Quarter Life Crisis

Interesting read I found about sales people..

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By: Thomas Wood-Young

So you are looking for work and you think, why not sales. You
like people, you tend to be outgoing, and your uncle Ted is in sales
and he makes a ton of money, how hard can it be? The answer may
surprise you. As many as 30% of people who enter the sales field leave
in their first year and only 20% earn 80% of the total compensation
paid to sales reps across the country. Getting a sales job is easy,
being successful is very difficult. If you are willing to learn and
develop the following traits, abilities and skills, then you may have
the potential to be a successful in sales.

1. Understand the Value of Selling as a Profession

Sales is an honorable profession and one to be proud of. Without
sales there would be no free market or economy as we know it today.
Selling is the spark that drives our economic system.

2. Live With a Flexible Salary

Be prepared to set your own salary and have your pay be directly
tied to your performance. Sales people are some of the highest paid
people in the world, due to the nature of commissioned based selling
with no ceilings and no floor.

3. Leave Your Outgoing Personality at Home

One of the biggest mistakes people make in pursuing a sales
career is taking a sales job because they get a charge from being
around people. Outgoing people who love to talk and make new friends,
often burn out because of the rejection they experience and their
inability to close sales from not listening. The best sales people are
listening, analyzing and asking questions so they can meet the needs of
their customers.

4. Learn to See Rejection as a Good Thing

There is so much rejection in sales, if taken personally it will
lead to unhappiness that will spill over into your personal life.
Successful sales people see rejection as one step closer to a sale and
a very powerful learning experience. They do not experience emotional
side effects from the loss of a sale.

5. Become a Constant Learner

True sales people are not born, they are trained. There are no
secrets or magic bullets that lead to success in selling. Successful
sales people spend a portion of each day reading, listening to audio
tapes and learning from the top sellers in their profession.

6. Believe in Your Product or Service

You must believe in your product/service with all your heart,
soul, mind and body. If this is not possible, then do not sell for that
company. People will not buy from someone that does not believe 100% in
what they are selling. This cannot be hidden; the customer will see
through insincere intentions.

7. Be Honest and Trustworthy

Customers want to buy from someone who they can trust and is
honest. They want to buy from a friend. Learn to build relationships
based on trust, honesty and integrity.

8. Learn Your CustomerÕs Hot Buttons

Get inside the head of the customer and learn why the buy. Push their hot buttons by meeting needs and adding value.

There are many more factors associated with sales success,
however these are eight of the most important. If you decide to pursue
a sales career, incorporate these traits and you are on the road to
successful selling.

What is the Sales Manager Looking for in a Sales Rep?

• A clone of their all-star sales people, or those in the top 20% who bring in 80% of the sales teamÕs revenue.
• Commitment and loyalty to the company and product.
• Eagerness to earn high commissions.
• A proven track record in sales.
• Loyalty to the needs of the customer.
• Goal oriented individuals.
• Positive enthusiasm and a willingness to learn and grow on the job.

When interviewing for a sales job ask the following questions:

• Can I see a job description?
• What is my compensation potential?
• What does your average performer make?
• What does your top seller make?
• How much autonomy will I have?
• How many calls are expected per day or week?
• Is the job in the field or tele-sales?
• Can you explain the compensation plan?
• Who specifically is your target market?
  p>These types of questions can help clarify the kind of sales job for which you have applied.

Source: http://www.salestrainingplus.com/salesmark/articles/takes.htm

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Sales guys don't get enough respect.  Engineers think you are a non-skilled dumbass and everyone else thinks you're a simple schmoozing brown noser.  Little do they know that sales is actually a good platform for a newly grad to build a career on (I don't mean a career in sales).  For instance, Paul Kedrosky -VC, banker, Street.com columnist, von Liebig Center Director, blogger - says that tech sales is a good place to start your career if you want to end up covering tech companies as an investment banker analyst down the road.  Why? Sales people on the front
lines pushing a product really know whats going on with the
company and industry. At the same time, you get trained to work under
pressure, survive deadlines, deal with customer drama, give presentations, work in a independent/entrepreneurial environment, sell and straight-up get
things done. Thats a very broad skill set that will come in handy no matter what you do down the road. 

Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi

I picked up this book on Amazon after hearing about it from some friends and colleagues. It's about professional networking and building interpersonal relationships- you've probably heard about it. This is a very interesting quote from the book that is, sadly, very true among a lot of people going through their quarter life crisis:

“Too often, we get caught up efficiently doing ineffective things, focusing solely on the work that will get us through the day.”

Throughout my years in school, I've come to realize that I spent countless hours efficiently doing very ineffective things.  I would start homeworks as soon as they were assigned, go to office hours, plan study sessions, and study my ass off for tests in subjects I didn't even care about to get that A - thinking it would get me the “dream” job. I never stopped to think about what I wanted out of all this.  Were these “dream” jobs I was setting myself up what I really wanted to do?  Instead of stopping and exploring the world around me, I let the work that would get me through the day dominate my life.  Even though the work was tough, it took less effort and deep thought than it would have to find out what your true passions are.  Exploring yourself forces you to come out of your comfort zone and do things that you are not accustomed to.  I wasn't ready to come out of my shell during my undergrad days.  I won't make the same mistake this time around as a grad.

