Sales: Is a Career in Sales the Right Move for You? by Tim Bush

Just as every great salesperson should start a conversation with a question, I am going to begin by giving you a quiz. Q. Which of these statements is incorrect?       a. You need to be fit to run a marathon        b. Learning a second language takes dedication       c. Only people with the ‘gift of the gab’ make great salespeople As the vast majority of you probably guessed, the answer is C. An obvious choice considering the subject of this article, although maybe also a surprising answer to those of you who consider salespeople to more closely resemble the film character ‘Jerry Maguire’. What does all this mean? Mostly that there are thousands of people who could be successful salespeople and don’t even know it. Success in sales isn’t exclusively for ‘wheeler dealer’ type personalities, but is more likely to be achieved by smart professional people with a good ear for listening. You often find that people with the least impetuous and most reserved personalities are the most successful. Colleagues who keep their partners awake at night shouting out ‘buy, buy, sell, and sell’ in their sleep seem to fall short. While there is no denying that you need to be personable to make it in sales, people who take the time to listen and fully understand their clients problems do well in this profession. During a sales call, the client should do most of the talking. The client doesn’t want to hear about how great the red ‘must have’ product you are trying to sell is when he actually wants a green ‘must have’ product. How are you going to find this out unless you ask questions and let the client speak? In addition to being a skilled listener, you should be able to accept rejection and have the tenacity to proactively generate new business with little or no motivation from others. It can be quite challenging to motivate yourself to make 50 cold calls before lunchtime while everyone around you is doing something more enjoyable. If you are still not sure that you have the right personality to make it in sales, don’t worry; help is available if you know where to look. Many career websites offer access to free online personality tests that help gauge your suitability to a particular career. Completing one or more of these tests before you start applying for jobs will be a worthwhile investment of your time. Monster will be launching a variety of personality and psychometric tests soon - look out for them! Contacting people involved in sales and discussing the pros and cons of this particular field is also very beneficial. They will be able to tell you what the job is typically like on a day-to-day basis. You may even impress them enough for them to recommend you for a job in their company. So, you are interested in a career in sales. What next? You now need to start considering how to take your first step into the profession. While finding a job in sales is easier then becoming a copywriter for a top advertising agency, I strongly advocate not jumping into the first opportunity that comes along. It is important to carefully research organisations that are going to give you the strong foundation you need to succeed in the future. William Lamb wouldn’t have designed the Empire State Building without strong foundations. Unless you want your career to topple in a couple of years, you should approach your career in the same way. Research and contact firms that offer comprehensive training programmes that will give you the foundation you need. If you are a good listener and enjoy the challenge of building new and productive relationships, then you may well find that taking a job in sales is the right move for you. You may even surprise yourself and discover that a move into sales gives you much more than you bargained for: A career!

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