Carry That Quota (Book Summary)

Carry That Quota: Sales Tactics and Stories By the Rep For the Rep by Jesse Rothstein

1. Sales as a Craft

• Success in sales depends on having a multifaceted skillset that includes:
  • a strong sense of self
  • the ability to manage a complex set of delicate relationships
  • tactical awareness
  •  an understanding of how the field is evolving and how that does or does not align with your personal and professional aspirations.

Section One: Know Thyself

2. Is a Career in Sales Right for Me?

• A Salesperson Is an Entrepreneur, a Consultant, and an Actor
• Sales provides tremendous learning opportunities. One is the opportunity to gain exposure to many different types of companies and people in a variety of industries.
• For me, it is a daily exercise and a challenge to get better with all aspects of the sales profession.
  • How do I manage my time more efficiently?
  • How can I be more effective with my customers during a meeting?
  • How can I craft my idea so that it is more succinct?
• The ability to control your time is an enormous luxury. There are not many jobs that enable you to have the freedom to control your time.
• Being lucky versus good happens a lot, and it is a frustrating part of the sales profession.
• There Is Enormous and Near-Constant Pressure to Perform
• Tenure doesn’t exist in sales.
• One of the most challenging aspects of being a salesperson is managing client expectations.
• One of the hardest parts of being in sales is finding a way to communicate to clients what you think is realistic and in both of your best interests.
• 75 percent of the time, customers do not think that salespeople are knowledgeable about their specific business
• One of the most important qualities in succeeding as a salesperson is to be able to make the conversation and the entire sales pursuit about the client and not about you. This takes maturity, patience, discipline, and empathy.
• It is imperative to have a thick skin and the ability to absorb adversity. Closely connected to that is a healthy sense of confidence (though not arrogance).
• It took me time to develop the confidence to recognize that my time is valuable and that I should approach my schedule with belief in my value.
• When delivering a fee, it is important to be concise, clear, and confident
• Communicating effectively requires being comfortable with silence.
• One of the biggest fallacies is that a salesperson needs to have preexisting traits, such as being an extrovert.

3. Self-Care

• If you are able to live in the moment and know that you have done everything you can, the results are more likely to follow. Prioritizing the process leads to outcomes and the comfort knowing you have done the best you can.
• Finding victory in the struggle helps me to realize that the outcome of a specific deal does not reflect on my worth or my abilities.
• Develop an approach that prioritizes self-care and establishes routines so that you don’t have to think about how to carve out time for self-care.
• It is critical to step away from work and have hobbies and activities that enable you to escape the routine.
• You — not a client, sale, or colleague — come first. After all, to help others, you first have to be in a good position yourself.

Section Two: Relationships

4. Customers

• Focus on attention to detail
• Developing sales relationships is an incremental process that takes time to do successfully.
• Busy clients appreciate when you are direct and honest.
• Research from the Corporate Executive Board “highlights how the sales profession is getting smaller.”
• Follow through and do what you say you are going to do
• Go the extra mile.
• Stand out by leading with insight when communicating with the client.
• Leading with insight might take the form of sharing an article via email. It may also take the form of sharing something in physical form by mailing or giving it to the customer. I am a big supporter of sharing information with customers in physical form. Most people today do not receive things physically in the mail.
• I am willing to walk away but most salespeople don’t; they persist even when they should walk away, which makes poor use of their and the client’s time.
• Salespeople Must Conclude That Their Network Is Their Net Worth
• Having a strong online brand is nonnegotiable for salespeople and almost anyone in business today.
• Salespeople need to treat their online brand with care and consideration.
• Monday mornings and Friday afternoons are great times to plan for customer meetings because these are the times when most customers do not want to see salespeople

5. Coworkers

• “You have got to make more of an effort to make the situation a ‘people business,’ and not a work transaction
• Sales at its core is about relationships, not just with customers but also with coworkers.
• The lone-wolf mindset of being able to influence and sell every single customer is long gone.
• Managers who wait until the formal annual or quarterly review process to give feedback are doing a disservice to their people and themselves.
• Sales managers who have been sales representatives themselves make the best managers because they have done the role before.
• Helping coworkers is always the right thing to do, but helping coworkers achieve their specific personal goals is even more impactful

