Unfortunately, Sales is regularly over-looked as a career choice. It is a sad truth that many people fall into a Sales career by accident. In this post Ben Gaston explores why schools should do more to promote Sales roles as a dream choice for young people.
This week I participated in the second meeting of the Parliamentary Advisory Committee to the APPG for Professional Sales. The broad aim of the committee, operating under the auspices of The Association for Professional Sales is to work with Government to elevate the status of the Sales profession. The specific focus is B2B selling, given how vital sales is to the growth of our economy. Part of our discussion centred on the need to attract fresh young talent to the Sales profession. This need throws into sharp focus the role played by our academic institutions.
Here are some reasons why schools should advise young people about sales careers as a dream choice so that we can develop our Sales stars of the future.
Sales is Highly Skilled
Sales is a misunderstood craft, so it is easy to see why it isn’t on the radar of careers advisors looking to suggest worthy life choices to bright-eyed teenagers. Yet, far from being a dark art reserved for talkers and showmen, working in Sales requires the successful application of many skills. For example, analytical skills may be needed to assess a problem and suggest a resolution. Mathematics could be required to construct a proposal that delivers an excellent return on investment. Superb writing may be critical to outline a helpful and persuasive argument. Language skills may also be key in international sales. Layer in broad business skills, an understanding of economics or soft skills such as listening and empathising and you can see how Sales becomes a highly skilled career choice.
Furthermore, we haven’t yet referred to specific sales skills such as negotiating, presenting, questioning or how to manage a sales process. As if that wasn’t enough, the landscape is constantly changing. How we sell varies dramatically between companies, industries and cultures. Plus, there are a plethora of different routes to market and sales related jobs (some of which are listed in this post). These days, a good grasp of digital or social sales skills is necessary, which also shows that when it comes to Sales skills, development never ceases. Taking all this into account, it is difficult to see why recommending a career in Sales would not be an excellent use of the academic skill developed throughout a child’s education.
Sales Can Be Many Roles in One
Not only is Sales skilled, but it also provides the satisfaction of combining many career types in one. To be a good salesperson you also need to be:
- An accountant: understanding budgets, able to read balance sheets or profit and loss statements, interpret annual reports or manage clear financial outcomes
- A lawyer: able to understand contracts, their implications and how to negotiate key contractual points for a “win win” outcome
- A doctor: able to diagnose problems and recommend the required medicine to solve them
- A psychologist: able to empathise deeply with your customers, understanding their motivations and the help they really need
- A scientist: able to consider all logical elements of a problem and take a methodical approach to deliver an outcome
- A business analyst: able to understand business risks and how to react to them or able to react to emerging trends for gain
All of this before having to learn the particular knowledge relevant to the industry you are selling in; be it technology, pharmaceuticals, retail, aerospace or one of thousands more. Not for one second am I saying that to be a good salesperson you need to have all of the skills of a good lawyer who studies for years at law school! My point is that Sales offers an exciting and rewarding chance to develop and experience elements of all of the above, another reason why, as careers go, it is a dream choice.
Excelling in Sales Leads to Financial Security
We should also be honest with our young people about the opportunity for financial reward that Sales offers. Successful salespeople who apply their skills to help organisations can earn above average incomes. Interestingly, there is also no direct link between career longevity and earnings. Earnings are often performance related. This means that a salesperson in their 20s who has excellent skills can earn as much as a salesperson in their 40s, without having to patiently wait for years of steady salary inflation or promotion. In fact, many really good, ethical, helpful salespeople earn more than people in jobs that we often associate with top earnings (like surgeons, solicitors or politicians). It is very common that the best salespeople earn more than the leaders of their own companies.
Yet we barely discuss Sales as a career choice with our teenagers. Despite the fact that Sales would give them a good opportunity to be financially secure for longer periods of their life than many other recommended career routes.
Why Waste a Degree?
On the same subject of money, the investment young people make in a degree can be massive. However, many choose a degree in a particular field of expertise only to establish a career in a different one altogether. Ironically, many of these people end up working in Sales. Over the years I’ve recruited graduates who have studied subjects as diverse as microbiology and aeronautical engineering. Somehow, they’ve still ended up in Sales – often due to limited opportunities in their chosen sector.
Imagine if they could actually study Sales at degree level for their three year degree. They would enter our profession with a superb grounding and actually get some benefit from their studies. The businesses recruiting them would waste less money training people who have had no exposure to the skills required. It is fantastic that higher education options are growing now, such as the degree level apprenticeship offered by Consalia. Only if demand grows for these type of courses will more become available. It won’t be a quick process. We will need academics with the skills to teach the courses, in all likelihood coming from the world of business. We will need more Universities prepared to offer the courses. This will take time. However, if we can find ways to encourage more young people to enter the profession hopefully the wait will not be too long.
Without Excellent Salespeople Many Organisations Will Fail to Thrive
No organisation can thrive without regular injections of fresh perspective. It is part of the role of a sales professional to offer this perspective. When presented with a challenge to deliver an outcome, a good salesperson will consider the current situation and where possible, guide the customer to it. Sometimes they will bring in specialists to help, sometimes they will suggest no change and sometimes they will present a variety of options, with different pros and cons. From these discussions modernisation can occur and ways of working are often changed. A business may become more profitable. A hospital might deliver better patient care. A retailer could improve their customer experience. All as a result of the solution presented by the salesperson.
Without good sales people our whole economy will be held back. I don’t mean purely financially, but also in terms of creativity and innovation. Therefore, it is our responsibility as participants in the profession to do all we can to make Sales careers a dream choice.
So What Can You Do If You Already Work in Sales?
First, talk about the profession with younger people. Only through hearing about Sales can they get excited by Sales. Second, talk to your local secondary schools. Maybe offer to give a talk to their sixth form about what it means to live a career in Sales. Maybe spend some time with their careers advisor to offer your insight and help them understand better. Third, write to your local MP and encourage them to support the APPG for Professional Sales.
Finally, you could also subscribe to The Humble Sale newsletter and make a commitment to share our content with young people that you know! All of our content has sharing buttons so that we can reach and help as many people as possible – including our Sales stars of the future.
