Sales employment is a highly professional career . . . and one of the highest paying fields in any industry. Salesmen, particularly those who travel in their employment, make more money than their contemporaries in other professions within the same company. The reason for this is that without a sale, nothing happens within a company. It takes a sales call before Engineering can design or adapt a product to meet a need. It takes a sale before production can turn on the assembly line. It takes a sale before Accounting can mail an invoice. It takes a sale before Accounts Receivable can receive and bank the payment for the invoice for that sale.
Salesmen are not born, they are developed. There are no particular skills sets required for becoming a good salesman; all the skills for salesmanship are acquired, not innate. The primary function of a salesman is to find a prospective customer, identify their needs, find and answer to their needs, present the program/product/service that meets those needs, ask for the order and follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. The sales employment responsibilities do not end with obtaining the order. That is only the beginning of the relationship with the customer. A professional salesman follows up on the order after it is placed with his employer and advises the customer of when it will ship or be installed. After the product is received, the salesman will visit the customer to assist in any training or familiarization that may be required to fully utilize the product sold. He will also make contact with the people responsible for servicing and maintaining the product, to provide them with help-line information or other sources of data they may need. In short, the sales employment professional is the primary liaison between his company and the customer. In establishing a strong relationship with the customer the salesman will be aware of any new needs or upgrades to existing equipment or services he has provided the customer.
Since at last count, there was only one University in the USA offering training and a degree in Salesmanship, the process of becoming a salesman may follow this pathway:
• Obtain an entry-level position in Customer Service, Order Entry or Marketing Support.
• Learn as much as possible about the company, products and customer profile.
• Become acquainted with the salesmen and query them about their duties.
• Become acquainted with the sales manager and express interest in becoming a salesman.
• Move into the sales department as a sales support person, learning as much as possible about the salesman’s duties, responsibilities and territory management requirements.
• Take any professional sales courses that may be available, learning about territory management, sales preparation, sales presentations, closing the sale, after-sales-service.
• Petition the sales manager for any sales openings that occur.
Becoming a salesman is not rocket science, but becoming a good salesman requires attitude, study, application and execution.
Sales Employment can be in a specialized product, market or customer type; pharmaceutical products, highly engineered products, custom fabrication, financial or other specialized services. Specialized salesmen may call on doctors, architects, engineers, plant maintenance engineers. They may also get involved in preliminary design and market research and evaluations. Many of these specialized sales employment positions require a continuing education, either on-the-job, in company sponsored classes or seminars, or in a formal institute.
Compensation in the sales employment field will vary, depending upon the industry and they type of product, the basic cost and the length of the sales cycle. A salesman can expect to start out with a moderate base salary and a commission based upon performance. As the salesman develops his customer base, the commission becomes the greater part of his income. In a field with a short-sales-cycle, the base will probably be lower and the commission higher. In long sales cycle products, the base will be higher because it will be longer before the commission becomes a viable part of his income. In this latter case, the initial salary may temporary, providing a livable income during the territory development stages, then be adjusted after commissions begin to flow. Compensation, salary plus commissions, will range from:
• Beginning salesman – $50,000 – 65,000 per year
• Intermediate Salesman – $60,000 – $85,000 per year
• Master Salesman – $100,000 per year and up
Part of any salesman’s package will be a company car or car allowance, expense reimbursement, cell phone, laptop computer and other sales aids. They will also receive the same benefit package of insurance, retirement, 401k and stock options as the other key employees.
Sales employment is an almost inflation-proof field of endeavor. When the economy is depressed, there is an increased need for sales, so no forward thinking CEO will cut his sales department when business is down, instead they will offer incentives for new business. A check with the employment ads in any major newspaper, or an online employment site, will show that there are more sales positions offered than for any other type of profession. Sales approaches will vary from market to market, or country to country, but the function of sales is almost always based upon the need for someone to locate customers, identify their needs and answer them, sell the products and service the customer. The depth of the sales employment professional’s involvement in other aspects of the overall marketing, planning, design and production of their product line will be different in Europe as opposed to the Western Hemisphere or the Far East, due to societal differences in the cultures, but the basics remain the same.
Professional recruiters are often the source of the better sales employment openings. Most of these “headhunters” specialize in specific industries or professions. Many sales and sales management positions may be found on:
Recruiters Online Network (dot com) – An association of independent recruiters who share their job assignments from clients, giving national coverage to seekers.
Metal Jobs (dot net) – Specializing in the metals industry; raw material, processed metals, fabricated metals.
Brilliant People (dot com) – A USA national organization with multiple offices. Focus is on sales professionals.
Seeking a career in professional sales may be the best decision a young person can make. The field is rewarding, both in self satisfaction and monetarily. Sales employment may be the move towards prosperity for any person of high initiative and a strong work ethic.
