When I left teaching and went into sales, I got a very RUDE awakening. Though that first sales job was actually educational sales IN EXACTLY THE FIELD where I had been widely recognized as among the best in the state (and even the nation), I found that my former colleagues suddenly had instant suspicion of my character. I was completely dismayed at how so many people somehow thought I had undergone an ethical and personality transplant after 20 years of teaching.
In fact, I took my teacher personality into sales, and it has served me well in real estate. That was NOT so much true, though, in that first sales job, where my sales manager thought I was not cognizant enough of the "all about money" aspect. So here's the deal now: I do an excellent job for my clients (as I did in teaching and in that first sales job), but if you want me around to do that job in the future, we all have to realize that it is about the money.
Carol-Ann Palmieri makes this point eloquently in You Bet Your Butt, It's About the Money!
I am a very loyal customer, and never once have I asked the following professionals to cut their pay in order to serve my needs: my insurance agent (with whom I have done business for 20 years), my car salesperson (from whom I have purchased several gently used cars), my pharmacist (the same one I had when my grown children were born), or any of the restaurants I frequent. It may not ALL be about the money, but it is about being able to stay in business.
If I don't succeed financially, I won't be around to do the job. It is that simple, whether I am a teacher or a salesperson.
I did learn my lesson, after all, in that first sales job after teaching.
Aside to any teachers out there who are thinking of leaving teaching to go into educational sales: Accept the fact that many educators never fully trust you, because you "deserted" their profession. You are somehow different from those who stay in the profession and continue to "fight the good fight." If I am wrong about that, fantastic! You will be fully trusted and royally treated whenever you cold call AND every year when your customers make the contract renewal decision. If I am right, you will, at least, be less shocked when some superintendent of an itty-bitty school district tells you to your face what many others only mull over in their minds, "You are just like all salesmen."
Your skills really are very well suited to sales, which is, after all, also a public service job. The irony of the teacher-turned-salesperson choice, however, is that those skills may actually be more appreciated in practically any other type of sales than they are in educational sales. Real estate is a perfect fit for many former teachers.
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