An inherent part of sales mastery is to have the right goals for your professional career. Acquiring knowledge helps you achieve these goals, as does applying the necessary amount of effort, but if your personal targets are off, then you’ll never realize your full potential for success.
With this in mind, you’ll want to consider the following questions to help you define what your own version of success looks like. This will allow you to best leverage your sales abilities in realizing a truly fulfilling career.
Does Your Career Motivate and Inspire You?
In my experience, when sales professionals are passionate about the product or service they sell, or when they get satisfaction from helping others, happiness and success tend to follow. You don’t have to sell something that will change the world to get this feeling. It simply means that you find inspiration in the service you provide.
Science fiction author Frederik Pohl once wrote that whenever he took on a writing project because it offered financial rewards, the money was often not as good as promised and he didn’t enjoy the process. When he took on a project for the love of doing it, he not only enjoyed the process but made more money than he expected.
When we’re inspired, our level of motivation and passion increase. This energizes us and allows us to invest more into every task and activity, which leads to even more success.
Does Your Career Align with Your Personal Values?
Opportunities to make a fortune with the wrong firms do arise, but some companies lack a moral compass and will incentivize their sales team to sell at all costs, even if it requires bending the truth or outright lying. When sales professionals find themselves in such a situation, they will have a hard time finding fulfillment. Regardless of whether they are making plenty of sales and earning a great salary with bonuses, they won’t enjoy the peace of mind and feelings of satisfaction that come when personal values and pursuits are well-aligned. The success will never be as fulfilling as it would be if they chose a path that aligned with their personal values. Ethical behavior is a choice.
Does Your Career Meet Your Holistic Needs?
Health professionals frequently use the term holistic when talking about wellness. It considers aspects beyond physical well-being, including mental and emotional wellness, as well as social and spiritual health. Sales success is similar. While income, wealth, and status represent the more tangible and physical aspects of success, the intangible ones are those that affect our psyche and overall feelings of well-being.
Pursuing your career should foster your sense of well-being holistically. You become motivated to carry out opportunities that support personal growth, enhance the company culture, and enrich peer relationships. When you have the ability to manifest your professional and personal needs, you achieve your own version of success.
Does Your Career Bring You Joy?
While the previous questions will help you evaluate your potential for success in your current sales career, this question establishes your current level of success. To a great degree, happiness and success are one and the same. Thus, if you find joy in your professional activities, you’re already enjoying some level of real success.
If we make happiness the target of our pursuits, then success will follow. When we find joy in our efforts, then our level of productivity, motivation, and enthusiasm increase. We are able to use the knowledge and skills we have to attain even greater success in the future.
Focus on a career that makes you happy, and you will assuredly put yourself in the best position for lasting success.
