January, a special holiday

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On the last day of January, I still decided to write this post on Haichuan. January 2016 was the most special January I’ve ever experienced. There were times of confusion and fear, worries as well as confidence, and also disappointment after being rejected. Let me tell you about it slowly. . . . . I still remember that my last post on Haichuan before this one was about my transition to a sales role; that was in June 2014. At that time, I wrote with great enthusiasm about my dreams and my goals for the future. However, a year and a half later, in December 2015, I was fired by the company. To be honest, this was a very serious blow for me. Not only had my sales career just started to improve, but losing my job suddenly left me with a big question mark over my future For a family, the lack of income from work will also push it into an economic crisis in no time. In April 2011, I returned to my previous job at a German-owned company in the automation industry. I had intended to apply for a position as a sales engineer, but due to my technical background, that initial goal was not achieved; instead, I worked in technical support and application development at the company for over 3 years. By June 2014, the opportunity to switch to sales finally arose, and I seized it. I became a salesperson at the company’s office in Shandong (my home is in Beijing, so I had to travel there for work). My task was to develop new customers in the Shandong region. I was aware of the company’s decision regarding this; since I lacked prior sales experience, the company wouldn’t assign me mature clients to take care of. I encouraged myself to make use of my technical skills in order to acquire more new customers and new applications. At the beginning of the sales process, I exported some information on customers from the company’s CRM who had not placed any orders. I found that most of them were not valuable clients, which worried me immediately – where could I find my real customers? By seeking advice from colleagues and leveraging some client connections I had from my previous technical work, I found several existing clients as well as clients in the same industry, and officially began my client outreach efforts. Generally, I meet with several clients in one city at a time, trying to concentrate on making visits and making introductions; it seems that this way I can see a large number of clients each time. However, I later realized that this approach isn’t very effective – it’s similar to the method of distributing flyers: I go to the clients’ places, leave some materials, have a brief conversation, and then leave, with no real chance of closing a deal. . . . . . Later, when I was visiting a technical veteran at one of our clients’ companies, he asked me a question: “Why do you always seem so busy every time you come to our company? It seems like there are several other clients waiting, and you’re in a hurry to leave.” ”This sentence suddenly made me realize my previous big problem. That’s how I became more focused; for this client, I helped them choose new products to be used in new applications. I worked diligently with them to carry out the testing, and finally, I got my first major order. Hard work pays off; later on, I managed to develop several more typical clients, which also allowed the company’s management to see my progress. In the blink of an eye, one and a half years had passed, and it was the end of 2015 – the time for year-end evaluations. I knew I was still some distance away from meeting the goals set by the company for me, but with only one month left, it was impossible for me to find more orders in order to fulfill those goals. I had no choice but to give up on this year’s bonus. So, I began planning for 2016. By the end of the year, I carried on with more visits and planning efforts. While many of my colleagues went on vacation in December, I kept busy traveling around Shandong Province, meeting with several potential new clients as well. That’s when the problems started: as December arrived, the foggy weather in Beijing became increasingly severe. The elderly and children in my family fell ill as well, and many difficulties arose at home; I had to set aside time to take care of them. When my family was in better health, I went to Shandong on a business trip again, but this time I missed a product training session organized by the company. I asked my supervisor for leave, explaining that there were very important clients in the Shandong region. In my opinion, this product is something very simple; I don’t even need to go through any training. Around 11 p.m. on December 10, 2015, I suddenly received a call from a senior manager; from the tone of his voice, it was clear that my failure to attend the training would have serious consequences. After hanging up the phone, I saw in the company WeChat group that I had been removed by the assistant. I have realized the severity of the problem. . . . . . So I hurriedly booked a ticket to return to Beijing the next day to talk to my supervisor, but he told me to go see him on Monday. On December 14, 2015, I was sitting in my supervisor’s office, and he said he had made up his mind – firing me was something that could not be undone. The reason given to me was that headquarters believed there were issues with my performance, but my supervisor said that in his opinion those performance problems weren’t serious; the main issues were my lack of participation in training and insufficient communication with the company. He also mentioned some communication problems that had occurred in previous projects. That’s how I was asked to leave the company after a month. When January arrived, I still had some annual leave left. I stopped going to the company starting from New Year’s Day and officially began looking for a new job. A headhunter introduced me to a few positions, but most employers felt that my sales experience was insufficient. I also interviewed with several companies in Europe and the United States, with little success. It’s the last day of January