Why Sales is a Tough Job

Q: Why are sales jobs the worst?

Here’s why sales is tough:

• You can’t hide — at least not for long. At some point, you have to put real points on the board. Everyone will know. But in many other roles, you can sort of skate by if you aren’t too senior.
• You get a lot of No’s. A lot of them. Most of us can’t take it.  We get discouraged, we over-discount, we lose our confidence.
• Limited career path if don’t move into management. You’ll get a lot better in 2, 3, 5, 8 years. But ultimately, just becoming a more senior individual sales rep has a limit.
• Not everyone sees your value. It’s easy to see in many SaaS companies, but overall in the world, many people don’t really value the large contributions sales professionals make.
• You can be just a number to the company. If you are part of a larger sales team, you may just be a number on a leaderboard in some sense.
• At the VP level, your job is always at risk. This is a real stressor. As a VP of Sales, every quarter you have to hit the number. You can miss a quarter or even two, but after that, your job is at high risk. High risk.

Sales is a craft, an art. It really is.

But not everyone appreciates it.

Learn to, and your team will appreciate it.  And be more loyal.  And see less churn.