If you are trying to decide what career path to take, or if you are thinking about changing careers, you may have thought about sales. Perhaps you have a friend who is in sales and thinks you would be great at it, or maybe it is just something that you always thought you would be good at.
Regardless of the reason why, there are 3 key ways to determine if sales is the right career path for you.
1. Are you competitive?
Sales is a numbers game. Whether you are striving to have the best numbers on your sales team or the best numbers in your line of business, you must be driven to be the best.
Good sales reps want to make the most money they can and if you are in a good sales job, you can do this. However, you cannot do it without being competitive or without tracking your numbers.
In order to be a good sales rep, you need to know your ratios and understand what you have to do in order to close a sale.
If you are not driven or competitive, there is another sales rep out there that will swoop in and steal your potential business.
2. Are you a people-person?
You must be a people-person in order to be a successful sales rep. A career in sales is about building relationships with people in order to gain their trust and their business. In a sales job, whether you are an inside or outside sales rep, you are constantly talking with people.
If you do not enjoy meeting new people or having conversations with people, then you likely will not enjoy sales.
3. Are you tough?
Sales is tough. It’s not an easy job and anyone can understand this by just simply watching The Pursuit of Happyness. Will Smith clearly demonstrated how difficult sales is by pounding the phones day after day, rushing to meet a potential client, only to end up with nothing for quite some time.
When you start a sales job, turnaround is not quick when it comes to closing accounts. This is all due to the fact that sales is about building relationships with people. In order to win a sale, you need to have a relationship with your customer. It takes time to build those relationships and it is not always an easy job.
Whether an inside or outside sales rep, you will be hung up on or have doors slammed in your face. You will call potential clients who yell at you and threaten to report you to the “do not call list.” As if this isn’t enough, you will come close to making a sale, only to have it fall apart at the last minute due to your client changing his mind or another sales rep offering him a better deal.
If you are considering a sales career, it’s important that you understand the hard work and tough times that come with this job. There will be great days when you close big deals, and there will be terrible days when you lose a deal or can’t seem to get close to a deal. No matter what, a good sales rep perseveres, quickly getting over the rejection and moving on to the next potential client.
If you are timid, sales is likely not the career for you.
What are some other ways to know if sales is the right career path for you?
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