Homework Exercise: Business

I have decided to post here some of my homework exercise just to practice what I learn. If it is possible I will try to use my own experience.

The first theme is Business. 

I worked in sales about ten years, but now, I hope it is finished for me because although it is a very lucrative and driving job, it can be so exhaustive!

In the beginning of my career in sales, I had guts to take a risk to establish my own proper company in my native town. Little by little I gained confidence among other local businessmen, and finally, I got more than hundred clients in my database. What was I doing? I was selling and implementing a local ERP system.

I need to admit that this niche market is very specific because it requires from its players to be on the cutting edge of IT technology. On the other hand, it comes to understanding real businesses' needs: you have to speak to people. Moreover, you have to understand what they really want to get. So, this job comes with its own challenges.

With time, I realized that sooner or later my small company (three people only) would have been swallowed up by a bigger one from the close city. This is why I moved directly to Moscow, the capital of Russia. This megalopolis can offer much more opportunities in sales.

Having changed two Russian companies (they were very interesting to me in the technology meaning) and gained more professional experience in cold-calling and telemarketing, I understood that it was worth trying to settle in an American company, and I found a good one.

This was a world leading ERP vendor working around the globe. By the way, there, I started learning English on a regular basis. The most amazing was the requirement of fluid English to be hired. So, I drew myself by my hair like Baron Munchhausen.

Working there, I bumped into Russian red tape (bureaucracy) and tried to find compromises in order to hammer out a deal with my clients. Yes, at the end of each quarter, I got my money, but hardly could I say that I was happy. This job did not give me feeling of being involved in something really creative and constructive. I felt like a machine in a working cycle: lead generation, follow-up, solution demonstration, offer presentation, price negotiation, and signing the deal. One from ten, if you are so lucky.

Having moved to Canada, I got my first job here in a large American company, which sells computer stuff to the U.S. After the three weeks, I saw very clearly that it was time to stop selling and start learning both languages comme il faut and looking around for a job in the ERP field but from the different side.

Well, now I work as an ERP consultant for a medium-sized Montreal lighting manufacturer, and I am happy to have this job. However, it would not be true to say that I chose the wrong way when I worked in sales. Because I know the name of the game now, the game all the people play every day in life - sale!

Thus, if you are not so shy as to call unknown people to sell them something, and you really want to know where any business' money comes from; sales may be your road to pick.