Are you thinking about starting a career as a sales rep? More than 14 million people work in sales in the U.S. alone.
It can be a financially rewarding career as it is rated third in the highest-earning careers without a degree.
There are some things you know before you become a sales rep. Check out these five things you should know about this career.
- You Need to Pay Attention to the Details
Sales can be pretty complex with all the scheduling, moving parts of the contracts, terms, and delivering the product or service. This means you will have to make sure other people do their jobs to keep the process moving.
Being a sales rep, you will need to stay on top of the closed deals and make sure the service and customer teams finalize all the details of the sale or project.
- You Have to Ask Uncomfortable Questions
Humans don’t always buy on logic. People tend to buy on emotion and use logic to justify decisions. This means you will have to find the emotional drivers with your customers.
Ultimately, you may have to dig down and ask some uncomfortable and direct questions. You will also need to learn to do it respectfully, and you can laugh along with these sales memes.
- You Need Resolve
Both persistence and patience are essential in working as a sales rep. Surprisingly, many salespeople do not understand this simple fact.
You will need to also be okay with rejection and learn when it’s a final answer and when you need to keep following up. This means you have the face the harsh reality that some prospects are simply not going to buy, so don’t waste your valuable time.
Over time, you will learn the difference between needing a little more resolve, and when you should move on.
- Be Prepared to Do More Than Sell
At first, you may find yourself doing more helping before you actually sell. A great sales professional facilitates information and helps people before someone may buy from you.
- You Need to Listen
As a sales representative, you have a lot to say. You must remember, however, that selling is not about all the details and statistics; it’s about the customer.
To be good at sales, you need to learn how to be an effective listener. By listening to your customers, you can address needs, wants, and concerns.
Being a good listener will help you build trust with customers. You also need to be consistent, so once people become a regular customer, you still need to listen carefully. It costs more time and money to build new business than to keep your current customers.
Ready to Become a Sales Rep?
Do you think you have what it takes to become a sales rep? If so, you may be on your way to a rewarding career.
Check out some other articles on our site to help you with your business acumen and build relationships in business and in your personal life.