Preface

sprout, vb.: to spring up; to send out new growth

Why a book relating sales success to gardening?

Because we believe that there is more than one way to look at the challenge of getting the most out of your sales career. Our book offers a new way of looking at sales that you’re not likely to have encountered.

We have had the privilege of building sales careers that have been fun as well as profitable. We’ve also enjoyed working with thousands of successful salespeople in all different stages of their careers, and we’ve learned a lot from them in the process. Through the sales professionals we’ve met, we’ve become aware of the importance of two themes in particular: the stages of career satisfaction, or happiness, with what they have accomplished; and their level of optimism about their future.

Specifically, we’ve noticed distinct plateaus in the energy of the salespeople with whom we have worked. Although all career choices present challenges for sustaining success, it is evident to us that sales professionals in particular are constantly measured against rigid, economically driven barometers and exposed to constant internal and external competition.

Consequently, feelings of frustration and harmful stress run very high in the sales industry. The cost to sales organizations in lost talent, rehiring, and retraining hurts the corporate bottom line. Unfortunately, the emotional toll of high stress can be devastating to any sales professional’s career.

In our experience, sales professionals don’t always acknowledge that pressure. Or if they do, they internalize it. That’s a big mistake. While most salespeople are well schooled in the nuts and bolts of the selling process, the feeling that there seems to be something missing can cause a loss of optimism and premature burnout.

That’s where SPROUT! comes in handy. We have found that using a metaphor we call the Sales Garden and its accompanying mind-set can help relieve some harmful stress and put more fun and passion into the selling process.

By absorbing our simple Sales Garden concept and following the user-friendly steps outlined in this book, salespeople can beat the career blues and sustain themselves for the long term, regaining their passion for sales in the process. But that’s not all. Our simple formula also enables organizations to better retain precious talent by applying a philosophy that supports their sales professionals throughout the inevitable ups and downs that mark a selling career— and that creates a healthy sales framework as well.

All this from seeds sowed in our Sales Garden.

From Alan Vengel

A brief note of gratitude to some of the people who have helped me grow during this fun project: Kathleen, my wife; David, my son; Judy, my business partner; Carol and Shawn at Vengel Lash Associates; Steven Piersanti, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Kristen Frantz, Michael Crowley, María Jesús Aguiló, and the rest of the gang at Berrett-Koehler, with special thanks to Brenda Frink, who came up with the title for this book; Vicki Webster, our gardening consultant; Elissa Rabellino, our copyeditor; and Beverly Kaye. Thank you all for encouraging me to SPROUT!

From Greg Wright

My thanks to all the sales professionals I have had the privilege to work with over the past thirty years. Their candor in relating their experiences, and their openness to developing new selling skills, have given me the “seeds” that grew into this book.

Alan Vengel and Greg Wright
December 2003