There are many roads to Rome, but these three steps are a good framework to put you in pole position when the next management headcount opens.
First, figure out why you want to do it. Not all career progression needs to be into management. Also, having people report to you is not always fun. Dealing with people is hard, salespeople harder, top performers.., the worst.
“Why”, will be one of the first questions the organization will ask you, and you need to have a thought-out answer. Maybe you want to start your own business in the future, maybe you enjoy coaching and mentoring, or maybe you want to sit and refresh dashboards all day asking AEs to update Salesforce with the next steps on an opportunity.
Whatever it is, make sure that you have thought about it.
After you have thought about the “Why”, put it in a deck. Call it a career plan, life plan, vision statement, call it whatever you want, but this is something that will help you on step three: building a fan base and sponsors in your company. This plan should be 4-6 slides long.
Think of it as an exec-level proposal where you are the goods.
Slide 1: About you privately, who are you outside of work? Pictures, tell a story.
Slide 2: A visualization timeline of what you have done where, and where you want to go. Here is where you can put in CEO of future business, or maybe FatFIRE at 40, but your promotion should be one of the steps here. With the desired timeline shown.
Slide 3: Your work accomplishments. Awards? Presidents clubs? Mentoring? Gotten other SDR/BDRs promoted to AEs? Certifications? Are you aligning your activities with your company’s culture and values? Slide 3 could be incorporated into slide 2 if you don't make it too busy.
Slide 4: If this is a life plan then include this slide. If it is a career plan you can exclude it.
Four topics: Wellness, Legacy, Career, and Finances.
Summarize top goals within each of the topics.
Examples:
Wellness: Read a book a month, exercise, and meditate regularly every other day.
Legacy: Be a great parent and be remembered as a genuinely good person
Career: Run top-performing teams, start my own business, and be the youngest VP in Company X.
Finances: Earn 100k base within 2 years. FatFIRE by 45.
The more you share, the more valuable it will be. Also, fun to do with your family/partner.
Slide 5: What you are doing short, medium, and long term to have some progress on the topics described on slide 4. If you keep this to a career plan only, then this slide should contain what you are doing to get improve your chances of promotion. Courses? Coaching? Mentoring?
Slide 6: Asks. Do you want to have a recurring session with the C-level/VP to go over this plan? Do you need a budget for a coach? Have you seen a course that you would like to expense?
Step three.
When you have done your plan, show it to everyone and ask for feedback. This is how you get attention to the fact that you want to get a promotion, and that you are taking action to get to where you want to go. It is also a lot easier to send a message to your CEO or Senior Executive and ask for a meeting to get feedback on your career plan than asking for 25 minutes of chitchat over matcha tea.
Follow these three steps and you are going to have good conversations about the next steps in your career.
Some warnings before starting your promotion journey.
Make sure you have been in the company for at least 6 months. I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but before 6 months you don’t know the players, the politics, the product. And you haven't shown that you know what you are doing.
You want to hit your KPIs. This doesn't mean that you need to be top performer, it could even hurt your chances if your management is shit, but you do need to hit your KPIs. The KPI doesn't necessarily mean quota attainment only, but if you don't perform on that key metric then you need to be damn good to sell why you are going to make others do so.
Don’t come up with a plan last minute. You want to build a brand around you that is so clear that when they look at the org chart and think about a new manager they should think about you. They think of you because of that course you took a year ago and how you have been proactively working on the feedback that they have given you. Do that and you will find yourself loving dashboards and asking what's cooking in no time.
A final note.
I always hated when managers in my organizations were saying that you don’t earn any money as a manager. You don't earn as much per deal, but you have many more people selling into your pocket, so by the end of the year, you should be better off. If there wasn't an economic incentive to be in management, everyone would be ICs. But first-line managers are the BDRs of management. It's a grind and a grind that usually takes 4-6 years to overcome.
I told TennisandSales I would put this post together. My first post on the forum, let me know what you think, and happy to answer any additional questions.
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