by Matthew Magallanes

Early in my career, I used to sell cars. Over the years, I noticed that there were two distinct styles for how to “make a sale.” There was the old school transactional model and the new school relationship-driven model. The old school salesperson would typically advocate hard for the car that would make them the most money. The clients’ needs and wants were not a part of the equation. Predictably, these clients would never become repeat customers. On the other hand, the new school salespeople would see their clients come back over and over again.

I was a part of the new school sales, and that came with building relationships. I would look for solutions that fit the clients’ needs and find the product that was right for them. I would build value and empower my clients throughout their buying process. I didn’t make the most money per car, but I made up for it by having a strong referral base. The new school way of selling was more sustainable in the long run.

As much as I loved selling cars, I wanted to go back to school. In the car business, I worked days, nights, and weekends. I needed a set work schedule to be able to fit in a school schedule. I was fortunate enough to find a job where I worked the day shift, Monday-Friday as a security guard at a tech company called Dropbox. There I noticed that in San Francisco, you’re either in tech or you are working to serve tech. My dream was always to break into tech but I didn’t know how.

A year ago, a friend told me about a new organization starting up called Climb Hire. It was a non-profit that taught Salesforce Administration Certification, alongside the soft skills needed to work in corporate America. I had no prior experience in Salesforce. All I knew was that Salesforce was a “Customer Relationship Management” tool and that their building eclipsed the Transamerica building in San Francisco. I wanted to learn more about this in-demand skill. So, I jumped on the opportunity to be a part of the very first cohort at Climb Hire. In retrospect, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life…

To keep reading, view the full LinkedIn article from Matthew here and learn how his journey brought him to Simplus.