Starting a book journey!

Hey everyone

I am starting to write a book about my career shift from technical to commercial. Basically I will be explaining how I managed to shift my career from a technical engineer to a salesman. The book outline is up, and I can't wait to read your comments  about it (specially the constructive ones). If you feel you have a special experience you would like to share on a specific topic that I address (or not), feel free to let me know.

In addition, all profits generated from the book sales will go to support children refugees all over the world through this Canadian charity organization,HCI.

I want to make this a fun experience and I would love to incorporate your ideas in this book!

Here we go...

Yaser

Be good to...

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

...everyone! And I mean EVERYONE!

Have you ever been solicited by a sales person, only to reject his product...let's say...in a negative way (to say the least). Well if you intend to be an expert in a specific field or industry, you will quickly notice that your professional network is suddenly very tiny. You don't need social media to realize that, you can see it by the rotation of the workforce among the same players. 

Variable pay

Image courtesy of Pbiboon/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I mentioned several time in my past posts the concept of variable pay. Well I just finished an Organizational Behavior course (Langton, Robbins, Judge, sixth edition) that explains several programs and their advantages. I thought it will be a good subject to write a post about.

Be The Rockstar !

Image courtesy of stockimages

So how do you become the rockstar at your workplace? The one that bosses can rely on to get things done, and at the same time, is the first to be considered for different assignments.
First off, if you do want to do the switch to the commercial side, it is important to emphasize that you really have to have interest in doing different things at your employer and not only one thing. The reason for this is that your company is not only selling to one customer (there are exceptions), but to different customers with different needs. This means that your company sales team must be creative in thinking of different ideas in order for your company’s services or product to fit with its clients’ needs. That is why salespeople talk so much, the successful one are up to date on the latest and the greatest in the market and they love to share new information with everyone.

I have no idea what I am doing!

So I get my first opportunity to shine and start working as a technical sales consultant first then as an account manager. Oh boy, did I feel like this dog on this picture. I would come back home from work excited, but confused and amazed by all the new things I was learning. I suddenly found interest in watching business related movies to try to imitate how salesmen close deals like celebrities and schmooze with clients.

Why I considered shifting my career from engineering to sales

Image by jscreationzs,Stock Image -

This post could have been a good first post, but I was so past that stage that I already wanted to share all the ins and outs of the commercial world. Though this might not apply to you, this is my own personal mental path that I went through before I made my decision to leave engineering and move to the "dark side" (this is what technical people refer to the commercial department). I will try my best to keep this post below 500 words and will elaborate in the book.

Negative vs Positive Politics

Image courtesy of Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I had a great conversation last night at the Cocktail Antabli with a friend that lasted for a good two hours about how poisonous his environment has become. I think we both suffered from sugar overdose. Anyway, it's funny because he currently has the job  I applied for eight years ago when I was scrambling for work (I might tell you about it sometime). In a nutshell, he was approved for a promotion from all management levels but was backstabbed by a suck up  who managed to steal it from him. How did that happen you ask? Simple, wrong management priorities! There was a good reason my friend managed to get all those approvals, he was a talented engineer who was able to take bold steps during very narrow windows of opportunity to shine and bring his employer big $$, he was a rockstar.

Secrecy

PKP : Image from 
http://princearthurherald.com/en/news-2/pierre-karl-peladeau-will-be-a-pq-candidate-in-st-jerome

I didn’t think I will be writing a post before sharing my outline, but I guess this is how it is being unfolded. I just finished reading an article on “les Affaires” about the powers Pierre Karl Péladeau, PKP, enjoyed throughout his life. For those who are not living in Quebec, at the time I am writing this post, Quebec is going through another election to elect a provincial party to lead us for another week or two before the next elections. PKP sudden move as a representative of the Partie Quebecois, PQ party, took people by surprise and made him Quebec’s most powerful politician.