How to Land Your 1st Sales Management Job - 3 Tips

Many business development professionals have a difficult time transitioning to a sales management role for an abundance of reasons ranging from waiting for too long for a promotion at their current position to not growing themselves enough for a company to give them a shot at running a sales team.

However, if you do aspire to transition into sales management, here are 3 tips as to how to do so:

1. It's the resume and the message you get across that counts the most.

State clearly and candidly why you are going for a sales management role and why you deserve a shot at the job. If you want to get, at a minimum an interview for your first sales management job, you must state why in your CV.

This is best written on the top of the resume and displayed in a format of a resume objective. A good example of being candid and creative is:

"A proven leader and sales professional who has consistently met quota and who has always created a positive, growth oriented atmosphere within the companies that they have worked in."

Also, the first few points on your latest job should display leadership and management points (see point #2), again telling the resume reader your point of sending them the resume and why you deserve a second look for the position.

Another factor to mention and focus on is industry experience. Upon hiring a new sales manager, the major of the recruiting companies that engage our firm want strict industry experience in the sales executives whom they hire.

Therefore, if you want to transition into management, it is imperative that you know your industry better than those who already have the sales management jobs to show on their resume.

Simple, continued learning should help the job seeker out in this area.

2. Think about your management experience; you probably have some already:

Many of the job candidates whom our recruiting firm comes across do not realize it, but they already have some form of management and leadership experience.

Although this may not be formal management, as a potential sales management job applicant, think to yourself the management and employee growth you have done and make sure to express that during the interview.

3. Have a Plan:

Upon going into the interview, have a plan as to how you plan to grow the sales force and, if pertinent how you plan to sell yourself:

By not having any sales management experience, you are obviously at a disadvantage (the majority of the time). Therefore, you must convince the interviewer that you are more apt and a more promising employee than the other sales management applicants going for the job.

One of the best ways to do so is to come to the interview with a plan as to how to grow the business as well as, more specifically the sales team. Try to be careful when making assumptions, but remember that taking risks is the best and only way to get to the next level in business development.

At the day's close, experience in any field only matters if you take accountability and learn from your mistakes. Fortunately for you, not many professionals due this, thus being a great way to exploit the more seasoned competition going for the same sales management job.