8 Reasons Why Sales Is A Great Career
by Ming
A career in sales can provide you with exciting and lucrative opportunities in both your personal and professional life. If you are entrepreneurial, energetic, innovative, people person, confident and highly driven, you have the potential to become top earners as salespeople.
A career in sales is extremely satisfying. In your sales career, you will go through an interesting journey of ups and downs. A sales career provides you with extensive exposure which opens up opportunities, giving you many options in your career journey. For example, many successful leaders and CEOs were once salespeople, salespeople managing global business operations, and some sales decided to start their own business and be entrepreneurs.
Sales career has many long term benefits for people with the right mindset, attitude, character and personality. If you are not in sales yet, do pause and think about it. If you are already in sales, enjoy the endless possibilities and opportunities ahead of you!
There are many reasons why sales is a great career. If you talk to any top sales, you will find commonalities why sales is a great career.
Here’s top 8 reasons why sales is a great career:
There are many reasons why sales is a great career. If you talk to any top sales, you will find commonalities why sales is a great career.
Here’s top 8 reasons why sales is a great career:
1. High pay
2. High in demand
3. Extensive exposure
4. Invaluable experience
5. Transferable skills
6. Career progression
7. No boundaries
8. You are in control
2. High in demand
3. Extensive exposure
4. Invaluable experience
5. Transferable skills
6. Career progression
7. No boundaries
8. You are in control
1. High Pay
Sales profession is one of the highest paying jobs.
Yes, the majority of salespeople have a base salary. Major income potential i.e. the big money comes from commission. Sales compensation package comes with a commission plan. Some organizations’ commission plan is without commission cap and some comes with a commission cap. Commission plan without a cap means you can earn as much as you the total deals that you are able to close in a given period. Not to mention that some sales commission plans have accelerators built in.
Yes, the majority of salespeople have a base salary. Major income potential i.e. the big money comes from commission. Sales compensation package comes with a commission plan. Some organizations’ commission plan is without commission cap and some comes with a commission cap. Commission plan without a cap means you can earn as much as you the total deals that you are able to close in a given period. Not to mention that some sales commission plans have accelerators built in.
The sky's the limit for your earning potential.
It is important for you to read the commission plan carefully and understand all the terms and conditions and understand any fine prints. Besides your commission plan and accelerators, it is also advisable for you to understand your sales target for the commission plan period and how and when the commission payout is carried out.
Have you ever wondered why some same salespeople earn more than others? Why do they command a higher package and be able to continuously grow their wealth? Well, top sales performers work smart. They prioritize and focus on activities and tasks that move the deal forward towards closure. They automate mundane tasks, leverage on their network of people, they focus on customers so that they accelerate their win rate in the shortest time frame.
Have you ever wondered why some same salespeople earn more than others? Why do they command a higher package and be able to continuously grow their wealth? Well, top sales performers work smart. They prioritize and focus on activities and tasks that move the deal forward towards closure. They automate mundane tasks, leverage on their network of people, they focus on customers so that they accelerate their win rate in the shortest time frame.
Work smart, prioritize activities to drive deals to closure. Focus your efforts towards maximizing your commission payout
2. High In Demand
Sales jobs are always high in demand.
If you are new to sales, you will have opportunities to choose your most preferred industry to join as sales. There are many entry-level positions that provide plenty of opportunities for growth and a competitive starting salary, and anyone willing to take the leap to join sales as a career.
If you are new to sales, you will have opportunities to choose your most preferred industry to join as sales. There are many entry-level positions that provide plenty of opportunities for growth and a competitive starting salary, and anyone willing to take the leap to join sales as a career.
If you are a top sales performer, you will be poached to join competitors who will offer you a high package to win you over. Why? This is because competitors want you to win deals for them in the shortest time frame. Top sales performers know their main responsibilities and will focus on tasks that will generate results; which is to win deals.
Sales skills are life skills. Once you master sales skills and when you create a brand name for yourself, you will always find opportunities to make money. You will be wanted in any organizations as you will bring in the revenue and long term business for the company.
Sales is the bloodline of any organization. Without sales, without customers, without revenue, organizations will not be able to survive.
3. Extensive Exposure
Sales as a career offers you incredible opportunities. You will meet different people from all walks of life. You will be given opportunities to travel round the world and meet customers, partners, etc. You will be given exposure to different cultures, environments and the opportunity to interact and collaborate with the community and ecosystem.
You will be working with different people at different levels and roles. From C-Levels to technical team, to procurement team, to legal team, to service team, to end-users, you need to be able to empathize with them and meet their needs accordingly. You will be exposed to different job functions and different industries. Over time, you will be able to make decisions for your own career progression.
One of the key areas that salespeople need to focus on is networking. Build your network as you build your sales career. As your network grows, so will your exposure to the rest of the community. Your brand name will grow with you. It is critical that you keep your reputation in the market positively visible. Build a solid brand name for yourself. Over time you will be amazed at how many opportunities that will come your way.
Treasure these golden opportunities as every single opportunity will provide you with different learnings, open up many doors providing you options for your future career paths.
Your network is your net worth
4. Invaluable experience
Sales is a profession that empowers you to gain invaluable experiences. Salespeople are always on the go, meeting different people and managing different situations everyday. No money can buy these amazing and invaluable experiences.
Every single moment is a precious moment to learn and gain wisdom. When interacting with internal teams, customers, partners, peers, etc, keep an open mindset, focus on lifelong learning, keep improving and sharpening your skills to remain relevant in the new world. Make it a point to remember all the lessons learnt.
With the lessons learnt from your experiences, you gain wisdom. Share your experiences. Your experiences are best shared through storytelling. Your experiences are shared through interesting and engaging stories that will be passed down to many generations to come. Share your experiences so that the younger generations can learn from your mistakes and experiences; giving them the shortest path to success.
