My Challenges as a Young Professional Entering Sales

December 18, 2017

By Patrick Laplante

As part a family company, I have heard my father talking about business ever since I was a little boy. Although it had always interested me, I had never thought I would end up working alongside my father and my uncle in the company my grandfather started a long time ago.

I had been working in sales ever since I was 16 years old in many different markets than the one I was about to enter, but I thought it would be relatively easy to handle. Very quickly I started noticing the challenges of being a 22-year-old sales rep for electrical products entering a world where most of the manufacturers’ agents had been in the business for a long time.

When I first started working for Laplante & Assoc. I worked inside sales so that I could get to know the products before hitting the road. After approximately one year I was deemed ready to go on the road and see clients. I ended up spending a few days with my father going from client to client, introducing myself as their new sales rep for Laplante and Assoc. Most of the time people were happy to see me but to my surprise I quite often got the ‘’long stare’’ and then the comment of “I hope this kid knows what he’s doing…”

After a few sales calls I began to realize that making sales was going to be much more difficult than what I had thought it would be, much more difficult than in my prior jobs. I also began to realize that our market wasn’t like the other markets I had worked in. Our market was one in which relationships were extremely important. These types of relationships are not built overnight; they take time.

As with many young professionals entering the business, I wanted to generate results quickly — in a world in which generating any results can sometimes take up to a year or more. I had to learn very fast that patience and determination were key to success in our business. I also had to learn to not get discouraged every time someone said no or every time I lost an order. Even though everyone around me was always telling me I might get one positive to five negatives, I still had a very hard time accepting it in the beginning of my career as a sales rep, and I think this is very common among younger professionals entering this business. We tend to take it very personally when we do not succeed.

I realized that it takes a good mentor to keep young professionals motivated and on track. Regardless of who that mentor is — a boss, friend or colleague — the importance of a mentor is something that is frequently overlooked by us young professionals.

When I first started in the family company there was no such thing as the Young Professionals Network. I was going to all the industry events with my uncle, and it was overwhelming to be in a room full of so much talent when I was so young and inexperienced. But we now do have a group called the Young Professionals Network, which has meetings and activities throughout the year where we can meet other young professionals in our industry, talk to them, and learn from their experience. These same young professionals attend some of the industry events that I used to go to with my uncle, and it makes it so much easier when you can walk in and talk to many different people you already know, and who can then introduce you to others you may not know so well. This was my biggest challenge when entering this business: developing relationships with the people who had been working the industry for a long time.

Find out more about Electro-Federation Canada’s Young Professionals Network (YPN): www.electrofed.com/ypn/