If you work as an outside, commissioned salesperson, think about what your employer does:

Your employer pays for:

• virtually 100% of your training
• virtually 100% of your marketing
• your gas, your cell phone, your prospect and client lunches and coffee meetings

Your employer is investing hundreds of dollars per month in your career. Yet they:

• knowingly allow you to waste time
• knowingly allow you to blow off work
• knowingly allow you to go home early
• knowingly allow you to come in late
• knowingly allow you to stand around and complain and moan with the other salespeople in the office
• knowingly allow you to pad your call reports
• are knowingly allowing you to perform at a level far below your potential

Why would any employer pay for all of your training and marketing and then allow you to waste that investment? Do you really want to work for someone who cares so little about the money they are investing in you-and ultimately so little about your future? Do you really want to work for someone who says they want you to succeed, but then knowingly allows you to do those things that lead to failure?

What kind of employer is that?

That, however, is the employer for which the majority of salespeople work.

And if you work for that employer, unfortunately, have no one to blame except yourself. For despite what your W2 says, you are your employer. As a commissioned salesperson, you don't work for anyone other than yourself. You are your own mini company with a single client company that you sell for today. You are leasing yourself, your knowledge, and your skills to your client company. And if you are establishing strong relationships with your prospects and clients, you're also leasing them to your client.

When you revoke your lease to the company you currently sell for and take on a new client, you'll take all of your training, all of your skills, all of your abilities with you. They don't stay with your current client. And if you've done a good job of marketing yourself to your prospects and clients, you'll take them with you also.

One hundred percent of the time, money and energy you invest in your sales business is invested in you for your benefit, not the company for which you are currently selling. No matter your product or service--autos, real estate, financial services, consulting, telecommunications solutions, or anything else, you are your boss, your employer. And as such, you must hold yourself accountable for your actions and the dollars you invest in you-your company.

As an employer, what kind of employer are you? Do you demand the best from your employee? Or, do you allow yourself to just slide through the motions of selling? Are you seeking to get the most from the time and money you invest in your company or are you satisfied to just get by?

As an employee, are you happy with your employer? Do think your employer demands enough from you? Does your employer demand you work to your full potential?

Just because you receive a paycheck and a W2 doesn't mean that you aren't self-employed. In reality, you sign your own paycheck. The company you are leasing yourself to simply verifies your company's earnings and then signs those earnings over to you.

Don't be fooled into believing that you work for IBM, or UBS, or Century 21, or any other "employer" other than yourself. You are your own CEO, and like any other CEO, you must demand the best from your employee. And as an employee, if your company isn't capable or willing to hold you accountable, maybe you need to fire your employer.