At Integrum I am in many ways a one man army.  We believe in Pair Programming, where each developer works with another at all times.  This leads to several good things during development.   As one of two non-developers, I obviously don’t work with a pair.   The other unpaired person is our Scrum Master, Chris Young, who is responsible for our process management and our accountability.  He is also a former developer here.   So that leaves me as the only salesman and the only non-developer background.

This isn’t a poor Conrey speech – I kind of dig it.  Any other salesman working in a small business is likely to have run into this situation before.

• When you’re in a small firm you aren’t going to have a large sales team to fall back on.  You will need to be mentally strong to not only work on your own, but also know that you are “the man” when it comes to keeping the business running.
• This means your voice will be quieter by virtue of you’re the only one who thinks the way you do.   When you have an important point you must be ready to fight to be heard.
• You will have to be really on top of holding yourself accountable.  You will have to be honest with yourself and others so that you don’t paint too rosy a picture for where sales are at (this applies to all salespeople regardless of company size)

This isn’t an impossible mountain to climb if you can be mentally strong and driven to succeed.  If you’re in this situation you need to be the Batman in your office.   One man against the world, and ready and willing to use anything on your toolbelt to get the job done.  Equal parts Bruce Wayne (smooth, sophisticated, daring) and Batman (unstoppable, relentless, fearless) – Gotham’s guardian angel was ready for any situation.

This is where you need to find yourself – minus the pointy eared helmet and plate armor of course.   Your sales skills are Batman’s gadgets and toys.   You have the unstoppable drive to get the job done at nearly any cost – Batman left plenty of collateral damage behind.  You likely will be viewed with some of the same distrust and disdain as Batman as well – but if you can pull off the job you’ll get some of the hero’s adoration as well.

More from Conrey

• Rules of Sales: Rule #2
• What Salespeople Do Wrong
• Working For Equity
• Negative Energy
• Competing

Conrey Recommends

• Ten Super Lessons from a “Supersalesman” (The Sales Cooke)
• A Great Sales Lesson From the Unlikeliest Source (The Sales Cooke)
• The Prospecting Strategy (The Sales Cooke)