After graduating from Virginia state’s University of Richmond in 2002, George Papalexandratos set foot in the world of sales for the very first time. With a background in finance and marketing, he began his career as an entry-level sales representative, and with the grit, determination, and the right mentorship along the way, he has become a successful business owner who inspires others to take risks and follow their dreams, no matter what challenges come their way.
“When I started in sales, I was seeking an opportunity to learn hard and soft skills, because right out of college, I didn’t really know where I was going,” he says. “I was not very good at sales straight away, but I got pretty competitive and very interested in learning what makes people click,” he continues.
Papalexandratos shares that his first time on the job didn’t quite go as smoothly as planned. He was overwhelmed with the sales pitch he memorized, and the customer he was selling to was apprehensive and resistant. He eventually lost the sale and began questioning whether this path was the right one for him. Along his journey, there were many moments when he felt like giving up and starting over, but something deep inside him told him to keep going.
“I was fortunate that I had a really good trainer who kept on pointing out all the things that I did well,” he says. “While in my mind I was tanking and not doing anything right, she was excited to see me try and instilled in me that I was progressing.”
With time, he became a talented salesperson, and having a mentor who was invested in his personal success really changed Papalexandratos’ perspective on the industry. Prior to this point, he felt like you had to be a certain type of person to do well in sales, but that simply wasn’t the case. With the right resources, passion, and dedication, Papalexandratos learned that anything was possible, and it inspired him to help others see the same.
“When I first learned how to make sales, I was very excited because I learned a skill that I could actually capitalize on and was passionate about doing well, but when I started helping others and teaching them how to close sales as well, that’s what really got me excited and fulfilled in a way that sales alone couldn’t,” he says.
Fast forward to today, Papalexandratos is the President and CEO of Ethos Consulting Group Incorporated. It is a direct sales company that blends sales, training, and talent management all under one roof. Ethos Consulting Group is contracted by Cydcor, an award-winning business relied on by Fortune 500 and emerging companies across America to achieve their customer acquisition, retention, and business growth goals. Through his role with the company, Papalexandratos is a mentor known for his passion for helping entry-level salespeople turn into successful leaders.
When asked what training with Ethos Consulting Group looks like, he says it’s a lot more than just teaching the Xs and Os. “There’s a lot of empathy and support when training,” he says. “We tell people that this is going to be challenging and they’re going to fail, but also that we’re not afraid and we’re not going to hide away from it,” he says.
“I personally believe that you go through failure to reach success. So everything that you’ve built adds up, and when you look back at it, you’ll see that it forced you to step outside of your comfort zone, think through complex problems, find solutions and see the value in each lesson,” he shares.
Papalexandratos teaches his sales teams that when it comes to failure, you should be excited because it shows that you’re learning. “Most of the time you fail because you’re doing something that you’re uncomfortable doing, but that’s where all the growth is. So when someone fails, they’ve also learned from it and they become a better person,” he says.
When you go through these lessons, he says that you might not appreciate it at the time, but when you look back you’ll realize that all those things you went through, all the no’s and all the yes’s, slowly but surely made you into a better human being.
Papalexandratos’ story reminds us that if you work hard and are passionate about what you do, it will inevitably pay off. He started off as an entry-level sales representative over a decade ago, but his passion and determination got him to where he is today.
Papalexandratos has been running Ethos Consulting Group for over 17 years and shares that its success is due to the fact that they always go back to its mission of building people’s confidence by teaching them the right skills and the right mindset.
“After all of these years, we haven’t lost our core values, we are all about building up our people,” he concludes. To learn more about Cydcor and its inspiring people like George Papalexandratos, visit their website today.
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