Who You Work For Matters
Even in real estate, where technically you work for yourself, you still work for someone unless you happen to own the firm.
I’ve been incredibly lucky for most of my career to work for people I genuinely loved. I worked for a guy for years who was one of the best salespeople I’ve ever met, and I learned an enormous amount from him. I worked for one of my best friends, and besides everything I learned from her, we had so much fun it was ridiculous. And today, I have who I believe is the best manager at my firm.
It matters.
Because most of the time in sales, you’re just out there doing your thing. You’re making the calls, having the meetings, dealing with the clients, trying to close the business, getting rejected, figuring things out. Nobody is standing next to you telling you what to do.
And then something happens.
A deal starts going sideways. A client loses their mind. You don’t know how to handle a situation. You need another opinion. Or maybe you just need to call someone and say, “You are not going to believe what just happened.”
There is nothing like knowing you have someone in your corner. Someone who will get back to you. Someone who will actually give you valuable advice instead of some generic corporate answer. Someone who has seen enough to tell you when you’re right, when you’re wrong, and when you need to let something go. And sometimes, someone who will just laugh with you because the whole thing is ridiculous.
Sales can be an incredibly solitary experience. Even when you’re surrounded by people all day. Your clients are your clients. Your problems are your problems.
That’s why who you work for matters so much.
If you don’t trust the person you work for, if you’re afraid to call them when something goes wrong, or worse, if you feel like they’re somehow out to get you, that makes a hard job seemingly impossible.
A great manager doesn’t do the job for you. They make you feel like you don’t have to do all of it alone.
