It's My Anniversary

Baxter's Buzz


I've struggled a TON for the past few weeks at work. Whenever you have a bad month in sales, it has an effect. I really hate the fact that a bad month can ruin my mood. And not just my mood, it happens to the best of us. When you work in most fields, you may have a bad day every once in a while. In sales, you have a bad month or a bad quarter! Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through this stress everyday. I love it and I hate it at the same time.


Saturday, August 6, marked my 3 year anniversary at my job. This has been a great experience. All the good and bad have been valuable learning experiences. I am very appreciative of the opportunity that I was given 3 years ago because I didn't have the ideal "education" for this sales position. Since then, however, I believe that I've proven myself to be more than qualified for this role. As a matter of fact, there have been many salespeople who have come to the company, fitting the "education" profile, but couldn't sell their way through a wet paper bag. It really annoyed and angered me at one time because I felt like management didn't have a good idea of what made a successful account executive in our industry. But it's not management's fault, per se. Education is suppose to separate the winners from the losers (for lack of a better phrase). That should make interview process easy, right?


Education is very important, however, it has to be a mix of worldly education and experience. It cannot be what someone has learned strictly in a book at school. It is much tougher to recognize if someone "has it" if you do not have "it" yourself. Also, there are many intangibles that are associated with successful people, but education and work experience is more tangible, and therefore, easily recognized because it's sitting on a piece of paper.


How do you separate yourself from all of the other people with same experience/education as you? As an employer, what will I see in your resume that will make an impression on me? The answer is nothing. You need to meet people and shake their hand. Ask them real questions to get to know them. Not some crap you've been asking people from some corporate script. Interact with candidates and go into these meetings/interviews with clear mind, omitting any preconceived notions. As employees, we need to network. We need to introduce our uniqueness so that people will recognize it in the next person. We need to share our stories so that we become real people and not some piece of paper with a cheesy cover letter attached.


I wrote sometime back about me applying for a management position at my company. I applied, but wasn't given the opportunity. Will that stop me from applying again? Only if I feel like the leadership cannot see past those pieces of paper. If their mind is already made up before I sit down, what's the use?


I'm actually silly enough to believe that I should be offered the opportunity to become a manager because I am the opposite of what we typically see. I have graduated from the School of Hard Knocks. I will continue to study there, and I am hopeful that in my leadership positions, I'll be able to pass along much needed advice to my employees as well as my peers. We shall see.


I just want to take time out to pass along prayers and well wishes to a friend of mine who lost her daughter recently. Please do your best to have a positive impact on people. Leave them with something they can learn from or at least, smile about as they reflect.