I was having lunch with my colleague and as we were talking about sales deals, he asked me ‘So… what’s your superpower?’
I paused.
I liked talking to people, was generally extroverted and had a strong work ethic.
That seemed pretty generic though.. I knew a bunch of extroverted folks who worked harder than me that didn’t end up in sales..
If you’ve been in sales long enough, you’ve probably observed the following personas:
Darrel’s extremely good at account planning, dissecting a 10-K and creating an org chart but is terribly bad at sending cold emails.
Linda’s a rapport builder; 5 minutes into any call and she’s got the entire room laughing. If only she could bring that same enthusiasm to her account planning..
You should listen to the way Sandeep’s navigating objections on a disco.. smooth like butter. It’s a pity his pipeline isn’t great..
Nguyen never takes no for an answer.. even after the person has emailed in caps ‘NOT INTERESTED’
Sarah’s so technical that you’d think that she’s actually the sales engineer, but sometimes it seems like the other person on zoom starts to zone out.
Many examples but the point is clear.
You might not be great at everything..
Which begs the question: should you focus on being an all-rounder or double down on your strengths?
#1 Charlie
Charlie was crushing it as a BDR, but stumbled as an AE.
As a BDR, he was known for being able to book many meetings and power through objections where others failed. When I first spoke with Charlie, I noticed he wasn’t your average BDR.
For C-Suite execs who generally didn’t have time, he would send short videos, visuals and photos at odd hours to capture their attention.
For operators on the ground (the individual contributors such as backend engineers compared to managers etc), Charlie made sure to address every question they had, and send them blog articles of the latest product features.
When Charlie became an AE, he tried applying the same strategies of what made him successful. This included tailored research, taking a consultative lens to understand the customer’s problems and at times even advocating for the competitor.
Unfortunately, his manager shut this down very quickly - ‘Charlie, I don’t have 3 months for you to hit your first sale, I need it now and I need it fast.
If you offer them a 20% discount, can they sign by this week?’
Charlie didn’t agree but he didn’t want to get fired either. He ended up taking shortcuts in the process, gave easy discounts but found that he was still missing quota.
While his previous SDR manager focused on coaching and mentorship, his current manager seemed to be numbers driven, even at the expense of Charlie’s growth and development as a seller.
This isolated Charlie and increased his self-doubt especially when he felt that he wasn’t being heard and was just a number in the system.
When looking for your next job, optimise for your manager, not the company.
Choose the manager that understands how to harness your strengths, instead of calling out your weakness.
#2 Jon
Jon’s generally very detail oriented and analytical. When he first joined the tech sales world, he was surprised that most of the information wasn’t organised in Salesforce.
He took it upon himself to fill up his notes meticulously, sometimes even spending up to 2 hours to do so. Instead of using the generic email templates provided, he spent time crafting and personalising his own email sequences.
Imagine his shock when his manager approached him and said, ‘Jon, I need you to focus on revenue generating activities, leave the templates or notes to sales ops.’
(There was no salesops then.)
Initially, Jon seemed to listen; he tried spending less time on the administrative tasks but eventually found himself creating his own internal CRM on Airtable to organise his own leads internally.
Even though Jon was struggling to hit his sales targets, he found that he was more interested in creating scalable systems.
It seemed something that he was naturally more drawn to and his peers noticed it too. Many of them eventually went on to use Jon’s email templates and cadences.
Being detail-oriented is not a bad thing.
However, in the wrong environment, these ‘strengths’ may be perceived as ‘weaknesses’ instead, and fuel self-doubt.
#3 Lauren
When I asked Lauren why he made a mid career switch to join sales, he said he was bored with his previous accounting role.
Sure, he was doing ok.
But he most certainly wasn’t enjoying himself.
Reflecting on his 3 year accounting journey, his eyes lit up when he recalled about managing the project of an important client. This was a 6 months project, which included regular visits to the client’s office.
He noticed that he enjoyed the client facing role a lot more, especially when he had to make a presentation to a large group of stakeholders on his firm’s capabilities.
His colleagues even joked that he seemed to do a better role presenting than his accounting job.
When you notice that you naturally gravitate towards a role outside of your job scope, don’t ignore that feeling.
Just because you’ve been at your role for a few years doesn’t mean you can’t make a switch.
Make an honest assessment of your environment; is this really the best place/role you can be now?
Charlie, Lauren and Jon had something in common.
Their strengths were underplayed and under-utilised because of their environment, nature of role, company or manager.
When they changed their environment, they were able to fully exploit their strengths and move a step closer to their superpower.
Since I last saw Charlie, he seemed a lot happier. By a stroke of luck, Charlie’s then manager got promoted to director. His new manager seemed a lot more receptive, and spent time understanding some of Charlie’s struggles and strengths. More importantly, his new manager emphasised that ‘The only dumb question is the one you didn’t ask’.
After a year of trying out the sales role, Jon raised his hand for an internal transfer to sales operations. It was a natural progression; he found that his analytical mind preferred looking at numbers and rows of data instead of hopping onto calls with unpredictable clients.
Today, Lauren is a thriving account executive at an Israeli-headquartered cyber security company. It was not easy though, taking a step back in his career first as a BDR and being paired up with peers that were 5 years his junior. The ‘how old are you’ question always made him squirm a little, but he knew that this role aligned to his strengths and future goals. Lauren made the leap to an AE role after a year being a BDR and has not looked back since.
