How to Break Into Sales With a Non-Traditional Resume (Ask Jeb)

0:00This is the Sales Gravy Podcast. Hi, I'm Jeb Blount, bestselling author, fanatical prospecting, objections, sales EQ, and inked. And I'm here to help you open more doors, close bigger deals, and rock your commission check. All right, next up on the show is Nick Sowers from Greater Lansing, Michigan. Nick, what is happening in your world? Well, what's happening in my world is first, I wanted to say thank you. I've read five of your books, which is what led me to wanting to get into sales. So I spent 20 plus years in the rail industry, whether it be operations, management, training. I mean, I've done all of that and I'm having a hard time translating that into what a company would find valuable in a sales role.

0:43When I've done safety critical and I can't even get past the screening, that seems to be the issue for me. I would love to get in the room. I'm totally fine hearing no. I just can't even get to the point where I hear no. From a hiring manager's perspective, because we've got several open positions right now on our team and I'm screening resumes, I can see how that happens because I'll look at a resume and I immediately make a decision on whether I want to spend any time with that candidate based on what I see. And I'm just looking for an experienced profile and you have a untraditional experienced profile for wanting to get into sales.

1:16That screening process isn't going to work very well for you. And the way that resumes are being screened right now So you're like putting in a resume, sending it to someone's applicant tracking system, and it's just getting knocked out. In our world, I go into our applicant tracking system and I don't like screen them out. I just make notes to my HR team. But I go through. In a lot of cases, a human being is not even looking at your resume. It's an AI looking at your resume. So we can have a whole conversation on how to game the system so you can get through. But let's talk about a different way for you to get out there.

1:49Let's start with what type of sales roles are you trying to get into? Like, is there a pattern or something that you want to do? My girlfriend comes from the business world. So I started looking at SaaS sales, but it didn't take long for me to realize that's probably not the world for me. So what I started leaning into more is like equipment sales, safety related. I started looking at maybe doing rail car leasing and fleet management and things of that nature. That would be where I'd go. I'd say, first of all, stay out of software. You're not going to get in. it's not the right place for you. Capital equipment sales would be probably a good place.

2:22And there's a lot of money in capital equipment sales. You came out of the rail industry. What industry were you in particular? So my career started in Montana. I worked for Burlington Northern Santa Fe for 20 years. And then I took an opportunity in Hawaii for Hitachi. So I spent eight years in Hawaii. When it comes to the rail industry, I've done passenger, I've done freight, I've done commissioning. So I have a lot of experience. Who are the companies or what are the companies that sell into that industry? Like when you were in that industry, where were the salespeople who were coming to see you?

2:54Siemens, you got GTAX, the list goes on. Okay. So let's just take Siemens, for example. Awesome company. And one of our clients, we love Siemens. They're an amazing company. They are looking for salespeople. There's an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Siemens is working to beef up their sales organization. So if you think about that, that's a place where you should be. There's other companies that sell in. But the thing is, is if you send your resume in, you're going to get kicked out. So we've got to figure out how to get you in front of hiring managers or really anybody who says you have an expertise in the rail industry.

3:29Like you speak the language. You've got all of this experience in that industry. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, I want to run away from that industry. And I get that because I've been there. But the fact is, is that's where your expertise lies. So your fastest path to getting into sales is going to be working with a company that sells in that industry that would sell to people who are just like you, who can speak the language. I talk to people all the time that were engineers and now they're selling the products that they were engineering or people who were in compliance and now sell compliance.

4:00Because those industries are so specialized that having people who understand the industry and have a network in the industry really pays off. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. No, it totally makes sense. And I'm totally fine staying in the rail industry. I don't want to run away from it. The railroad has treated me and my family quite well for my career. So I'm down staying in the industry. I've actually applied for several positions, but this is where we're talking is I can't seem to get past the AI blocker. That's the thing. So you've got relationships in the rail industry. Yes. People, you know, start picking up the phone and calling them.

4:32Think about all the companies that sell into the rail industry and saying, can you get me connected with someone? Even if it's one of their salespeople. But you're going to have to like treat this like a prospecting job rather than a I'm sending in resume job. That's your background. It's your age. It's the world that we live in right now. I'm going to give you a real life example. We're looking for marketing people in my team because we're growing so fast. And I'm sitting in the marketing department yesterday at a cubicle working on some SEO stuff with my marketing team. This young man walks in holding a resume and said, I was looking online and I know y 'all have a marketing job.

