Why Switch to a Sales Job?

“Selling is really about having conversations with people and helping improve their company or their life. If you look at it like that, selling is a very admirable thing to do."

–Lori Richardson

As of May 2020, there were an estimated more than 4.18 million sales representatives employed in the United States.

Do you want to become a salesman?

Do you think you can persuade and influence people?

Do you want to switch your career to sales?

Then, THIS IS FOR YOU.

‍You see what we did there? ;) We just sold an idea to you!!

So what exactly is sales?

Sales can be defined simply as facilitating the process of exchange of goods and services in exchange for money. This is a mere activity that leads to a transactional benefit for the parties involved.

Why switch to a sales job?

Sales jobs are one of the top rewarding career paths across the globe. It helps you climb up the ladder a little faster compared to other jobs!

But wait, we have a lot more concrete reasons why everyone must switch to a sales job :

Money

You are almost certain to make more money in sales jobs than in other jobs. Businesses must make sales to thrive and survive. These companies reward successful sales people, to ensure that the sales representative is constantly rewarded for his/her efforts based on merit and abilities. This is often one of the main reasons a sales job is chosen initially. You earn more, faster than other positions as you move high up the ladder. For example, you move from a sales executive job or sales representative job to a sales and marketing manager job and then to a sales consultant job. This way, your salary/remuneration also keeps increasing.

Route into Senior Management

Most CEOs have started their career either as a salesman or have spent some time in the domain. There is no better person than a salesman to know the most about a company. This makes you a highly preferred candidate to fill in higher positions in the organization. No matter what job you are given, you always spend a lot of your time selling: selling ideas to your boss, your teammates, your juniors, your stakeholders and your customers. “To have spent some time in sales trains and prepared you to communicate effectively, and to ‘win friends and influence people’ “(Dale Carnegie).

This could ideally be your growth chart, depending upon the organization you work for:
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• Sales Representative Job / Sales Executive Jobs
• Sales and Marketing Managerial Jobs
• Sales Consultant Jobs
• And eventually a board member of the organization.

Progress Control

With a sales job, you get to control your own time. You fix your own appointments, run your own day the way you think it may fit. As long as you’re meeting the results your boss sets for you, you can do what you want to an extent. You decide how you want to approach your leads, how to calculate conversions and projections and thus you can control your progress.

Job Security

Sales are one of the most important and fundamental components of every business. About 5% of the total population of the US is into sales. If you’re a good seller with a proven track record for bringing in business and building relationships, you have a wonderful future in the sales job and it enables you to have an edge over others.

‍Skill Development

‍The opportunities to constantly learn, grow, and develop one’s skills are abundant in sales jobs. Sales job requires constant up-skilling and sharpening existing skills as well. Salespeople learn different soft skills that are useful and transferable to any other profession that ensure that sales is one of the most versatile careers you can choose.

Sales involve highly in-demand soft skills such as‍
‍

• Interpersonal communication
• Persuasion
• Active listening
• Tact
• Creativity
• Adaptability
• Trustworthiness
• Work ethic
• Networking

Sales is one of the most social and buzzing professions you can choose, making it a wonderful field for growing your professional network exponentially. A sales job can help you learn best practices for networking in various fields, handling business relationships and developing an excellent reputation for both you and your organisation. Salespeople often have the quality and ability to generate business leads in any situation, enabling them to make lasting connections with different people. People who love working with others can build long lasting personal and community relationships through their sales job.

How to switch to a sales job?

• Find which field you are interested in
• Know in-depth about what, why, and how you are selling a product/service
• Make yourself a mock pitch
• Build your presentation skills
• Attend as many interviews as possible
• Read books and case studies about successful salespeople
• Set and measure your goals and have a progress tracker

What are the skills required for sales?

• Persuasion
• Creative Problem Solving
• Presentation Skills
• Confidence
• Active listening
• Emotional Intelligence
• Empathy

Types of sales job

To help you choose a sales job more easily, we’ve put together a list of 6 common types of sales jobs:
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1. Sales Development Executive : As a Sales Development Executive, your job role will be to develop the marketbase and expand the customer base. The sales development executive’s main goal is to generate leads, tap into a new potential market/customer segment, and connect these customers with the right salesperson.
2. Inside sales job representative: Inside sales jobs are the ones where the sales is handled remotely. The job of the Inside Sales Representatives is to sell products/services to customers either inside a retail outlet or in an official set up.
3. Outside sales job representative: The outside sales representatives are the ones who work in physically active areas of their companies. They are often on the move as they set up meetings with the clients, talking to potential customers and more! Imagine to be Chris Gardner, from In Pursuit of Happyness.
4. B2B or B2C sales executive: As the name suggests, these sales executives work on the niche categories of business to business or business to customers.
5. Account management : This is a post-sales job that focuses on the client retention and ensuring their needs are met. They understand what the client wants and come up with strategies.
6. Account Executive : This sales job focuses on day-to-day client activities that one must undertake to maintain the on-going client relationship.
7. Sales and Marketing Jobs : Not just sales, but one can eventually venture into core marketing jobs for strategic decisions.
8. Sales Assistant Jobs: Sales assistant jobs are meant to assist the customers in making the right purchasing decisions. Imagine someone helping you in a supermarket with their suggestions on what you must buy according to your needs.
9. Sales Executive Jobs: The sales executive jobs typically require selling of products by maintaining contacts and initiating relationships with prospective clients/customers; recommending solutions.They provide constant support, information, and guidance; researching and giving newer recommendations about new products of the organisation that might be of help to the customer.
10. Sales Consultant Jobs: A sales consultant job involves finding potential customers who would be willing to try/ purchase their company's products. A sales consultant often has to fix meetings with clients, and usually will be assigned a certain area to which they will travel.
11. Sales Manager Jobs: Sales manager jobs involve recruiting, hiring, and training new members who are sales executives/ sales reps. Sales managers handle and direct an organizations' sales teams. They define and set sales goals, analyze sales data, and implement learning, training and development sessions for organizations' sales representatives.

In sales, you become what you wish to be! There is plenty of room to experiment and understand which sales job suits you the best and why. You can always expect a new challenge everyday that makes you creative, smart and most importantly resilient.

And every aspect of sales can almost be taught. At Gritly, we make the learnings more outcome focussed and not just theory focussed, ensuring that you land up in your dream sales job.

What are you waiting for? Make the switch and upskill yourself with www.gritly.us