A Career in Sales - What to Expect

Since it is my job to recruit sales professionals on a daily basis, I have a very firm grasp as to what a sales career consists of including:

The daily tasks of a business development professional, what it takes to be successful in sales, the misconceptions that young people have about sales, the industries you want to get into, which industries you want to avoid, base compensation for entry level candidates, expected earnings or OTE after sales commissions, future earnings if you succeed in business development, how to properly interview for a career in sales and much more.

Obviously, to cover all of these facets, it is going to take more than one article. Though, by the time we're through, you should have a firm understanding as to all the aspects which encompass a career in sales and you should have enough information as to make an educated guess as to whether a career in sales is for you.

Daily Tasks of a Sales Professional - this various by industry, though as a whole, it is the job of a sales representative to do one thing and one thing only: make the company money by bringing in business which would have otherwise not been available to the organization. Sales involves a lot of prospecting. This could mean targeted email blasts, phone calls, following up with old leads, bringing back lapsed clients and a lot more. Prospecting is the sales work which many find mundane (some like it, or they claim they do). Every profession has these types of responsibilities and prospecting is the work in the sales profession which is a necessary evil.

Targeting new clients is typically easier when you have a well-known name behind you. However, this is not a rule of thumb. There is also a seemingly inverse correlation between the size of the company you work for and the amount of outbound, cold prospecting which you have to do. More people are going to call into a well-known firm which allows you to take more incoming leads as opposed to having to cold-call for them.

Though, the smaller the company you work for, the more chance you have of making six figures two or three years out of school. If everybody is selling a lot at any large firm, the company is less likely to give out raises as this alludes to the fact that the product is not too difficult to sell, and therefore employees can quickly be replaced if they are not happy with the current compensation structure. If you prove to a smaller company that you can sell their product, you can quickly negotiate a large increase in your base salary. I've seen this done up to 45% in 3 months.

Though, to command this kind of money, you have to be top notch at prospecting. When you get a decision maker on the phone, you have to be lightening quick to engulf interest as you're going to get answering machines a lot. Similarly, you must be able to talk your way in to getting conversations with some very hard to reach people. I remember that during college, I was working as a software sales rep in New York City and used to be able to reach people like that not many people could. You have to be very resourceful when prospecting and, if you're successful at it, you're worth your weight in gold.

On a daily or weekly basis, you will also be updating and maintaining what is called a CRM system. CRM is an acronym for "customer relationship management." More or less, a CRM system is a database of current clients, prospective clients whom you're speaking with and a list of industry relevant clients to cold-call. I was lucky as I never had to work for somebody too long because I was very disorganized with these systems and didn't like them. However, companies have you maintain them as a form of risk management. If you were to ever leave the company, they would have all of their leads ready and waiting for the next sales employee.