The Experience Myth

This article is excerpted from Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World's Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers, by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano, Copyright 2003 by the Gallup Organization (Warner Business Books).

In some professions experience matters a great deal and has a huge relationship with success. If you need open-heart surgery, you should go to the cardiac surgeon who has performed the most procedures since studies show that complication rates for surgical procedures go down directly in relationship to the experience of the surgeon. We have found that sales, however, is not an experience-sensitive profession in the same way that surgery is.

The learning curve in most sales jobs is usually short. Discounting data from very recent recruits, we only rarely find a strong correlation between experience and results. Salespeople with 10 years of experience in the same companies or industries do not necessarily sell more than those with five years under their belts. Individuals with five years' experience do not necessarily sell more than people with three years' experience.

However, many companies place great weight on experience, and herein lies the trap. If you are performing at only an average level, it could well be because your strengths are not the right "fit" for what you do every day. You might be thinking about a change. But when the headhunters call, the job they want to talk to you about is probably similar to the job you already have. Companies want to hire you for your experience. You might even feel more comfortable taking a job that matches your experience.

If you are not careful when changing jobs, however, you will only be changing one poorly fitting job for another -- even if the new company is better positioned in the market, or its products are better. However, if you are already a great performer, such a move could be a big career enhancement because the fit is already right.

The problem with sales experience is that it can delude you about your capabilities. You will probably get "up to speed" more quickly and need less training in a job that is similar to your former job. However, if you are average, all you will do is get back up to average more quickly than you did before. "More of the same" from an average performer is not likely to move you from average to great, but improving the "fit" will.