Sales is a profession that provides you with opportunities to have lots of interesting stories to share about your encounters and experiences. Treasure these precious memories and pass it on.
Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience. You need experience to gain wisdom.
Albert Einstein
5. Transferable skills
In sales, you will learn, practice and strive to master many different skill sets. You need to master many skill sets to be efficient and effective in sales. Below are some very key and important transferable skills that all employers are looking out for in the selection process and to have the right candidate to join their team.
These are soft skills and life skills are critical in our everyday lives. These skills need to be taught deliberately in schools so that students will be exposed and learn from a young age to develop and practice these skills until they become their habit.
Below is a list of skills that one need to master to be top sales performer consistently no matter where he or she may be representing:
- Growth mindset
- Leadership skills
- Problem solving skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Communications skills
- Collaboration skills
- Relationship building and networking skills
- Agility (both agility of the mind and agility to change direction)
- Adaptability
- Creativity
- Digital skills
- Negotiation skills
- Attention to detail
- Persistence
- Resilience
- Sense of urgency
- Ability to influence
- Ability to work as a team and mobilize the team
- Ability to inspire and bring people together
- Ability to ask the right questions
- Emotional Intelligence
- Ability to observe
- Empathy
- Compassion
- Good memory
- Ownership & accountability
- Culturally savvy
- Action oriented
- Customer focused
- Project Management skills
- Service first mindset
- Authenticity
- Analytical skills
- Ability to manage stress and challenging situation
- Ability to manage conflict
- Presentation and public speaking skills
- Clear and succinct messaging
- Entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial skills
- Resourcefulness
- Being comfortable in an uncomfortable situation
- Creating value
- Elevator pitch
- See the big picture and ability to zoom in and out
- Self management
- Self Confidence
- Time management
- Prioritizing tasks
- Ability to manage different personalities and characters
- Letting go
- The list goes on…
Take note that these are some of the skills needed to become top sales performers.
Mastery of these skills takes time, patience and practice. You have to be resilient in sales.
It’s hard work and you’ll not close every sale. You need to bounce forward. Being able to pick yourself back up, focus on the things that are going well and improving those things that are in your circle of influence will help you go very far in your sales career. Keep improving on your skills as technology changes the way we work and interact.
6. Career progression
Armed with super sales skills and life skills, after many years of winning large multi million dollar deals, you are on the right path to advance your career. Many top sales performers get promoted internally to take on more responsibilities as sales leaders or different roles within the company. Some top sales performers get poached by multiple competitors with attractive compensation plans and perks.
Salespeople cover the end-to-end business operations and processes from lead generation, marketing to products, to solution, deal structuring, commercial packaging, contract negotiations, delivery, in-life support, invoicing, customer advocacy, etc. Technically sales is “mini CEO of his or her own customer base” that they are managing.
There are many paths a salesperson can take while moving up the corporate ladder. As sales you will be expert in many areas hence you acquire transferable skills that are required in many different roles such as Chief Customer Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Managing Director, Chief Marketing Officer, start-up founders, entrepreneurs, consultants, etc.
As sales, you can determine your professional career outlook and career progression based on your interest, strengths and ability to add value to any organizations.
7. No boundaries
Salespeople have no boundaries. Yes you read correctly.
Salespeople have no boundaries in many areas of their job. No boundaries in terms of where you work as long as you deliver the numbers. No boundaries on the duration of time you spend on work. No boundaries in terms of your earning potential so long as your commission plan does not limit your ability to earn.
You have the flexibility to manage your own time and own pace of working based on the target you are allocated with. You determine how much time you want to spend on a certain opportunity or how many customers you want to manage as you determine your own earnings.
As sales you will be able to manage your own time, your job and your earning potential. It is advisable to think outside the box, be creative and be resourceful.
You can make the impossible, possible!
8. You are in control
Top sales professionals focus on their own role. They focus on closing deals to deliver their numbers to the organization.
Top salespeople are in full control of who to sell to, who to talk to. Top salespeople decide whether the opportunity should be qualified in and plan their own sales strategy and decide how to overachieve their sales targets.
The moment they focus on the customer and the opportunities that they are working on and ignore the noise around them, they are in full control of their journey in the sales process. Top sales professionals are the voice of the customer. Internally in the company, they focus on being the customers’ champion and driving the internal teams to provide solutions and services to support the customers.
Sales is a profession that allows you to have full control.
As sales, you take the lead.
As sales, you are in control.
As sales, you are the boss.
As sales, you take the lead.
As sales, you are in control.
As sales, you are the boss.
In summary, sales is a great career. Sales as a career helps you achieve financial goals quicker in a shorter time frame. Sales is a lucrative career that opens up many opportunities.
Most people find sales as a very challenging career. Yes, salespeople are constantly under constant stress and pressure to deliver numbers in meeting and over achieving sales targets.
However, the greatest sales people I know hardly even consider themselves to be salespeople. They think of themselves as people who are there to serve the customer.
A customer is talking to you because they have a problem. They have a challenge and pain point that they have not been able to resolve. They trust you and they hope your product or service will solve their problem.
But more often than not, a customer doesn’t correctly diagnose or know the proper solution to their own problem. That’s what you as the salesperson are there for. You are there to serve. You listen, analyze and serve the client by providing the best solution for their particular problem.
Sales is a great career for people who enjoy meeting new people, curious and enjoy the challenge by mysteries of the unknown, motivated by the adrenaline rush of winning deals, and inspired by the thought of achieving financial freedom in a shorter time frame.
Happy selling!
Contact coach@revupzone.com for more info on RevUpZone sales training programs for you and your sales team or 121 coaching sessions to master sales hunting skills to win big and win fast!