We were taught from a young age that hard work would get you places. This still holds true, but don't forget to put some thought into whether you are investing your hard work into the right places. That what your setting yourself up for is where you want to go.

Anyways, I just started reading this book. I'll let you know how it is.

One resource that may come very handy for you aspiring entrepreneurs is
your University's Technology Transfer Office.  This is where your
school keeps its goldmine of patents and technologies developed by the
faculty.  One of the Tech Transfer Office's main roles is to
generate income for the University through the liscensing of these
technologies to industry.  For instance, a licensing officer of
the tech transfer office calls up a business development guy at Pfizer
and tell's them that they have some technology that may be of interest
to Pfizer.  Pfizer does it due diligence and decides it wants to
liscense this technology from the University. Terms of these deals are
usually in the form of an up front payment of roughly ~$10,000 by
industry and future royalty payments of ~5%. Faculty who researched
this technology originally usually get something like ~33% of that 5%. Score.


Now what you need to know.
Many of these technologies are just sitting around waiting for some
business minded and ambitious individuals to pick them up and
commercialize them.   As you know may have noticed, many
faculty (especially ones at traditionally conservative engineering
schools) are not in touch with industry and would much rather focus on
research rather than explore the commercial opportunities for their
novel developments. Often times, although UCSD does not have this
problem, universities discourage these types of entrepreneurial
activiies by their faculty citing conflict of interest. The result?
Promising technologies get left on the shelf and gather dust… 
First hand at the Von Liebig Center, I can see that many of the
technologies that we have been funding and faculty that we have been
consulting need a business oriented guy to push this
technology to commercialization. ( I want to be that guy, but I know I
am not ready for it. What angel investor of venture capitalist in the right mind would fund a start
up with a CEO that has no industry/management experience who is not a
core developer of the technology? )

What you should do.
Once you have the background, knowledge, network and experience to take
on a venture, visit the Technology Transfer Office website of your
favorite university where you'll find a list of technologies.

Find one relevant to your background and interest and recruit a
technical partner(s). Preferably one from the lab where the technology
was originally researched.

Negotiate a license with the school. Your chances of getting that
license will be greatly enhanced if you manage to parter with the
original faculty researcher.

Yes I know, this is uber simplified. I haven't done it myself, but I am
sure it might come in handy for you (and me) someday.  Keep an eye
out for this when you're working on your MBA. Just another source of ideas.

I spoke to Marco
Thompson, founder of a small VC fund (Express Ventures) in San Diego, about this subject and he
confirmed some of my suspicions about this career path.  VC is something you do towards the end of
your career, not at the beginning.  The
rationale is that only an ex-entrepreneur who has been there and done that can
foresee the challenges an entrepreneur will be facing and gauge whether he and
his team have the whole package to make the venture work.  He added that lots of associates equipped
with MBA’s work at many prominent VC firms, but they are generally regarded as
bleh (grunts) by the rest of the venture community since you’ll be generally
playing an auxiliary role for the firm. Corporate ladders are not applicable in
VC - you’re automatically CEO if you can raise your own fund.  But who’s going to give you money unless you
have a track record of doing big things?

Job description for a typical MBA associate:

John Doe joined Forward Ventures in
Sept., 2001, and is responsible for reviewing business plans, conducting due
diligence on potential investments and supporting Forward Ventures' existing portfolio
companies.  

Reviewing business plans and conducting due diligence sounds like
fun, right?  Er, not really. Why? A.) The
great ventures don’t really need a business plan- they come from people who
have done it before - so if your reviewing a BP, chances are very low that your
firm will invest in it. B.) Bottom line is that you won’t be making the final
investment decision. You can try to make a convincing argument for a venture
that you like. But that's all you can do. C.) Due diligence can be tedious. 

After hearing all of this, I still wasn’t convinced. You
know all that stuff doesn’t sound all that bad compared to I-banking or
engineering. You still get paid six figure salary, get a fat bonus if a couple
of your fund’s portfolio companies get acquired, and you get to schmooze with ballers
and wannabe ballers on a day to day basis. OK, so maybe the partners won’t
respect you because you haven’t done something as big as they have, but its all
relative- being a grunt at a prestigious VC firm would be A-ok for me and would qualify
as a big thing in my book. (Of course it pales in comparison to starting a multi-billion dollar enterprise like the partners did but you catch my drift.) Maybe you don't what it takes to be a great VC, but I am sure this type of experience
and VC pedigree will open up a whole lot of other opportunities in entrepreneurship and
elsewhere. I believe that network you establish and the experience you gain working with entrepreneurs, analyzing markets, and assessing opportunities will make you one hell of a start-up CEO.

