So…you want a sales job
Categories: LinkedIn, Sales Strategy
Written By: SOCOM Sales
Maybe you’re new to the job market, need a change of pace or maybe your empty wallet is beginning to depress you. whatever the reason, you are looking to get into the highly lucrative position of sales. I say lucrative because how much you make is really up to you. Sales typically pays you a base salary and then you get a commission for the sales that you make, sometimes up to 10% of every deal depending on where you work. I have been with some companies that pay you a commission based on how close to your target you get and some that have a set target, but will pay out on every deal closed. either way, you will make more money than just a regular paycheck if you do well.
I have been writing a lot about specific selling techniques and tips for sales people, and I have gotten many emails asking about how a person gets into a sales job and what to look for, so I figured I’d dedicate an entire post to it.
First and foremost you need to decide what you want to sell. How do you decide on that? That’s the easy part. Ask yourself what you are passionate about? Is it technology, tools, cell phones? You have to decide on that. Whatever it is, that’s what you should go after. One of the keys to becoming a good sales person is to love what your selling, it will show in your conversations and it will help during the down times (We’ll get to that later.)
For now let’s focus on getting you a job. Knowing someone in the company you want to work for goes a long way, but if thats not possible then you have to start putting your name out there. Get a resume together. You can get good ideas of what a resume looks like by going HERE and HERE (In Career Tools).
Get an account with the major job boards. I have always used Yahoo! HotJobs,
Monster.com and CareerBuilder. While you’re at it set up an account on LinkedIn. This is a great site that you can network with other people and also search for jobs in sales. Once you get accounts with these places, start uploading your resume to them. Give them flashy titles like ‘Sales leader looking for a home’ or ‘Sales person hungry for money’. Use something other that John’s Resume. That’s boring and will be overlooked.
Each of the major jobs boards will have alerts or job searches you can save based on Title, Description, or Keywords. Set those up for daily or weekly emails. This will be targeted opportunities based on what you are looking for.
Start searching the boards for careers that you are interested in. Thousands of positions are available and you will need to weed through some garbage, but there is gold in them. Most will be easy to apply to by just clicking through, some will bring you to third part sites that you will need to fill out additional information, either way take the time to do it.
You will start getting emails from recruiters and other companies that want to talk to you. Most I have come across are not worth the time since they have no idea what you are looking for and only have 1 or 2 positions they are trying to fill that could be way outside your interest. Don’t take the bait. Tell them what you are interested in and ask that they call you if anything comes up but other than that you do not want to hear from them.
Once that ball gets rolling, you can start getting strategic. Here are some great ways to go about finding a sales job.
- Make a list of the top 12 companies you want to work for. Really…write them down. Go to their website and check in the ‘jobs’ or ‘career’ section of their site. Check to see if they have any open positions in sales. If they do, fire off an email to the contact person. Next if you have the courage to do so, find a way to call or email the VP of sales. Let them know that you would love to work for their company and tell them why. Remember this is one of the companies you REALLY want to work for. This doesn’t always pan out, but this serves two purposes.
- 1. Shows that you are serious. He may not have an opening, but when he does, he will be more likely to remember you than a pile of applicants he has never heard of.
- 2. Gets you ready to start cold calling people. If you can take rejection from a person you are asking a job from over the phone, you can take rejection from people not wanting to buy from you. Because really, you are trying to sell yourself to this company.
Start looking at your ‘Top 12’s’ competitors. You already wrote down who you want to work for and why, why not go after companies like them?
Ok. that’s enough for you to chew on for a bit. Get to work. I’ll make a few more posts on this topic soon.
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