Chapter IX

Before the workquake, it didn’t matter if you’d rather hang by your thumbs than sell.

Today, however, changes in the workplace mean that sales will be a part of your professional life whether you like it or not.

Even if you don’t have sales responsibilities added to your job description, as some will, you will be expected to contribute to the revenue flow by serving customers inside or outside the organization.

In addition, the trend toward shorter tenures means that you will have to go out and sell yourself to a new employer every three to five years.

While there is no way to escape becoming proficient at sales, this doesn’t mean that you have to be a master manipulator like Ricky Roma in the David Mamet play, Glengarry Glen Ross.

In fact the opposite is true. It will be your ability to make genuine connections and keep your attention on the other person’s agenda rather than your own that will make you effective.