An account executive shares seven lessons from early in their career: there's no such thing as a must-win deal, success takes years not quarters, prioritize the buyer's process over yours, ghosting happens and it's not personal, $50k-$200k contracts aren't expensive for companies, comparison kills focus, and you have to own your own career.
Like many, I got into sales a bit by accident, which led to my first couple years being a little bit miserable, a lot of not making any money and really doubting if I could be successful in sales. So today I wanted to walk through the seven things that I wish I knew as a new AE that would have made those first few years a whole lot more enjoyable and fruitful. Number one, there is no such thing as a must win deal. Throughout my career, I have lost sleep over dozens of deals that I no longer remember in in the moment they felt like must win. Career defining, need it for the quarter. But what I've learned is regardless of the deal, win or lose, life goes on. Number two, your success is measured in years, maybe even longer, not quarters. Zoom out and play the long game. Most, maybe all, top performers have had a period of struggle in their careers. Just keep going. Early in my career I was convinced that if I had a bad quarter or I missed a quarter or I promoted a little bit later than others, that it was over. That's not the case at all. Careers are long. Act like it. Number three, worry more about the buyer process than your sales process. Early in my career, I lost a ton of deals trying to force my buyer through this rigid sales process and kind of pissing them off. Until I learned that I should be thinking less about how do I get the buyer to the next step of the sales process and thinking more about what is the next decision that my buyer needs to make and what is the information I need to get to them to help them make a good decision. Number four is about ghosting. I hate being ghosted. To this day, it is still probably one of the most annoying parts of sales to me is that you're going to get ghosted no matter how well you sell. You can reduce it by selling in a better way, but you can't eliminate it completely. So don't take it personally. A lot of people just hate giving bad news and it's easier for them to ignore you than to respond. And so don't take it personally. Number five, 50k, a hundred k, maybe even more isn't very expensive. I remember when I showed my first proposal, I think it was for like $36,000. My first proposal above 10k. I guess I should say I was mortified. I was like $36,000. That is so much money. It's not. It's probably less than your executive buyers pay for their mortgage every year. For a business, it's basically nothing. That amount of money is easily spent on food for events, travel for events. If you have a good solution, never be worried about things being expensive, especially in that 50k, 100k, 200k range. It's just not that much money for a company. Number six Comparison is the Thief of Productivity Now I know that the famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt is compare Harrison is a thief of joy. That is completely true as well. Fully bought in on that. But it's also the thief of productivity. The time you spend tracking somebody else's success and being a little bit jealous, a little bit bitter, thinking about how lucky they're getting. All that time is time that you are spending not creating your own success. And number seven, no one, not even your best leaders will care more about your career than you will. No one is coming to save you and so you have to take ownership your progression. Look, sales is super hard. It's a challenging but very rewarding career path. I hope that these seven lessons that I wish I knew are coming to you a little bit earlier in your career than I learned them and I hope they're helpful.
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