Day 2; I’m Quickly Becoming a Distraction

I first want to explain my geographic and managerial situation… I live in a city 3000 Miles from our company head office which includes my direct Manager, customer service and admin… the VP of Sales lives in the the same city as me and was the Territory Manager for my area from about 2000 to 2005.

The VP is the obvious person to introduce me to key clients and to run through the territory with me as he knows all the accounts inside and out… what I am getting from him is that the longer my ‘training’ is the more of a distraction I am to his day. This is especially true this week as he has 2009 budgets to form and is under pressure.

I’m quickly learning that despite the great relationship we have, the sooner I’m on my own the better… I couldn’t agree more… I just didn’t think it would be so tangible.

My First Objective

The sales division I am leaving is more relaxed, more casual business, smaller and more personable… this has given some at the division of the company that I am moving to an image of softness, under-achieving and generally more slack.

My first objective is to change that image, I have started it somewhat by pushing a start date when I could have enjoyed the summer more with my ‘in transition’ status.

This week I don’t have a lot to do other then get my phone and computer up and running, I’ll be meeting with the VP of sales who is familiar with my territory and going over the accounts as well as our CRM software… I’ll need to change his image first and this could be a good start.

Need an Ego Boost? Move to a New Division!

Tomorrow is my first day at the new position and over the past few weeks I’ve been letting client and co-workers know of my change and have had many nice compliments e-mailed to me.  Many of my co-workers sent a basic ‘congratulations’ and depending if they were on the old side or new side I would get ‘we’re going to miss you’ to ‘glad to have you on the new team’.  My client responses were filled with warm messages regarding my relationship with them and how they enjoyed working with me.

My most interesting comments came from the phone calls I made to the independent channel owners that I managed.  Some were very upset and one was on the edge of tears (I could hear her voice crack holding back emotion) then others were very to the point with ‘this is not unexpected… you seemed too driven to continue in the same position’ and then the fear of who will replace me was a common theme.

Wow what an Ego Boost! I hope it doesn’t all go to my head.