6. Prospected
7. Solved
8. Resolved
9. Sold
10. Expanded
Get to know Lucas Gallardo
As VP of Sales, Lucas Gallardo is responsible for driving global sales for Alivia Analytics, with a focus on the company’s growth, strategy creation, and development of client relationships. Lucas brings to the position a successful track record of more than 10 years that includes recognized sales achievements in domestic and international markets. With a keen attention to detail, Lucas specializes in understanding client needs and crafting solutions that add value to the customer.
Prior to joining Alivia, Lucas most recently oversaw domestic sales for US Green Builders, where he nurtured key relationships and engendered strategic partnerships that led to significant revenue growth. At an early stage in his career, Lucas was recognized by Capital One Bank as a competitive entrepreneur and received funding for application development. Lucas earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Entrepreneurship from Hofstra University.
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