Anna Pohl

General Manager Sales & Client Experience Institute of Managers and Leaders

What skills do you think are valuable for people wanting a career in Sales?

Take us back to the beginning of your career, how did it all start?

My career started before it even began! Before I was old enough to be employed, I did a lot of volunteer work with my parents who were both executives in social welfare organisations in WA. When I was 14, I worked with my mum on a project for a large mining company, focussed on building cultural capability in their work environment. I would say it was my first real experience ‘working’ and feel privileged to have had such a meaningful entrance to the workforce! My first sales role was at 16, working in for a large home improvement company. I worked in various roles in education and the public sector and then landed a Director level role in my early 20’s at the University in Darwin. Looking back now, I think “what on earth were they thinking?”, but, as a team, we achieved amazing things together in that program, and really, it was important in forming the direction of my career. The best part of the role was mentoring and coaching the early years educators and getting my first real dive into people development!

If I think about an intentional career path, being honest, I don’t think there was one. I’ve always been pulled towards education and developing people. In my current role, “sales” is just the mechanism to do that; develop people and create better managers and leaders for a better society. My current role is the General Manager of Sales and Client Experience at the Institute of Managers and Leaders – I manage two teams and the end-to-end sales, delivery, and client experience functions. Our organisation is a training and membership business, and we specialise in leadership development. We design programs that result in real behavioural change, particularly for leaders.

What are some challenges you faced in your career?

Perhaps I’m fortunate to feel as though gender wasn’t a major barrier for me in the early years of my career, in fact, the major challenge I faced was my age. I moved into relatively senior roles at a fairly young age, like a recruitment position at the age of 20. At this point, I was interviewing experienced teachers and realised I had to establish credibility quickly. As a 20-year-old, that was difficult. I’m grateful to have been given the opportunities that I’ve had, and I can say, this challenge really helped me hone my phone manner – I realised early on that I sounded older than I looked and took advantage of as many phone interviews as possible!

Leadership is a skill that is not just important for those that manage staff. Great leadership has a radiating impact on all those around you, and as we know, 2 out of 5 people leave jobs because of a bad manager, so the impact of bad leadership is obvious! Speaking about sales skills specifically, in our industry, you cannot put a price on a good healthy dose of curiosity and, of course, putting the client and their needs at the centre. It’s not about pushing products; it’s about understanding and co-creating with your clients. This drives you to develop a strong consultative process focussed on the outcomes, not the product you have to sell.

What do you do to balance your work and personal life?

When I came back from maternity leave in January, I hit the ground running and almost forgot about a personal mantra that I’d developed over many years – that the hours you work do not define your value, your outcomes do. I was working so hard that it took a fairly serious event to remind myself of this and, ultimately how important mindfulness and wellbeing are to my success at work, and a generally happy and healthy life.

In that spirit, even if it’s five minutes I try and start everyday with some kind of mindfulness exercise. Sometimes its yoga related, sometimes it’s a walk, sometimes it’s just doing some guided breathing. At the end of the day, I try to do some kind of circuit breaker activity to signal the end of the business day, that really helps to create boundaries from work and helps me be more present in my home life, particularly with my 1-year young daughter.