Why Frontline Sales Have and Will Continue to be a Foundation for Long-term Career Success

Paul Ollinger is a writer, stand-up comedian, and host of the Reasonably Happy podcast.

Paul Ollinger is a writer, stand-up comedian, and host of the Reasonably Happy podcast (fka, Crazy Money). Prior to his pivot to the entertainment industry, Ollinger worked in a variety of sales roles including LAUNCH.com, Yahoo and Facebook (now Meta) where he was vice president of West Coast Sales and one of the first 250 employees. Ollinger earned his MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School.

Q. For years, recently minted MBA marketing hires for biopharma firms had to first take on a frontline sales position before moving into such HQ-based roles. For some, it was seen as an unnecessary, but required, steppingstone of mundane tactics before taking on a perceived more strategic role within the company. Given your experience working across several different companies, what advice would you give to 2025’s upcoming business school graduates?

A. Ollinger: First, people need to stop placing a scarlet letter on sales roles. A lot of people conflate “sales” with the archetypal “used car salesperson,” but there’s a big difference between scamming some guy on a car lot and providing complex solutions for your clients, and that’s what sales is – solving problems. Taking on sales positions early in my career positioned me to have a job today that I actually enjoy doing.

Second, strive to secure employment within a sector that is growing and a role in which you actually have an interest. While it seems simple, many business school students follow the lucrative tracks of consulting and finance without truly understanding what these jobs entail.

For example, unless things have changed dramatically, I would guess that Tuck grads still pursue these two verticals because the compensation is great.¹ (Note: Per Dartmouth’s recent MBA employment report, nearly 70% of Tuck’s Class of 2024 went into consulting/finance roles. The median starting compensation packages were over $200k.)

Still, while the pay might be terrific,² you have to envision what the job entails. Talk to young alums who are doing these jobs and figure out if the work sounds compelling. If a job is cranking out spreadsheets or PowerPoint slides for 14 hours per day, maybe it’s not for you.

When I graduated from Tuck 28 years ago, I had offers from a couple of consulting firms. The money was attractive given that I was $80k in debt—in 1997 dollars—and had maybe $2500 in my checking account. While I had grown up in a nice enough middle-class neighborhood, money was tight. A story that’s humorous in retrospect is from the first time I got a cavity filled. Right as I’m walking into see the dentist, my dad said, “Don’t get the Novocaine, it’s $20.” My dad was the greatest guy ever, but he was so lacking in material desires that sometimes he forgot that other people valued luxuries…like anesthesia.³

Point being, the consulting pay was very tempting to me. But I just wanted to feel excited about my job. And I had a gnawing feeling that I would be unhappy as a consultant. So, in spring of second year, I turned down those offers and started my job search over. It was funny, I actually spoke at our convocation as one of the few new graduates who hadn’t found a job yet. After my speech, I was approached by the then CEO of Procter & Gamble whose son was in my class. He said very nice things about my talk, then asked where I would be working next year.

“Still working on that,” I replied, deciding not to tell him that I had interviewed with his firm, but had not earned a job offer. A few weeks later, I got an offer from a start-up company in the digital media space, thus beginning a career that would take me to Yahoo and, eventually, Facebook where I was one of the first 250 employees.

I was one of maybe three or four of my classmates who went into the still nascent internet business, but it paid off immensely. When I graduated from Tuck, Mark Zuckerberg was 13. I had no way of knowing what the future held in store, but because I chose an industry that excited me, I worked hard and with passion. And when the social media firm came calling, I had the skills and network that could contribute a tiny amount to their early success. Because that job went so well, I now enjoy the financial independence that allows me to pursue a job in the creative world.

Q. Why are sales skills important?

A. Ollinger: Tuck, like a lot of the top business schools, emphasizes the value of communications for its students. But many of my classmates—especially the quant jock guys headed to Wall Street—considered comms a waste of time. But people forget that when you enter consulting and i-banking, the way you climb the ladder is to close more and more business. You don’t make managing director without proving your ability to bring in the revenue. You have to know how to sell.

For those MBA graduates starting their biopharma apprenticeships on the front line trying to convince doctors to prescribe prescription medicines, they have to be able to communicate effectively when meeting with busy doctors who likely have decades of scientific education. You have a very limited amount of time to gain this person’s confidence. It can be very stressful, so you have to understand their needs, open strong, and persuade them to your solution in a hurry. It’s not as intuitive as it sounds.

When I was at Facebook, I led a team that accounted for about 33% of the company’s revenue. The more you bring in, the larger your subsequent goals will be. You have to know how to negotiate with clients but also with internal stakeholders. Forecasting and quota management is an art, as I’ve joked with others.⁴

Also, while emerging technologies like ChatGPT can help in some ways, you have to be able to communicate on your own in whatever industry you choose. For example, if you cannot crisply convey, in a face-to-face meeting with a CFO, a reason for the consulting or banking engagement to be extended, you are not going to hit your sales target. So my call to action for your student readers is to invest time in those communication classes at your school and think hard before jumping into that first post-MBA role

Q: How does a Tuck MBA lead to a job as a stand-up comedian?

A. Ollinger: I went to business school because I wanted to make more money. By chance, I was asked to host a talent show in the second semester of my first year, and I made fun of my friends for 15 minutes. That was the night I was bit by the comedy bug. All of a sudden, comedy was what I wanted to do, but I had accumulated massive student debt, and I knew I had to pay it off. Through a combination of picking the right industry/function, hard work, and good fortune, I paid it off quickly, and am now able to work as a comedian full-time. Obviously, it took a long time, but it’s a good example of how the decisions you make now will have long-lasting repercussions.

Good luck to your readers as they pursue their career aspirations.

About the Author

Michael Wong is a part-time Lecturer for the Wharton Communication Program at the University of Pennsylvania. As an Emeritus Co-President and board member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association as well as a Contributing Writer for the MIT Sloan Career Development Office, Michael’s ideas have been shared in the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review.

References

1. https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/mba/career-services/employment-statistics

2. https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/mba/career-services/employment-statistics

3. https://www.aol.com/kid-dad-asked-skip-anesthetic-120401179.html

4. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sales-quota-stress-paul-ollinger/