One of the best ways to learn the ropes and get the inside track is to go on ride-alongs (also referred to as shadowing) with colleagues, traveling with an experienced sales rep or sales manager to make sales calls. Even though you’re traveling solo, you are not alone. So first things first-identify your resources. Even though you are used to managing yourself and your time at school, it can be a daunting task to be responsible for calling on customers and generating sales, especially if you are based in a location remote from the company office such as your home office. When you are in sales, one of the most important jobs you have is being sure that you have clear direction about what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to get there. You might be wondering what managing yourself means. Those who are successful realize how to manage themselves and their time and use the resources that are available to them from their company, their colleagues, and their community. But it’s this lack of structure that can present a challenge in choosing priorities and accomplishing goals. This exciting, unstructured, and sometimes unpredictable environment rarely gets boring. Every day is completely different some days you will be researching leads, and other days you might be making a presentation to a prospective customer. “The best part of a career in sales is that it is undefined,” according to Ann Devine in a recent article on The Black Collegian Online.Ann Devine, “Is a Career in Sales Right for You?” The Black Collegian, (accessed August 19, 2009). Managing Yourself: Making the Most of Your Resources You might be surprised to learn what makes someone an A-Player in sales according to this video. In sales, being an A-Player means connecting with customers.

So you don’t have to be an A-Player in everything, just be an A-Player in the one thing you do best.Auren Hoffman, “The A-Player Janitor,” Summation Blog, April 9, 2009, /2009/04/the-aplayer-janitor.html (accessed September 4, 2009). Her point is that hiring managers want to hire the best person for every job. You don’t have to be a celebrity or a person who went to Harvard, according to blogger Auren Hoffman in her April 2009 post “The A-Player Janitor”: “An ‘A-Player’ by definition is incredibly productive and smart and has that ‘it,’ that rockstar-esque factor that makes everyone want to work with her.”Valeria Maltoni, “How Do You Become an A-Player?” Social Media Today, April 17, 2009, (accessed September 4, 2009). No matter what job you have or what company you sell for, you can and should be an “A-Player.” That means being the best at what you do.

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