Career Blueprint

Retail Manager→B2B Sales Representative

⏱ 12 months•4 years experience•5 current skills

📍Phase 1

Learn the Basics

3 months

Skills to Develop

B2B vs B2C sales — understanding business buyersCRM software basics (HubSpot free version)Cold outreach — emails and calls that get responsesDiscovery calls — asking the right questions to understand needsSales pipeline stages from first contact to closed deal

Resources

🎓 HubSpot Academy — Inbound Sales Certification (free)
📚 SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
🔨 Set up a free HubSpot CRM and practice logging contacts
👥 Join Sales Hacker community online

🏁 Milestone

Complete the HubSpot certification and book your first 5 discovery calls with real businesses

📍Phase 2

Build Real Experience

5 months

Skills to Develop

Building and managing a sales pipelineHandling objections — turning 'no' into 'tell me more'Writing proposals and quotes for business clientsNegotiation techniques for larger dealsUsing data to track your sales performance

Resources

🔨 Close your first 3 B2B deals from scratch
📚 The Challenger Sale by Dixon & Adamson
🎓 Salesforce Trailhead — Sales Representative path (free)
🔨 Build a personal sales tracker spreadsheet with conversion rates

🏁 Milestone

Hit or exceed your sales target for 2 consecutive months with a growing pipeline

📍Phase 3

Become the Expert

4 months

Skills to Develop

Account management — growing existing client relationshipsTerritory planning and strategic prospectingSales presentations to groups of decision-makersCoaching and mentoring new sales repsUnderstanding your industry deeply enough to be a trusted advisor

Resources

📚 Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross
👥 Find a sales mentor through Pavilion or Revenue Collective
🔨 Create a sales playbook documenting your winning process
👥 Mentor a junior sales rep through their first quarter

🏁 Milestone

You're consistently in the top 25% of sales performers and newer reps ask you for advice

🎯

Ready to prove it?

Take a hyper-realistic mock interview tailored to this exact roadmap. Get a brutally honest STAR-method evaluation and a custom readiness score — the kind of feedback a hiring manager thinks but never says.