The 9 Things You Need To Do To Get A Sales Job

Written by Jerry Dean S on 28 September 2011

If you are really interested in getting into sales, your first product needs to be you.

Guess what, you may not be the best product on the market, but if you want the job you will have to make yourself look good.

Here are 9 things to do.

Do a SWOT analysis of your self, what are your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats.
Do some home work on your customer (potential employer) what do you have that fits with there need, what is the company Mission and Vision and how might you support this. Quoting the company line durring and interview may be cheesy but you should know it and be able to articulate things about your product (you) that can support this company line. Mentioning it once lets them know you have done your home work, just don’t dwell on the tag line, it can be a little silly if you bring it up too often.
Be prepared to spend lots off time following up with your customer, you want your product to be on top of the stack of resumes most of the time.
Make sure you cover one of the most important parts off a sale, a trial close, this is something like “do you see anything about me that concerns you” or “do you have any concerns about my ability to do this job”.
Ask for the job, you would be amazed how often this is missed, if you are going to be in sales you have to ask for the sale.
Find out what the next steps will be and ask for permission to follow up with the customer.
If you fail at the first opportunity or first 10 opportunity’s, and can’t get up and go at it again, sales may not be your thing. Sales reps get told no way more often than they get told yes. As an out sider trying to get in to sales you should expect it to take awhile to find some one willing to take a chance.
Improve your product, this is something that most sales people can’t do, they have to sell what they have. When you are selling your self, you are also the development engineer, start reading, there is a ton of info on sales and sales process out there.
The old story about how you get to Carnegie Hall is to “Practice”, “Practice”, “Practice”, the same applies in sales, get out there and practice your sales pitch for your product, “You”.