Just after Christmas of 2012 I was able to complete a long time goal of mine to attend the 10-day meditation retreat of Vipassana.  The course is secular even though its meditation technique is from Gautama Buddha.  My parents and sister had done this course in the past and experienced benefits so I wanted to find out if it could do the same for me.  Turns out I gained benefits but not ones I expected and the process was anything but a retreat.

A while ago I realized that every job, for me at least, follows a similar pattern.  In the first year I subtract more value than I add as I learn the job and industry.  Those around me usually don't notice this and either give me the benefit of the doubt or feed my ego with praise.  Emotionally I'm excited by the new job and the steep learning curve.

In the second year I subtract about the same value as I add but the subtractions come in one or two colossal mistakes that nearly destroy me and a part of the firm.  If my boss has the patience to keep me around, and ideally provide some coaching, I go on to become far stronger at my job.  Emotionally the second year is the most challenging as I doubt myself almost constantly.

Earlier today I received a text from a colleague, Dave, from my previous job whom I hadn't talked to in almost a year.  I was very happy to reconnect with him and am looking forward to catching up properly after tonight's Thanksgiving festivities.  His note made me reflect on what I gained from my three years at Sungard where we worked together.  Though I learned a lot of skills at Sungard - real estate finance, data center design and construction, managing and growing teams - I realized that it was my friendship with Dave that's really the longest lasting asset from that job.

I just finished reading Baseline Selling by Dave Kurlan, a book my sales coach Rick Roberge recommended I read.  There are several lessons the book teaches, and that Rick echoes, but one I've taken to heart is to "Go Negative" with the prospect - frequently and quickly.  This isn't called out exactly as such in the book, or even by Rick, but it's my simple way of remembering to qualify a prospect well.   

Many people think that to be good at sales you need to have “the gift of gab”, i.e. be able to talk and present well; generally be affable.  This is important but I realized a while back that even more important was the ability to be a great listener.   As my boss, Brian Halligan so succinctly put it “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.”  However, I learned a couple weeks ago that even great listening skills is not what separates average sales people from great sales people.  The key is asking the right questions to lead the conversation where you want it to go.  And this is the skill I’ve been working on with my coach, Rick Roberge, the last couple weeks.

A few weeks ago I decided to get formal sales training as my role in Business Development calls on sales skills as often as it does marketing and product skills.  My coach, Rick Roberge, is prolific in the sales training arena and has trained several people I respect – Pete Caputa, Jeetu Mahtani and, at least implicitly, HubSpot’s own Sales SVP and Rick's son, Mark Roberge.

In our careers most of us aspire to go up the corporate ladder (with varying degrees of zeal), but most wishing for greater responsibility, autonomy and visibility.  So I was surprised when in a recent discussion with my father he told me about the Peter Principle which says that everyone eventually gets promoted to their level of incompetence.  Taken to its logical conclusion it means that in steady-state every non front-line employee, i.e. every manager, is incompetent.  Great.  Glad I’m a manager.