6. Professional Development

• The professional development mindset that a salesperson therefore needs to have is that you are going to figure out where you want to go and be fully responsible for building out a plan to get there.
• I have yet to find a sales enablement team that provides value.
• I personally work to schedule four to six hours each week into my calendar that could be defined as “training” or “personal development.”
• You can develop yourself by reading, listening, watching, and doing.
• The single most-valuable sales training that I have ever participated in was led by Jeff Thull of the Prime Resource Group; it was laser focused on figuring out how to uncover client needs before the need for any pitch or formal sales presentation.
• In sales and in life, you’re probably going to lose more than you are going to win.

Section Three: Tools and Tips of the Trade

7. Time Management

• I needed to learn to focus on and fully invest myself in every stage and phase of the sales process — from expense reports to individual mailings — instead of constantly measuring myself against my quota.
• It is very difficult to schedule meetings after 2 p.m. on a Friday because people often like to wrap up the week and not take meetings at that time. The same holds true for Monday mornings when most people are just starting their week and want to allow some time to plan, rather than commit to meetings.
• Calendar management of time is the single most important skill that a salesperson can master.
• Some of the best salespeople I know are ruthless with their time.
• Everything — the morning and evening commute, personal commitments, exercise, and social commitments with friends / family — needs to be added to the calendar,
• Client-facing time for salespeople is the most important time, and I am always working to schedule more meetings.
• On a daily basis, true selling time exists between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Most people do not take meetings prior to 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m.
• Mark Hunter’s post on 14 Things GREAT Salespeople Do
• I tend to focus on outbound communication during the week, whereas I typically devote more time to inbound work on the weekend and during evenings.
• I would recommend not emailing or calling clients before noon on Mondays and after 1 p.m. on Fridays.
• You should always know exactly what you want to accomplish in a meeting and work toward this goal. This entails having the agenda clearly defined and agreed upon (this can be accomplished verbally or via email) and communicating with any colleagues who are attending about who on your team will be driving the meeting.
• When you close the meeting, clearly define next steps. This should happen with about ten minutes remaining.
• I always attempt to arrive early and often will attempt to travel during off-peak times to minimize stress and allow for the possibility of things going awry.
• Most salespeople fail to allocate the time to prepare and follow up, and as a result simple tasks “fall through the cracks “and never get done.
• Maintain One Master Calendar for Your Entire Life
• I find that scheduling time to think is the most productive time of my day.
• LinkedIn’s former CEO Jeff Weiner shared that he intentionally blocks thinking time on his calendar in between meetings and calls.
• Allocate “Buffer Time “on the Calendar to Complete Important Tasks

8. Communication

• “Do you even have a plan?“ – Those are words you don’t want to hear under any circumstances, let alone in a one-on-one meeting with your sales manager.
• Observing body language can provide insight into the person to whom you are speaking, but most salespeople fail to listen consistently with their eyes.
• Early in my sales career, I was taught the value of “the pause” in selling situations.
• if a client asks me if I would like a glass of water or a coffee during our meeting, I will say yes. I may not be thirsty, but by having the water or coffee in front of me during the meeting, it will remind me to pause.
• “Playing dumb “allowed me to grasp where the client was at and adapt accordingly.

9. Tools and Tricks of the Trade

• To succeed in sales or anything, you need to have a get-stuff-done approach.
• Reducing the number of decisions you need to make each day will enable you to direct your brainpower to other, more important things.
• Find comfortable but work-appropriate footwear.
• Keep meals simple and stay hydrated
• Time meals appropriately.

10. The Future of Sales (Epilogue)

• I firmly believe that the overall number of salespeople in the world will decrease in the next ten to twenty years. Nonetheless, in complex situations that require in-depth analysis, skill, and understanding, salespeople will be in high demand.
• Whatever it is in terms of the quota you are going to carry, attempt to do it with sincerity, authenticity, and passion because life becomes much more fulfilling when you feel like you’ve given it your all and carried that quota to your fullest potential.