After many years of success as a sales leader or sales management executive, it’s natural to ask yourself: “What’s next?” Or, “Where do I go from here?” Or, “Where do I see myself this year, next year, in five years or ten?” If your 20/20 vision for this decade (and beyond) is to stay put and stay the course professionally, stop reading; this article won’t help you. But if you can see yourself considering new paths, discovering new possibilities, and making a satisfying professional change, read on. You might find new focus for a more fulfilling future.
The Person in the Mirror
Throughout much of your professional corporate life, you’ve probably been concerned with establishing your career, reaching or exceeding goals, and rising through the ranks. You’ve done what’s expected. Toed the line. Focused on success. You’ve taken care of business, you’ve taken care of your career, you’ve taken care of your family.
But have you taken care of yourself? Have you taken the time to look in the mirror and ask yourself what you really want?
To be fair, the question of what you want can be a moving target. Earlier in your career, you may very well have wanted the success you worked so hard for. You wanted the achievements, the awards, the promotions, the rising salaries and bonuses. You wanted them and you pursued them and you attained them – even if it meant long days on the road and too much time away from your family.
That was then. But what about now?
Do you still chase the accolades, or do they ring a little more hollow now? Do you still chase promotions, or have you reached as high a level on the organizational chart as you’re likely to reach? Do you still chase more money to buy more stuff, or have you started to see the worth of less tangible but essential things? Things like more time and more control and less stress. Things like respect and purpose and fulfillment.
When you look in the mirror, if you see a mature sales leadership professional who yearns for a new path, then perhaps you should set your sights on becoming a sales management consultant. And when you look more closely and clearly at the outsourced sales management opportunity, here’s what you’re likely to see:
Time for Yourself and Your Family
If you’ve grown weary of too much time traveling for business and not enough time with family and friends, sales management consulting could be what you’re looking for. Because your clients are likely to be small to mid-sized businesses closer to home – and because you’ll likely be serving them on a fractional-time basis rather than full-time – suddenly you’ve got more time to devote to yourself and to those who’ve been devoted to you!
Respect
At some point in your corporate career, you might have realized that your insights and opinions have begun carrying less weight, being less valued and less sought after – despite your rich experience and deep sales leadership wisdom. Unfortunately, this is typical in the corporate world: older executives get taken for granted and become underappreciated.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that there’s an eager market that treats experience and wisdom as the prized commodities they should be. Small to mid-sized businesses need and want sales management consultants to help their companies reach new levels of success. They appreciate the experience and expertise of seasoned sales executives and desperately need your valuable guidance.
Financial and Motivational Rewards
Reaching executive-level success in the corporate world can certainly be financially rewarding. But, so can success as a sales management consultant, even working with each client on a fractional-time basis, especially when serving multiple clients. While smaller businesses might not be able to afford a full-time VP of Sales, they can afford – and need – an Outsourced VP of Sales devoting part-time hours to help them fix struggling sales efforts, departments and personnel. And because you’ll be serving multiple clients with fractional and shorter-term engagements, you’re more likely to feel challenged and motivated!
Purpose and Fulfillment
After a long corporate sales career, even one with a track record of success and advancement, it’s natural to seek a higher purpose. To want to make a difference. To feel you truly matter. Indeed, it’s precisely because of your long track record of corporate success that you’ll be coveted by owners of smaller businesses. As a difference-maker, you will find yourself working from a position of purpose. And with each new client engagement, you’ll discover something you might have lost sight of along the way: a sense of meaning and fulfillment.
The Bottom Line:
Time for yourself and your family. The gratification that comes with feeling respected. Financial and motivational rewards. Working with purpose. And finding fulfillment. These can be the benefits of sales management consulting. And once you bring these benefits into focus, it’s easy to set your sights on a purposeful professional vision for 2020 and the decade or decades ahead. To learn more about how you can turn this new vision into a reality as a sales management consultant, click here or contact us today at 844.874.7253.
