Advance your career by putting yourself out of a job.

Early in my sales career, I had the opportunity to help build new sales channels within a larger organization. Among those sales channels was a national, high profile sales team targeting mid market-sized businesses.

I was responsible for getting on the phone and figuring out how to get senior sales directors in front of CEOs to ask for $10,000 - $100,000 deals. Within weeks, the senior director I was supporting had a new opportunity every day.

There was just one problem.

I walked into my boss’s office at the time, the Vice President of Sales, with a report he hadn’t asked for and laid out the problem:

This may be the dumbest thing I’ve done for my career, but I can train someone to do what I’m doing right for half the cost.

I then handed him the report that outlined the entire process I’d created and was currently executing to get the results I was getting.

The report included how I find prospects, research them, and initiate contact. It included scripts, answers to the most common questions I was receiving, and step-by-step instructions on how to get all the necessary information to necessary stakeholders. It even included a template for the research report I was providing senior directors before their visit.

In different circumstances, the document could have put me out of a job.

My VP looked through the document and came to the same conclusion I did. We could, in fact, get someone to execute this process for about half of what I was being paid to do.

He then looked at me and said:

Not many people do this. This is what you call taking ownership. Write a job description and start looking for someone to hire. They’ll report to you.

Just like that, I was promoted to management.

We went on to build that team into a national, multimillion dollar sales channel. I went on to be promoted multiple times thereafter, gain incredible experience building new businesses, leading teams, and, eventually, managing a national P&L with multiple sales channels, on-and-offline marketing strategies, a contact center, and an operations team.

And it all started by creating, and sharing, a sales process that could have put me out of a job.

Disclaimer: This strategy will not work if you work for shitty leadership.