And looky looky, looks like Bessemer Ventures has a rather large and impressive group of MBA
troopers, many of whom have a background or some professional experience in management consulting and
investment banking.

 

 

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Warren –

Thanks for all the hard work on this year's von Liebig Centersolicitation. It wouldn't have been nearly as successful as it waswithout your involvement. Your efforts — from logistics and planning,to photography — did not go unnoticed.

We're delighted to have you here helping us at the Center.

Cheers.

Paul———————-Paul Kedrosky, Ph.D.Executive DirectorWilliam J. von Liebig CenterUniversity of California, San Diego

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Just payin my dues…. 

This has been a roller coaster week for me. 

    Like I mentioned before, the week got off to a shakey start.  There was just so much going on that I wasn't able to focus my energy into networking. On top of that, the life science panel was an uptight bunch… Too many PhD's in one room isn't always a good thing.  Too many successful venture capital PhD's in one room makes the room feel even smaller. On top of that, the day got off to an awkward start, I walked in on an panelist who didn't lock the bathroom door behind him.  Down goes one potential conversation….  lol
    The only positive from day 1 was my chance to speak to some my bioengineering professors who presented in front of the panel.  Its interesting to see them in an non-academic setting.  Some faculty aren't too comfortable speaking to the business people in general so when we spoke, there seemed to be a familiar connection - like we were each other safety lines - a connection that normally doesn't exist in a class room setting either. I guess thats one way to get noticed by your professor. 
    Even though I felt like I took a small step back after the day 1 on my personal network development, this debacle forced  me to refocus my energies and efforts for the rest of the week. One thing I noticed on the first day is that I treated myself as an
unimportant person. I didn't believe that I belonged in that room.  I
filled myself with doubt. Why should a grad student with barely any
experience be sitting at a table with these panelists? I let my nerves
get to me and played mental games with myself.  If you want to talk to important people, you have to feel important and act confident. If you don't, they won't treat you like you are important.

Days 2-4 (Internet technologies, software, materials and electronics) were much more productive for me as I became acclimated to being in a group of important people.  It also helped that the presentations and technologies were much more interesting and fun, which makes more room for chit chat and small talk.  Lesson learned - the easiest way to start a conversation is with chit chat. duh…

After a rough start, I felt like I finished strong. The self-esteem took a hit on day 1, but I slowly built it back up by the end of the week and finished with much more than I started with.  This was a nerve racking week, but I managed to get a few business cards and make some connections with a seemingly intimidating crowd. This is something I can build on…

I guess its safe to say that I've officially had my networking cherry popped. 

Today was the software day of presentations. Entrepreneurs and faculty from the computer science department presented their technology and business ideas all day.  Again they presented to a panel of of angels, entrepreneurs and execs. 

Today was not such a great day for me.  I spent most of it running about and avoiding these execs and sticking with the ones that I had already made nice with.  I didn't have my A game and could barely open my mouth let alone chat it up with another grizzled industry veteran.  I know I've got to grasp these opportunities to speak to these high level people. Can't have these mental/physical slippages and let the intimidation and anxiety get the best of me.

I will be prepared for tomorrow. I WILL! Armed with these generic questions!!!

Where did you come from today?
What did you do to become successful?
What was your first job?
What new ventures are you working on now?
Why do you think your first venture failed?
What did you learn from it?

I will have something interesting to write about tomorrow. I WILL!!!

Von Liebig Center has a big week coming up. Faculty entrepreneurs will be presenting their technologies to a group of reviewers and the Von Liebig advisers.  Seed grants of up to $75,000 will be awarded to faculty members with technologies that have a combination of the best commercialization plans and biggest market potential.

Reviewers consist of a group of Angel Investors, Scientific officers, Venture Capitalists, and ex-Entrepreneurs from the Biotech/Pharma industry.

Of course, I won't be judging these projects and presentations. I'll be paying my dues by doing some grunt work like organizing, setting up and crunching numbers. However, I will be rewarded with the opportunity to listen to the presentations, talk to the entrepreneurs and reviewers, and most importantly, observe the comments and feedback from the panel about the technologies. 

Just payin' my dues…..

I've volunteered to write a business plan for an adviser that I have been working with the past few months at the Von Liebig Center.  He has recently spun-off a company based on a technology from UCSD research. It is high tech - maybe too high tech. But its interesting nevertheless.

I don't know how to write a business plan, but I guess its time to learn how.  I know its going to take a lot of work to learn their business. I figure it'll be good for me one way or another. I'm young and inexperienced, but I've got to take initiative and offer what little I can.

We'll see where this takes me.

My old boss at Vincera Ventures in Taiwan told me that if I wanted to be a venture capitalist in Asia when I grow up, I'd have to get two graduate degrees ( MS and MBA ), speak at least 2 languages, and have a few years of corporate experience under my belt and extensive domain knowledge. 

Oh and by the way, it would help if I started a company and got bought out.