The Other Little Black Book

There you are.

Interviewing for the sales job of your dreams.

It’s going great!

You're telling the manager all about your performance: hitting quota, exceeding quota, where you ranked, Rookie of the Year, all the great stuff.

The conversation is flowing, you're hitting it off.

Then BAM!

The hiring manager asks, “Do you have any proof of performance?”

“Proof? Isn't my resume enough? What other proof do you want? I just have what's listed on my resume and what I told you.”

Suddenly, that great interview isn’t going so great.

What if you had proof of performance? A nice little black brag book filled with your biggest professional accomplishments showing clearly the success you've had in previous roles.

What if you had that brag book prepared when you went to ask your manager for a raise? Or if you had it when you were training the new person on the team?

They can be very helpful in many situations.

So, let’s talk about The Brag Book.

What is it? Why is it important? How should it look?

The Brag Book is an organized collection of accomplishments, awards, stack rankings, notes of appreciation from a client, etc.

It is the highlight reel of your sales career.

Brag books are the proof in the pudding. Ideally, you should start this as early in your sales career as possible. I’m not saying keep every little detail, but keep anything note worthy.

If your company has stack rankings, this is a great place to start. Maybe they do a weekly/monthly top performer, employee of the month, or president's club. Print out emails from clients when they express their appreciation or if your boss calls out your hard work overachieving numbers via email.

Get the picture?

If it’s about your performance, keep it! The goal here is to be able to show that you have done a great job performing in a performance-driven role!

Next, how should it look?

This can be open for interpretation, but here is what I recommend:

• Buy a nice black binder and start organizing it chronologically.
• Make sure it is neat and divided. You don’t want to have to search through it for the most important pieces.
• Use page protectors to keep things in good condition.
• Don't over do it. Make sure you add your accomplishments, but don't turn this into a novel.

Why it’s important?

This goes back to the proof in the pudding. This shows employers that not only can you talk the talk, but you can also walk the walk. It’s easy to walk in and say I’m a top performer, I always exceed goals, and I’m great with clients. But think about how much more excited they will be if they can look and see all of that on paper!

It always surprises me when I speak to people that tell me all the great things that they’ve done in their career, but don’t have one piece of evidence.

Brag Books are so important. And not enough people have them.

If you are interviewing for a competitive position, this could be the difference between you getting the position over another candidate!