How to Know If You're in the Right Sales Job (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

In this episode, Jeb Blount provides career guidance to Gabriel, an early-career business development representative. Blount emphasizes that

Key takeaways

• Entry-level salespeople should embrace whatever role is available to build foundational skills.
• As your career progresses, focus on interviewing the leader rather than just the company brand.

Main topics

• Career progression in sales
• Importance of sales leadership

Notable quotes

The deeper you get into your career, the more important it is for you to choose the right boss rather than the right company.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a roadmap for junior sales professionals to buil

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) I've tried to... dozens of headphones over the years. The bulky ones that cover up your ears to the cheap little earbuds that I've grabbed at the airport kiosk and finding ones that don't hurt my ears after 15 minutes has always been a challenge. But I found the Fitnext Asomni Pods 3 and their fit takes the pressure off of my ears and reduces the noise around me, which is great when I'm on long runs or I'm in the gym, but especially at night when I'm falling asleep listening to audiobooks or podcasts. If you're ready to do what I did and upgrade your listening experience, use my code GRAVY, G-R-A-V-Y for $10. off your first order at go.fitnexa.com forward slash gravy. That's code G-R-A-V-Y at go.fitnexa.com forward slash gravy. Speaker 4 (0:41) This is the Sales Gravy Podcast. Hi, I'm Jeb Blunt, bestselling author, fanatical prospecting, objections, sales EQ, and inked, and I'm here to help you open more doors, close bigger deals, and rock your commission check. Speaker 3 (0:55) All Speaker 4 (0:55) right, next up on the show. is Gabriel from Montreal, Canada. I love Montreal. I was up in Montreal last summer. So tell me what's going on Speaker 2 (1:05) in your world. Yeah. Hey, Jeb. It's really great to meet you. Thank you for having me on. In my world, I'm currently a business development rep. I'm working at a really small startup right now. I've had this role for a few different companies so far. And I was just kind of curious. I'm still pretty early in my career for context. And I just had some questions around how you choose the right company, self-doubt, or am I making the right choice? Have you ever questioned if your position was for you? You know, sales is a job with ups and downs in periods of downs. How do you deal with that? And what strategies do you use to deal with that? The Speaker 4 (1:36) answer is all of the above. I've definitely been in situations where I've questioned, is it the right job for me? And I've been in situations where. I knew it wasn't the right job for me and I had to get out. That was early on in my career. So the one thing about understanding or knowing if it's the right company for you and the right fit for you, almost always at the beginning of your career, you're not going to know that. And nor are you going to have as many choices. And a lot of cases when you're entry level, you're just going to take what you can get. You're going to go interview with people. If you get multiple offers, you're going to make a decision. But usually the decision you're going to make is based on how they make you feel in the interview. Is the leader that you're interviewing with someone you'd want to work for? Which you're not going to really know in your heart. Is this the right sales job for me or the right role for me? And it wouldn't be fair to tell you or anyone else otherwise. So if you're at the beginning of your career, take what you can get. Go in there with an open mind and go be the best you can possibly be at that job. But the likelihood is that it probably won't be the best fit for you. And that happened to me. Like at the beginning of my career. I had a couple of sales jobs. And in fact, just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to one of my very first bosses who I'm still friends with, but I hated that job. I couldn't stand it. As soon as I could get something else, I left. But at least the experience taught me that that's not something that I wanted to do. Like I didn't want that particular role. Speaker 2 (2:52) Yeah, that's really interesting. I think I look at it the same way. Whereas even if it's not the right fit, that's still a valuable experience. And you're still like learning from that experience because if you narrow down what you don't want to do, then. it leads you closer to what you do want to do. The Speaker 4 (3:05) other thing I would say is for everyone, if you're looking at changing careers or going to a different job, the deeper you get into your career, the more important it is for you to choose the right boss rather than the right company. Okay, because there's real data behind this that when you work for the right sales leader, that you can see upwards to a 20 % higher income than people who work for a poor leader. So in those cases, like let's say you go to your second or your third job, then you're interviewing the leader. And in those cases, one of the things I want to do is like part of the interview process, can I go spend a day with one of your reps? Or