5:09And I just came by here to drop my resume off and talk to you. We handled him the way you would handle anybody. We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really good. Talked to him for a few minutes and said, all right, just leave it here. We'll talk to you. 30 minutes later, I found my head of marketing and go, get him in here and have a conversation with him because there was something that was unique about that. He might be crazy as a bed bug. I have no idea. But the fact is, is that he did something unconventional, which was to go around the applicant tracking system and just walk through our front door.

5:36That may not be something at your disposal in greater Lansing, Michigan, but what I would suggest is use your network, pick up the phone, call them up, tell them what you want. Like say it out loud. I want to work in sales in this industry. If that doesn't work for you, looking locally in Greater Lansing, there are companies there that need to sell stuff. You know, you can be selling heavy equipment. You can be selling capital equipment of some type. You can be selling services in. They're small companies. They need really good people. You know, you're going to have to network. Call your Chamber of Commerce and ask them about after hours.

6:10What jobs are being posted locally? Like, go find those business owners. Go find those businesses. Go have those conversations. because the thing is that people need to meet you and have a conversation with you so that you can change the shape of your resume. Because if you don't get into the rail industry, I know there's a local sales job out there that may not even be the best sales job, but if you can get it, get it on your resume and give it two years, now you can get past the AI screeners because you've got two years on your resume, right? And I can't be the only one that's mid-career professional that's saying, hey, I want to challenge my career and move in a different direction.

6:45I was starting to go that route But yeah, this is perfect. There's so many things that relate to railroad. I mean, you've got communications, you've got safety. Growing up in Montana as well, I mean, agricultural is not that far-fetched. Go find your local John Deere dealer. Walk through the door and ask them what they got. They're relationship-driven. They're straight commission in a lot of cases. They can be highly lucrative, but this is going to age me out really badly. If I just go back to like the late 80s and early 90s, mid-90s, before everything got on the internet, That's what we did, right?

7:15You know, if you wanted a job, you would literally put resumes in envelopes and put a stamp on them and send them in. And you could do that till the cows come home. But what would they tell you? Like, you really want a job? You got to go out there and network and meet people. You got to show up. You got to look different. The best way of doing that is to go get face-to-face or use your network or call everybody you know and keep calling them. Obviously, you want to use LinkedIn. Are you following people that are in the rail industry? Take a look at the people that are out there. Build a relationship with them there and see if you can have some conversation with them.

7:44Because all you need is one person to get you in front of the right person. And you got this. Because once someone meets you, they're going to hire you. I don't want to sound arrogant when I say that, but if I can get in the room, I can get the job. Yeah, exactly. Think about sales, right? Salespeople say this all the time. If I can get the prospect to have an appointment with me, I can sell the deal, right? So you're back to like, you got to go prospect. You know, you got to go sell that way. I'm just throwing this out there. This is also a gratuitous plug for the Outbound Conference. But one awesome place to network is the Outbound Conference.

8:15And Outbound Conference is in November at the Red Rock in Las Vegas. Themes around breaking through buyer resistance. This is kind of what you're doing here as well. But there's tons of people there. It's huge networking. You're going to meet some of the best minds in sales. And you're going to meet a lot of people who are just like you. A lot of mid-career people. A lot of folks that they're trying to figure out their world as well. If you're in Nick's situation, you can go to outboundconference.com. Check out the tickets. It is the biggest, baddest sales training conference in the world. We also have a leadership conference that's attached to it.

8:45But something to think about as you start looking at where you're going to go next. Perfect. I appreciate it. Yeah. And I've already looked at it, to be honest with you. I love that. Very good. Very good. Awesome. Well, Nick, nice to talk to you. Good luck. Hey, stay in touch with us and let us know how you're doing. And thank you for joining me on the Sales Review Podcast. Thanks, everyone, for listening to this episode of the Sales Review Podcast. I'm Jeb Blunt, Jr. And if you got something useful from this podcast, take a moment and give us a five-star review on Apple, on Spotify, on iHeartMedia, or wherever you get your podcasts.

9:16It helps us help more salespeople sell more. And you can watch all of these episodes on youtube.com forward slash sales gravy. We'll catch you next time on the Sales Gravy Podcast.

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