Sales
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A Sales professional is someone who sells products or services to potential customers. They aim to solve potential customer’s challenges through the product(s)/service(s) they sell. Great sales professionals will have strong selling and communication skills. 1https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/characteristics-true-sales-professionals
What Do These Professionals Do?
A salesperson finds prospective customers for their company’s products and services through online research, phone/digital outreach. They work with these prospects to identify their challenges and needs, and ultimately help them find a solution. The goal is to build a connection with the prospective customer then sell them the products or services that solve their problems.
Below are some responsibilities of their in order of occurence:
- Research: The salesperson learns more about the lead or prospect (potential customer/client).
- Prospect and outreach: They reach out to the prospect via email, phone, social media, etc.
- Build trust: Through their conversations, the sales person builds trust with the prospect and asks questions about their personal goals and challenges.
- Find a solution: The professional comes up with a custom solution to address the prospect’s needs.
- Close the deal: If the prospect is interested in the solution, they’ll purchase the product or service. 2https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/characteristics-true-sales-professionals?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqt4iDxNPqAhVCGLkGHRMsBWMQ9QF6BAgMEAI
Typical Sales Hierarchy:
While this hierarchy varies from company to company, a typical progression looks as follows:
What types of Jobs are out there?
You can find a sales job in any industry. Where there is a product or service that needs to be sold, there will be a need for a sales professional. However, sometimes the responsibility of sales falls under a different title (for example, Business Development).
What is the difference between Sales and Marketing?
While Marketing and Sales have many similarities and often work closely together, the difference is that marketing strategies are used to attract a customer who has zero prior knowledge of your business, whereas sales is usually the process of converting that potential customer into an actual customer.
Marketing encompasses the strategies you use to reach your target audience and generate interest in your business. It should have measurable aspects so that you can determine which marketing choices give the best results. Depending on the company, some marketing strategies are:
- Print, TV, or digital advertising
- Public Relations (PR)
- Social Media
- Relationship Marketing
- Brand Marketing
- Viral Marketing
- Cold Calling or Emailing
Sales is the process of actually convincing someone to buy your service/product. It often involves some level of interaction that convinces a potential customer (aka a lead) to become an actual customer. Most of the time, these leads have been driven to you by prior marketing efforts. Some sales strategies include:
- One-on-one meetings
- Cold calls or warm calls
- Cold emails
- Networking
- Promotional events or trade fairs
- Retail interaction
- Direct sales3https://www.thebalancesmb.com/marketing-vs-sales-what-is-the-difference-2294827
What types of skills are necessary to be a successful Sales Professional?
- A good understanding for the product/service you are selling
- Enthusiastic and excited about the product/service you are selling
- Self-motivated and a competitive, results-driven attitude
- The ability to work well under pressure
- Ability to deal with failed sales pitches
- Confident presentation skills
- Professionalism
- Organized
- Attention to detail
- Well-spoken, persuasive and influential verbal communication skills
- Team player
- Business Acumen
- Up-to-date on the latest trends/news in your product’s/service’s industry4https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/it-sales-professional
What are some challenges of working in Sales?
- Very results oriented business because your value to the company can be closely tracked by your sales numbers (if you are selling a product/service)
- A lot of responsibility, which can be good and bad
- Can be long hours if your compensation is directly tied to how much you sell
- Lack of stability
What are some benefits of working in Sales?
- Results-oriented – for people who want to take ownership of their work, sales allows you to do that because the more you sell the more value you bring to the company.
- Money – If you perform well, you will be fairly and generously compensated
- Freedom – While there are sales strategies and company procedures to follow, sales professionals usually have freedom to create sales pitches that work best for them
- Job opportunities – There will always be a need for sales people. Effective Sales is necessary to grow any business
- Network – As a sales person you interact with many people including clients/customers and other teams within the company. In doing so, you can build many strong relationships.
Typical Salary?
Varies a lot, depending on seniority, company, industry, experience, etc. According to glassdoor,
The national average salary for a Sales Professional is $44,738 in United States. But this can range anywhere from $35k-$100k+.
Should I go into Sales?
If you are a good talker, enjoy working closely with people and building relationships, then you should consider a career in sales. The responsibilities of a Sales professional can vary depending where you work. Sometimes you are the client-facing representatives for the company, sometimes you are actively selling products/services to potential customers, sometimes you do both. But either way being able to build a relationship and help your company ultimately make more money is an incredibly valuable skill to have.
Related Careers:
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