New sales job? Get rolling early…

If you’re just starting out in a new role with a new company, get rolling. Work it out with your manager where you can make at least a few calls to schedule appointments for two or three weeks down the road. You’ll have time to learn between the call and the appointment, and you’ll learn from the appointment. You’ll be taking your manager along with you anyway.

If you were to list the things post important in this new job, near the top of that list should be to have success early. Make the calls and learn from them.

You may know less now than you will in two months, but you’re also far more energetic, open, motivated, and ready-to-go. And by putting yourself too deeply in “learner mode,” you encourage yourself to become an overpreparer. You don’t want to go there. You should know that many companies still have an unwritten “kiss/kill” policy in place for sales employees at the six-month employment mark. I don’t have to explain what that means…

Other resources: Frank Lee’s “Am I Adequately Prepared?” article , article on “Your First Days Working at a New Job” (note an emphasis on taking initiative) by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. and Katharine Hansen, Barbara Mulligan article.