Want to leave your sales job? There comes a time in every career when a person needs a change. Even if you love your job, performing the same work day in and day out can begin to feel stale. This feeling can affect all aspects of your life. You may feel that you have less energy and less motivation. You may stop making new goals. You may even find that you don’t have the same positive outlook on life that you once had.
If you find yourself in this situation, know that it’s in your power to reenergize your career or leave your sales job to find a better one. Don’t allow yourself to feel stuck in a dead-end for long. Use the realization to motivate you to do one of the following:
When it comes to sales, image is paramount. Do you come across as confident and competent, or do you sound like a victim when you approach potential customers? By working on your professional image, you can reenergize your career, whether you leave your sales job or stay with it.
Image consultants say that people with good conversational skills are perceived as more interesting, credible, and intelligent than those who express themselves poorly. If you are less than confident about your speaking and conversational skills, read books or attend seminars that will help you acquire the skills necessary to create your new image, which will help you if you leave your sales job.
Sometimes, it’s possible to reenergize your career by charting a new course. This can be done by educating yourself on different products, new sales techniques, or new companies. It may be necessary to leave your sales job and find a new one to really make a fresh start, but sometimes it’s possible to stay at your current company and take on new challenges.
Find a mentor who has trod the path you’re interested in pursuing. Your mentor may be able to advise you on when and how to leave your sales job, whether or not you should stay in your existing position, and how to pursue future possibilities.
Online social media sites like LinkedIn help you to cultivate your network like never before. Join LinkedIn industry groups and spend a little time each day participating in discussions about sales jobs, your industry, and trends and challenges. Be generous to those in your network, and you’ll find that your generosity comes back to you. Your connections will prove invaluable when you leave your sales job to find something new.
If you choose to leave your sales job, you’ll find that networking is a powerful tool for landing your next position. If there are people in your network that you haven’t seen in a while but you feel could be excellent contacts, invite them to lunch or strike up email conversations. As you do, you’ll find that your network grows, along with your opportunities.
Before you leave your sales job and jump into a new career, think about where you want to be in five or ten years. Once you have the vision of where you want to go, you can set realistic, reachable goals about how to get there.
Perhaps you want to take on more challenges, replacing less interesting duties with more interesting tasks. Maybe you want to serve as a mentor for younger people in your field. Maybe it would be helpful and energizing to your career to take a course at a local college to introduce new skills to your career.
Whether your leave your sales job or find ways to reenergize your existing job, remember that you don’t have to live with feeling burned out or stale. Do what it takes to recapture the excitement you felt when you began your career.
Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.