How I Became a Product Manager From A Sales Executive

I am grateful to you for reading my article. Through my trials, I have found that it is not enough to know what to do - we must act on that knowledge to have what we want. 

I started my career as in associate sales for directly working with Distributors for cash collection from retailers, top-up, and acquisition. The job description suggested that I have to work with existing retailers in a busy south Mumbai market. I was excited, but a few weeks into the job, I realized it was a very tiring job physically since I had to visit 20+ retailers across south Mumbai every single day and worked with this role for almost three years.

I finished my daily 20+ retailer visits around 7 PM and then had to travel back to my home around 40KMs. I was exhausted by the time to reach house; I had no energy left for anything else. The reporting time was 9 AM sharp, so I had to get up at 6 AM every day!. Altogether it was a fantastic experience and wow feeling.

It was a Diwali Festival was around the corner, and all were upbeat about achieving mammoth targets that were assigned to each one of us. I did well without even much knowledge about the Product & Services, and could not catch up on "How to sell a product?", but I made my first sale! I still remember the conversation for the sales pitch to the retailers, and that truly worked.

And That Happiness of cracking my first ever sale didn’t let me sleep that night….

"During those days, I was thinking of being something (Maybe a Bollywood Hero or Anchor), but I did not have any support and knowledge. One day I was awarded the best performer, and I became a Hero in the sales role."

One beautiful day I decided to quit my current role and try transition to the new avatar, and it was a DBA role. I did the SQL/PLSQL certification and got the opportunity in the same organization (BPL Mobile). My job was to monitor the database and do the basic optimization and manage the query plan. I was working in the evening shift that was 4 PM to 12 PM, and including me, we were five people, and we used to sit in the 5 square meters small room.

After a few days of working on the DBA role, I realized, “How can one; monitor the data by looking at the black screen of the computer 6 hours a day?” I was monitoring the data on the screen 45 hrs in a week, including extra hours and on Saturday too. I was disappointed with this job as I was much happier in my previous sales role.

The Opportunity

But the good part was that chamber where I was used to sitting it was to close to the product & marketing department, and their people discussing a lot of product planning, promotion & campaigning. Sometimes they kept laughing and teasing each other, and I liked the way they were talking to people and presenting.

Somehow I connected one of a colleague in marketing, and I used to join him during tea time, and I asked him many questions about Product & Marketing. He said this role needs a lot of energy and the essence of Product & market. I was under the impression only sales need a lot of energy mentally and physically than other roles, and maybe I was wrong.

I maybe lost myself If I continue working in the DBA role because when it comes down to personal growth and curiosity, so you have to think over and over again to find the right path to get there and execute the goals. I bet you have felt this way a couple of times in your career, that "now what? Feeling.

The Movement

One fine day I met my boss and told him that I have to leave the job. I knew the decision I had taken was severe, but I wanted to try the new role. Within a few days, I left the DBA job. I also told my marketing colleague about my decision and interest, and he was shocked and said: “This role also requires good communication and presentation skills.” which I did not have.

I tensed for the whole day! I could not understand where to start. Anyhow, I have to get into a role. I made the plan:-

I joined the Indo-American society for learning English, and I also started reading the newspaper and watching Hollywood movies. I watched the first English movie in the theater “Hatty Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” and I did not understand the single English word. I also preferred to read the job description for Marketing, Product, and Business Manager.

The Transition

I had worked in the sales, so I decided to catch the job in the telecom domain, and there was enough competition in the market. I rolled-out my cv fka bio-data or resume. Still, I did not get enough calls, and the reason was I mentioned SQL certification with sales experience where recruiters did not understand my skills and goals.

I designed a single page cv in word and also prepared my career graph in ppt. I asked recruiters do consider both the documents and share them with the client. Gradually I was getting a call for an interview — Before an interview — I did the following preparation, and the made a note of it.

> Read about the company

> Product & Services

> Revenue and Target market

> And How should be the Product ( I did not know at all “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek)?

It took almost four months to get the first Product job in Reliance Communication. I joined as a Business executive as same as the Product Manager. In the mid-2000s, Product Manager was merely considering in the technical job, and few companies had the product manager profile, they would not have understood much about this profile.

THANK YOU ALL OF YOU FOR "READING MY STORY RIGHT NOW"

Well, Nowadays, Transitioning from Sales to Product Management is challenging for many reasons, even if we have all set of digital aspects; however, it can also bring a new life into product management. Here are some suggestions from my experience. It also depends and varies with the culture of the organization and its specific definition.

• Learn to speak “Tech” — If you’re coming from sales, you’re probably pretty well set in the marketing/sales speak side of things. One of the critical skills of an effective product manager is talking to each group within the company in their language. Being the “translator” for each of these groups is incredibly important.
• Bring the voice of “customers” — As a salesperson, you have had a lot of direct contact with customers. Use this as your primary weapon but not in the individual context. Product Management is about conveying the most benefit for most users at the lowest cost.
• Learn the methodologies — Anyone moving into Product Management should have an excellent time familiarizing yourself. Attend a ProductTankPune community, join the other product slack, Training, know-how agile works — in all its favors.
• Influence People — As a Product Manager, almost all of that influence is going to have to be indirect — Projects, programs and products that are important don’t always have a clear, definable and direct association to revenue. It’s more about using relationships, building trust, and relying on the needs of the customers to back your proposal than it is saying “this project will lock in $5M in revenue over two years”.

I hope it helps you in considering the jump from Sales Manager to Product Management.

Additionally, you can start working on a side project to practice your skills, highlight your experience with working on the Product. Just like any other transition, you will have to prove that you are capable of hitting goals in a new environment.

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