Starting a new career in sales

[Masos313]

Today was my first day. I really want to do well in this and make a lot of money so I can travel and have financial freedom by the time I'm 40. Is there advice that I can follow that will help me do my best in this field? I'm quite nervous as we are expected to meet weekly expectations. There is no base rate, just commission and bonuses. I'm 20 btw

 

[AttackFormation]

If you want something which is just straight out uplifting "go do it!" about sales then I suggest you skip my post so you won't be discouraged.

- If you don't actually like sales and feel comfortable in it then the stress is going to grind you and your life down into less than what you were before you took the job (I personally am never going into sales again unless it's that or the gutter)

- The more of a psychopath you are and the more you can shut down your own feelings/sympathy, the better you'll do. Being in sales dehumanises your interactions with people after a while more so than other people-oriented jobs because your job is a direct extension of our civilisation's basic drive: to exploit people as much as possible

- Don't take what your boss(es) say too seriously. Your job is to sell a product to customers, their job is to sell being a salesman to you and keep you from f*cking up their company (example, bosses will tell you to not do things like screw customers over - the real message is to not do it unless you know how to get away with it). That you can theoretically become financially independent and such is part of the portfolio to draw you into being a salesman and it illustrates something pretty well - selling customers your stuff without them feeling like they're actually being manipulated

I think the "you either are a salesman or you're not" trope is actually truer than I tried to deny it was back when I still was one. It's not that you can't learn to be one, it's whether you authentically are predisposed to and like being a salesman. So when you start out, listen to yourself. Is this what you want to do? is this who you want to be? the thing with sales is you won't just be miserable if the answers to those questions are no, the stress will destroy you too

Thought I'd provide a voice of reason to what I suspect is going to be a continuation of posts telling you to go for it, which I'm not necessarily saying you shouldn't, just don't destroy yourself over it.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I sold vacuum cleaners door to door when I was twenty. It was straight commission, and I did well.

At any sales job, probably 90% of the new people are going to wash out and quit. That's just part of the trade.

Salesmanship is a skill that you can take anywhere for the rest of your life, and it will be useful to you even if you are not still working in sales. Even just understanding the salespeople you will meet later in life will help a lot. Negotiation skills are also valuable to have.

Let me give you some authors to read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar
http://www.amazon.com/How-Master-Ar...F8&qid=1400516868&sr=8-1&keywords=tom+hopkins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Tracy
http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Frien...0516962&sr=8-1&keywords=make+friends+carnegie

 

[AAAgent]

Second what BB said about 90% wash out. I've seen it in my sales role.

Best way to be successful is to learn from people that are doing well. Learn from as many senior guys as possible and pick and choose what you like from the people you like (sometimes even the people you dislike as they must be doing something right if they're selling as well). Most importantly though is to develop your own method of selling as fast as you can and be comfortable with it (work out all the kinks).

Sales is a numbers game just the same as getting laid. The more girls you talk to assuming your game gets slightly better over time, the more chances you'll have of getting laid. Build up a large pipeline of qualified prospects. Usually it takes a few months 3-5 of a ton of calling. Then once you have a good couple hundred prospects, start following-up with them until one of them bites. Focus more time on the ones that show more interest and weed out the ones that aren't interested.

Always set appointments, demo's etc.