What happens then when you find a role that you are very good at, but for some reason, you don’t particularly enjoy it?
In books like the Genius Zone or Ikigai, they posit that your superpower lies between the intersection of what you enjoy and what you are good at.
Most folks end up at the Zone of Excellence, the bottom right hand quadrant. Something you are good at, but don’t particularly enjoy.
Take my friend Matilda for example - she was great at making the cold calls, booking the meetings and making good $$ each month.
Most folks were surprised when she quit her job, took a pay cut and joined the product role instead.
I wasn’t.
I saw her excitement towards the sales role slowly fade out.
More importantly, I noticed that she often joined the product meetings with much enthusiasm, and would proactively share key insights from customers that could influence the product roadmap.
While she initially thought that she would like the fast paced nature of sales, she soon discovered that being in product and playing an integral role in building a product that the sales team could sell was more meaningful for her.
This aligned to her key strengths of being in a cross functional role where she sat in between sales and engineering, pivoting between project management, crafting the product roadmap and coordinating between different teams as part of her role.
It made sense.
Back in college days, she was the president and main person to plan the 3D2N orientation camp for incoming juniors. This process spanned 6 months, countless hours in planning and preparation, and required agility to adapt to changing circumstances and being the ‘brain’ behind all the activities. This may seemed hard to others but it was Matilda’s highlight in her college life.
When she made the move from sales to product, she found herself in a similar position when she was President of Orientation Camp, only now she was getting paid to do something she loved. The product role energised her and she woke up with a renewed sense of purpose.
What happens if you’ve not tried the role and are trying to figure out if you are good/bad at it?
Here’s a 3 step framework:
Understanding the role requirements and outcomes
Identify core skills needed for success
Review past activities for prior success or replicate proxy events/scenarios to determine future success
Let’s take sales for example:
Fundamentally, any sales rep needs to be great at pipeline generation and closing.
Key skills identified include making cold calls and asking questions.
To figure out if I’m good at cold calling, I might sign up for a 2 day IT fair and try selling for 8 hours, and approaching strangers.
After that, I’ll ask myself: was I good at it? did I enjoy it?
For asking questions, I could first reflect on the past: Has anyone remarked that I ask good questions generally?
Or do I notice a particular trend where my friends generally come to me for problem solving because I ask good questions and help them diagnose issues better?
Everyone knows about their strengths and weaknesses, but they might not have identified their superpower:
Here’s a few questions that might help determine yours:
In my free time, what do I generally enjoy doing?
What energizes me vs drains me?
At work, which project did I particularly enjoy?
At work, which aspect do I dread the most?
Previously in my life (career, school, etc), which project was I particularly proud of?
What seems challenging to others but is effortless to me?
If money wasn’t a factor (or if all jobs paid the same), what would I still do?
What do my friends / acquaintances say I’m good at?
Here’s a few superpowers that might be relevant in sales:
Shameless, not afraid of rejection - Cold calling, SDR, evangelist
Detail oriented, analytical - Strategic account executive
Life of the party - Field sales, outside sales, marketing, events
Technical - Sales engineer, Account executive selling multi-product software
Rebellious, challenger - Closer, account executive
Get bored easily - High velocity sales, SMB AE
Creative - SDR, AE
Strong interpersonal skills, relationship builder - Account manager, Partner driven roles
‘So… what’s your superpower?’
After a deep pause, I replied my colleague, my natural curiosity means I don’t stop asking questions.
Before I hop on a call, I try and understand more about the company’s business model, how they make money. During the call, I keep peeling back the onion and ask questions to understand the question behind the question.
Me: ‘What’s the reason you agreed to take the call today?’
Client: ‘I need help, my CRM’s customer support is very unresponsive’
Over zealous seller: ‘Great, our CRM’s support has an SLA of 5 minutes, you’ll definitely won’t face issues with that. Want to buy’
Curious me: ‘Wait, hold on. What’s the reason you are pinging customer support in the first place?’
Curious me: ‘What happens when you can’t get customer support in time? Who else does it affect in the team?’
Curiosity as my superpower has helped me to be proactive in researching information, do more fact finding and de-risking to close more deals and attain more commissions as a seller.
When you pair your strengths in the right environment, it becomes your superpower.
Strength: I’m really good at running, often coming first in 2.4km runs, breaking the 10 minute barrier easily.
Enjoyment: Low, I don’t particular enjoy it, I even tend to find it boring.
Superpower: I love playing soccer. Paired with my incredible running skills, I play as a winger these days, terrorising the rightback by outpacing and dribbling past them.
Many folks today are fussed about career progression, and compensation in five years time but have not figured out what they really want today.
If you are thriving at your role today but still largely unsatisfied, it might be worth thinking about your superpower and figure out what made you successful. That same strength that got you there can probably move you to different spaces if you wanted to make a mid-career switch or start your own business.
Conversely if you are struggling, it might be good to do an honest assessment of your current role. Instead of compensating for weakness, double down on your strengths and accelerate your progress by simply being the best version of yourself in the right environment.
Look inward first at what you are good at and what you enjoy. If you can marry both, you will be unstoppable.