Sales career opportunities are becoming increasingly appealing for graduates as the industry sheds its Dell Boy image and flaunts attractive challenges and benefits. With the right company graduates can expect a competitive starting salary, commission, a company car, mobile and laptop all while dressed in a sharp suit, developing business savviness and gaining valuable skills.
If you’re wondering whether sales is the career path for you then let us help you decide with our list of everything you need to know about a career in sales.
1. A Challenge Every Day
If you like a good challenge then sales might just be for you. To be successful, you need to get clients/customers to choose you over your competitors, win new accounts and profitable orders. A career path in sales is about getting results and you can always be challenging yourself to get better results. With new challenges and a changing environment, you’re unlikely to get bored and most sales professionals really enjoy the challenge that each day brings.
2. Sales Gives you Great Skills
Sales requires great time management skills, people skills, communication skills, productivity and business knowledge. If you’re new to the industry you will build these valuable skills over time developing into a real sales professional.
3. Freedom and Flexibility
An external sales professional isn’t stuck behind a desk all week but can instead enjoy the freedom of getting out on the road. You also have the flexibility and responsibility of scheduling your day and managing your workload.
1. Training and Development Opportunities
There are loads of great sales opportunities out there that can kick start you on a successful and prosperous career path. However, there are also some pretty poor sales jobs that offer little training or development. It’s important to research and find out as much as you can about the sales roles that you are interested in. For a graduate, being able to receive proper training and professional development opportunities early on in your sales career is key.
2. Commission
Many sales professionals enjoy being able to boost their salaries with performance related bonuses and commission. It is advisable, however, to stay away from commission-only jobs as you want a company to actually invest in you. When considering a sales role, find out as much as possible about the bonus structures and target expectations so that you can judge whether they are realistic. If possible, it is also worth speaking to someone already in the job as this way you can know exactly what to expect.
3. Bad Experiences
Sometimes people do take a sales role with a company that just doesn’t work for them at all. But if you know that you like what sales can offer as a career path, try not to let one bad experience put you off the whole industry. There are tons of really great sales opportunities out there!
When considering your career options, you should always consider your strengths and what you enjoy. If you’re ambitious, money-motivated and like a challenge then sales is definitely a career path to consider.
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