If the title attracted you to read this, you will probably be an ambitious person. Sales people have a tenacity that is rare in any other job. In the sales industry you are faced with failure day in, day out but a good sales person continues to seek out opportunities that can be turned into profit for their employer. Some say that we are all in sales as we are selling to each other all the time.
If you enjoy what you sell it makes life a lot easier and more enjoyable, remember customers / clients can tell if you are genuinely enthusiastic about your product. This can be detected via your tone of voice, facial expression, body language – so try to find a sales job that sparks your interest. Typically you will either be office based or field based, this means spending most of your time visiting prospect clients, doing presentations and asking for the business. It takes a strong character to do field sales as you have to differentiate yourself, to pitch against your competitors, and win.
Every sales person works to targets, and normally has the opportunity to earn commission based on sales generated. If you are money orientated you will spend more time pursuing the lucrative leads to ensure it’s a high financial return. Time management is important as you need to prioritise your sales and administration time, you should never see a top sales earner doing administration in peak sales time. Most people will have seen films where at 10am everyone on the sales floor is on the phone, this actually does happen. The key is to know when to approach your prospective clients, do your research prior to the call, so you have something to talk about.
Based on research from the recruitment industry in 2009 one of the highest complaints about cold calls is when the call doesn’t have purpose. Our advice is to make it very clear when you speak to your prospect client what the reason for the call is, and get to the point as quickly as possible. Always follow-up with written confirmation, these days it is mostly email communication as opposed to written letters. So, send an email confirming that you have spoken, outline the call and detail when you have agreed to call back.
Make sure you do follow-up, a good sales person should be consistent as well as tenacious. It sounds obvious but do not lie to the client, if you don’t know the answer to a question – say so, but get back to them within an agreed time with the correct information. This shows you are sincere and true to your word.
When you work in the sales industry you should keep a note of your success over the years. Prospective employers like to see evidence at interview and having a file with achievements gives you added confidence which only makes you appear more credible.
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