“I’m not a sales person”
“I don’t like cold calling”
“I don’t like pushing people to do things they don’t want to do”
“I’d rather be on the creative side than on the sales side”
Perhaps you’ve said these words to yourself, your friends, family or recruiter when asked about what type of jobs you’re interested in.
But maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to judge – sales can be a great challenge, a fun career, and a nice way to make a living. Most successful salespeople have fun at their job – and get paid well. Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid of sales positions:
- Meeting new people. It’s true – you get to meet new people. Every day. You get to learn about their personal and professional goals, and you get to help them find the best solution to the needs. Each day, you speak with and meet new people – and sure, not every customer will become a best friend, but I bet you’ll be surprised by how many friends you make through talking to new people every day.
- Fulfilling customers’ needs. Every customer has different needs and you get to be the expert to help them determine those needs. With each customer, you get to ask questions and determine how to make their life easier, their business better and their revenue higher. Once you show them what they are missing, you get to give them the solution. Talk about a fulfilling job!
- Growing a referral network. Sure, the beginning of a new sales job may be hard, but isn’t that the case for every job? At the start of a new sales gig, you may not have customers to give you referrals, but that’s a great clean slate to build a beautiful referral network. Once you gain each and every trusting customer, you get to ask them for their friends or colleagues who also have similar needs. Once customers trust you and recommend you to their peers, you get to stop selling, and get to start networking and helping people. Who doesn’t love that?
- Ability to control your own paycheck. Sales compensates you for your hard work in a very tangible way – money. Instead of getting overlooked by your marketing manager who gives your manager credit instead of you, sales is structured so that each person is rewarded and recognized for every aspect of their hard work. In essence, the harder you work, the more you get paid, and doesn’t that sound good to all us hard-working folks out there?
- Every day is different – role up your creative sleeves. Sure, sales may not be as artistic or digitally creative as a marketing role, but sales is definitely creative. A salesperson treats every customer as a new opportunity and thinks of new ways to make a deal work. Whether it’s a new discount, or an additional product, or setting specific terms, every deal is different and the salesperson must get creative to win the business.
Whether you are looking for a new sales position that is more creative, higher paying, gives back more, or is more people-facing. I challenge everyone to try sales.
It’s an excellent career path with longevity and options to go into any industry. Give it a shot! And let me know how it goes.
Stephanie Wood is a New Business Manager at Betts Recruiting and one of the more senior employees at Betts Recruiting. She is the point of contact at Betts for new companies looking to hire sales or marketing. Her role in the company is to give a new hiring manager an idea of the candidate market, help streamline a plan for hiring, and initiate the process with the recruiting team at Betts. If you are looking to utilize Betts Recruiting for your hiring needs, you can reach Stephanie at [email protected] or 415-318-7404.