Afraid of getting fired? Here’s what you can about it

As you can see, around 41% of people who participated in the survey thought more than half of remote salespeople were thinking of switching job because they were afraid of being let go.

This is fear.

I see it everywhere in the world of remote sales. Most salespeople are missing their targets, and their remote position make them vulnerable to being fired without warning.

If you’re in this situation, here’s what you can do:

Step 1: Understand the new reality of remote work

Work has drastically changed in the last few years. That’s especially true for sales. We used to belong to a team, a company, and being physically present allowed us to make connections, have influence, and get ahead in our careers.

Nowadays, this physical connection has been replaced by virtual interactions. Remote salespeople don’t feel like they belong anymore, and they are twice as likely to switch jobs compared to those working in an office (stole that from Jason Bay’s post).

Couple this with a challenging economy, and you have the perfect conditions to creating a durable shift in traditional, 9 to 5 employment.

The truth is; there’s no sustainable or stable job in remote sales.

Perform, or get fired.

Which is why I recommend building a portfolio career.

Step 2: Change your mindset

Now that you know you’re on a hot seat, you can take some time to accept this new reality, and start thinking about the future of your career.

If you’ve been working remotely for some time, you have skills that are in high demand. You can switch jobs quickly, get onboarded remotely, and you don’t need a manager behind your back to do the work.

Which means you can easily land shorter-term contracts, and start working independently (at least partially). You just need to stop thinking like an employee, and start thinking like a portfolio professional.

Instead of trying to land a job, pass the test period, and stay there as long as you can, you should define your marketable skills, warm up your network, and you’ll progressively start identifying many opportunities to make an impact.

And get paid well to do it.

Step 3: Get to work

Now this is all fun and games, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Giving up a steady paycheck, benefits, and stability for a dream?

No thanks.

Instead, you should start small and focus on landing a first contract. The size of the contract doesn’t matter. If you can close one, you can close another one, then another one, and so on.

And you can do that while you’re still working on your day job. Just make sure your current employer allows you to have a side gig (don’t skip this step, you could get in trouble).

That’s what I did when started working for myself. I landed a first contract (€10,000), then a second one, (€16,000), and I managed to generate €120,000 of revenues from September 2018 to September 2019 (with a 93% net margin), while working 3 days a week on average.

I’m not saying you should give up everything and expect to have the same results I did. It was 6 years ago, the market was different, and I would still have food in the fridge and a roof over my head if it all failed. But instead of worrying about getting fired, you can start being proactive and adapt to this new world of remote selling.

And if you need help to do just that, you can join 130+ remote salespeople in the waitlist of my upcoming course, Close Your First Side Gig.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris