Hello.
In April 2014, I earned £30k a year in a standard graduate job, doing fine. I received a Christmas bonus that year of £500.
In April 2024 I earned £30k from a single paycheque. This career trajectory was completely random, and looking back, I wish I had gone into it with more structure and concept.
I work 4 days a week. I don’t work long hours (I’m clocked off by 3ish most days) and I can work from home when I want.
It’s been my pleasure to have sold to clients and worked with amazing colleagues on 3 continents. I get approaches from recruiters all the time (usually 50+ every year), and most years I get an offer for roles worth £150-300k total earnings. I usually don’t take these and use them as internal leverage.
I AM NOTHING SPECIAL. I’m a 2:1 arts graduate from a middling university. I don’t use AI to write. My LinkedIn picture is a selfie, and I don’t have a single special magical trick to share that makes people buy.
This is not a get rich quick scheme. You will not be earning £30k cheques next month, or even next year. But, with some effort and a bit of planning – I believe it’s within reach of most people within 5 to 10 years.
If I’m earning beaucoup big bucks, why do I need to do this?
Well for one, a lot of my job now involves teaching sales to junior staff – and I quite like it. Secondly, I’ve always wanted to write, and I’ve discovered my fiction writing is not great. Nobody wanted to publish my sci fi novel about an AI powered spaceship. Lastly, as I’m going to expand on in lesson #3, whilst you get trade security, job security is a rarity these days, and I wanted a bit of extra side income as I’m the sole earner for a family of 5. Let’s be clear – the UK tax system is punishing to high earners.
Over the past few years, I have been training junior staff – and this guide is somewhat of the primer I use. So, to be frank, it wasn’t that difficult to put together. The hard bit is making it readable for most. Think of this as a guide and proof it can be done.
But wait, sales involves being the life and soul of the party? right?
No.
Sales is a human business, but not a people business. You don’t need to be extrovert. You need to understand people. You need to be willing to learn about people and what makes them go ‘aha’.
I am not advocating for all sales
Sales, like the territories and managers and companies that go with them will vary greatly. Your experience may be good, bad, mediocre or downright mad. This guide is aimed specifically at a career in subscription (yes just like your Netflix) b2b (business to business) sales.
Who this is for:
Now, the fun thing about sales is that it’s a great equaliser. I’ve seen and celebrated successful colleagues of every gender, colour, body type, personality and differentiator you can think of. People love to hate people who are different to them, but the wonderful thing about sales is the only bit that matters is your number. It’s fascinating really.
Sales is a stressful, difficult and challenging career.
Sales celebrates:
• Hard work as well as smart work.
• Resilience and grit for when things are down
• Passion that so appeals to humans, it’s not buzzword, it’s a feeling.
• It will test of your ability to learn, and skill in applying it.
• Balancing greed, vanity and love (yes, you have to love)
Mix in a dram of luck and some good planning: and you can have a career that will out earn most doctors, lawyers, accountants and other such professional careers your parents wanted you to have.
Just so we’re clear- Most doctors, lawyers, accountants, business owners and others earning these income levels don’t sit around fanning themselves with large wads of cash all day. They equally have a stressful, difficult and challenging career. They work long hours; they face frustrations and difficulties all the time.
Many of my friends are surgeons, accountants, big4 consultants. Small, medium and even large business owners. I don’t know any magic circle lawyers but a few in the rung below. I see them come and go at all hours. I know they want to see their kids more. I see the stress in their grey hairs when you can finally find a weekend they’re not working to catch up.
If done correctly, sales gives you their income with stress, but less than many of the above.
Sales makes the world go around.
Businesses can’t grow without sales (some tech companies might not quite follow this logic). New and exciting products don’t get created, your supermarket wouldn’t have food, your taps wouldn’t have clean water, and the roads would be lawless mad max style messes. It all comes down to money.
Yes, you can have dreams of a perfect utopia, but until that happens, we all need money to survive, and spending money on say, lunch with a friend, or shoes for your kids, or a roof above your head, or vet treatment for your pet. People have invested time, effort, blood sweat and tears to make these products and services. For many, they are easily accessible and affordable. The modern economy is nothing short of magical.
I also add to this that many people want to live exciting lives. Exciting lives require exchanging time for money, which you can then trade to other people for these things, experiences, ideas, services. Maybe you want solid gold taps or Range Rovers. Maybe you want to retire early. Go snorkeling on the barrier reef. I don’t know (or care). The problem is, no matter how hard you work in your 30k job, most of life won’t ever magically become affordable to you.
NOTE: all work is important, and income does not correlate with respect. I am simply observing that smaller incomes are finite and do not allow for lifestyles many crave, rightly or wrongly.
Hence why there is such a proliferation of get rich quick schemes. How to make millions investing in property with only 5 quid down, starting a business in crypto, or using AI to make bank. The point being, is that unless you get insanely lucky, these schemes will only leave you thousands down and a sense of shame at being scammed. You might as well play the lottery.
Now, if you will. Please close your eyes and conjure up ‘salesman’ in your mind’s eye. If your parents read your Roald Dahl as a kid, you probably thought about Mr. Wormwood and his Mustache. Maybe you thought of a shiny suited estate agent. I almost guarantee that whatever your vision, it’s a negative one.
Sadly, the British; and Europeans to a certain extent – do not value salespeople. If you spend any time in the US, you will see it’s a completely different attitude, where it’s seen as a valuable and necessary career.
Sales isn’t a dirty word. It makes the world go around. It makes businesses flourish and there is the opportunity for completely normal folks to earn more than they ever thought possible. Let me convince you over this short guide.
Now this is the part where I’m going to ask you to purchase my mini book
If you want to convince yourself and learn about a career in sales my unique, compelling and completely genuine 5-lesson mini book will take you about 20 minutes to read.
Hopefully it will change your life. You won’t be sold a VIP session at 10x the price. I won’t sell you a conference ticket and I won’t sell your details (I wouldn’t know how).
Equally, I’m a nice person and if you have questions or thoughts or if you just want to tell me how rubbish it is, please email me. There’s a very good chance I’ll answer because I’m like that. If you really didn’t like it, I’ll send you your money back.
What will you get?
A modestly formatted PDF that will cover 5 lessons on what I’ve learnt from a 15-year successful stint in b2b sales in the United Kingdom and around the world.
The goal is to arm you with the mental headspace, ideas, and tools to succeed. There are sections on selling, interviewing, CV’s, structures and views on how to succeed – monetary, physical and mental. All written in my signature truthful style. There is no magic, just honesty. Some lessons, and hopefully something to light a fire under you. Who knows, maybe in 10 years when you get a single pay check that’s bigger than your current annual income. I hope it feels awesome.
Download my minibook for £3.99 (it’s not actually ready yet, but if you would like a free preview, email me and I’ll send you the unedited version: make200k@proton.me)