Military Spouses and Sales? The Unimaginable But Perfect Marriage

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Other than selling yourself on the next duty station, that happened to be your last choice (and the one place you swore you’d never go to), you probably haven’t thought of a career in sales. This is probably because you don’t have a degree in marketing, hate getting spammed through your email, and despise those sales calls on your cell phone from cities that you don’t even live in anymore.

But, as a Military Spouse, you’re using high tech business development skills in your everyday life, at every duty station, and through every PCS. These skills are outlined by some of the finest and fastest growing companies in the world. Business-to-Business sales are necessary for start ups hoping to make it to the next level, and they are equally important for long lasting companies that have a good solid foundation, but want to launch a new product or idea that’s out of their wheelhouse. These are skills you’ve been using every day but haven’t utilized in a public setting. Here’s what I mean:

Prospecting In the business world, a person who prospects is a person who sends cold emails, phone calls, or message requests with the hope of creating opportunities for the Sales Rep. You’re already doing this when you research new duty stations, schools, neighborhoods, and homes from miles away. You’re doing this by making calls and sending emails to school districts, base housing and doctor’s offices. You’re already doing this when you spend hours every night joining Facebook groups relative to your new base searching the questions and comments trying to find out if this group is helpful or full of gossip. Each and every one of these calls, messages, emails, and posts on Facebook is all about finding out who has the best ability to open up opportunity for you and your family.

Qualifying In sales, qualifying is what companies call the process of sifting through all of the data you have collected to determine what is worthwhile and worthy of your time, and what is not. Guess what, you’re doing this too! Now that you have a list of schools, realtors, landlords, and possible activities for your kids, you spend your time trying to find out who has the best information, and is the most qualified to help you make decisions before you PCS. This person could be a military liaison, finding the coordinator for elementary education at a school, or the a member of a PTA. Either way, you are already taking that very long, coffee stained, and marked up list, and you’re rating each person and option based on their ability to be open to your situation and who is the most qualified to help you.

A/B Testing To companies, A/B testing is critical to determine which approach provides the best optimization for a potential client. In the Military world, this is called, “Plan A”, “Plan B”, and “I don’t even care anymore”. Seriously though, when you talk to your neighbors and friends and say, “If Ryan gets his orders tomorrow, then we will drive across the country, see family, and then move to Texas because it’s on the way, but if he gets the orders in the Fall, we’ll fly ahead so the kids can start school and the military will move us while Ryan finishes up here”. That’s A/B testing! You’re coming up with well thought out plans that optimize an outcome for your family. You will get feedback from your neighbor, or a friend who has had that experience and you’ll adjust your plan based on the information you receive. Every day we live our life in the If/Then scenario, it’s no different putting these options to paper and putting them out for a potential client.  

Networking To a business executive, networking is something that happens over drinks, through conferences, on LinkedIn, anywhere and anytime. It’s a necessary skill to create connections to look for potential clients, creating references, and making a solid pipeline. I don’t even need to explain how you’re already a pro at this. The second you hit “join” on that Military Spouse Page, you were creating a network. Your friend Sarah is getting stationed in Alabama, you create a private message and introduce her to your friend Jamie who lived there for 3 years. That’s a network.  As you travel all over the world, you are finding people in all spaces with all experiences that are in your pocketbook for different situations you may encounter.

Multitasking In a corporate world being able to multitask is crucial to success. Business developers must be able to search for new leads while maintaining relationships that they worked to get. As a Military Spouse you are literally the queen when it comes to multitasking. Right now you may be planning your move while being able to still run that Jog-a-thon you promised you’d do for the PTA. You might be a Key Spouse and are hosting an event for the squadron while still helping out at the bazaar.  You’re able to handle anything thrown your way whether your spouse is deployed or at home and you maintain these commitments and relationships in a positive way.

Resiliency In business development and sales jobs, there will be 100 losses before there is that one win. And just like sales professionals, and just like your kids, you’re always bouncing back from whatever the military throws your way. You take the bad with the good, and you find a way no matter how difficult something is, or even if it’s that duty station you absolutely didn’t want to go to, you will bloom where you are planted.

These skills have been outlined from a number of sources, by hundreds of companies, and by the best sales trainers in the world. Companies pay big bucks for people who have these skills, and yet, there are thousands of jobs around the country showing gaps in the number of people qualified to take them. As a military spouse, you have these skills. You’re highly trained and have experience from every duty station and everyday life. Now’s the time to put these skills to use in a way that can provide you opportunity, career success, and a sense of work stability when the world around you seems to be uncertain.