One of the interesting things about the majority of “Top
Jobs” in direct sales is that many, if not most of them, are
never advertised. In this article, a “Top Job” is defined
as one in which the sales person can earn $100,000 or more, (depending
on skill, ability, desire), within one or two years. The company
providing such a job must have an honest product that fills a serious
need, and depends heavily on direct sales.
If these companies don’t advertise their sales positions, how is one supposed to ferret them out?
Takes a bit of research, but it’s not hard. We’ll get
into that in a minute. Before you even think about interviewing for
such a position you must be absolutely certain you know the skills and
techniques of a professional sales person, and know how to sell. Do you
know how to get an appointment on the phone? Do you know how to get
past the person whose job it is to keep sales people out? Do you know
how to construct a presentation - not of a specific product, but rather
a presentation of any product? Do you know how to close a sale and how
to handle stalls and objections? If not, don’t apply and
don’t even look. You need to learn.
The only thing of major importance in a direct sales job is your
ability to sell. A sales manager who has a position with an earnings
potential of $100,000 plus a year can not afford the time to run around
training people from the ground up. Such a sales manager wants to put
people in the field who can hit the ground running. The manager will be
happy to give you, the newcomer, all the product information available,
plus review their standard presentation and close, but only if you have
demonstrated a knowledge of direct sales skills and techniques.
The upside of all of this is that you don’t have to have a
resume’ that shows you to be a Harvard MBA in the top 5 percent
of your class. The MBA people are generally looking for jobs with
companies that offer high salaries, company cars, and heavy expense
accounts. These companies are looking for “institutional”
sales people, and require a candidate who presents the image of their
company.
All you have to be is clean, neat, enthusiastic, honest, and know
the skills of a direct sales person - and how to use them. There are
many books that cover these skills, and they aren’t that
difficult to learn. It is, however, much like learning to play tennis
from a book. All your reading about the skills required to be a good
tennis player won’t do much for you as you watch the tennis ball
coming toward you at 85 mph. It’s learning how to apply a skill
that makes the difference.
Where do I start?
The first place to start your search is with those people, usually
professionals, who might use a big-ticket item. Business owners,
doctors, attorneys, CPAs, accountants . . . in other words, people who
deal with the general public, and need to have all the tools necessary
to do so, professionally. The money for any big-ticket item will
usually come out of their pocket, and they want to be involved in the
purchase, rather than leave it up to a purchasing agent (if they have
one). All you have to do is contact these people and indicate something
to the effect that you are doing a survey and would appreciate a moment
of their time.
Upon contact, let them know that you are doing a survey on direct
sales. What you want to know is if he/she purchased a single item,
other than a car or truck, within the past 12 months, costing between
$5,000 and $15,000 dollars, to be used by the business. You don’t
need to know the name of the item or exact price. What you do need to
know is the name of the company they purchased it from, approximately
how many sales calls it took before the purchase was made, and their
impression of the sales person responsible for the sale. Was the person
you are talking to satisfied with the sales person, and has the sales
person followed up since the original sale? Do they know the name of
the sales person responsible for the sale; if not, do they know the
name of the sales manager?
You should continue your survey calls until you have a list of
fifteen to twenty companies whose SALES MANAGERS you can now contact.
I’ve capitalized sales managers because you do NOT want to be
shunted off to someone like the Director of Human Resources. Sales
managers, whose earnings are dependent on sales, almost always have the
final say about the sales people they hire.
When you contact the Sales Manager, (if you can’t get by the
switchboard operator or the sales manager’s secretary, you need
to work on your sales techniques), he/she will probably tell you they
don’t need any sales people right now. That’s normal, and
make sure you let him/her know that is exactly what you expected to
hear. It’s important that you get the message across that you
just wanted to speak to him/her personally. Let him/her know that
you’ve researched the field, and recently had contact with
[insert the name person you had spoken to, and the name of the company
that gave you this company’s name] where you were impressed with
their sales approach, product, and follow-up. Words such as: “I
can sell, and wanted to contact you personally to let you know that
I’m impressed with the way your sales people conduct business.
You’ve got a team that I’d be proud to join,” are
music to any sales manager’s ears. Your next comment is
important. It should go something like this: “I’m sending
some information about me directly to you. You may not have any use for
it right now, but experience tells me that most sales organizations
have at least one person, ‘on the bubble.’ If that
situation should create an opening in your organization, I’d very
much like an opportunity to meet with you and discuss
possibilities.” Your call should be followed up with a
“Thank you” note plus a brief resume’ of your
experience and training.
What are my chances of getting an interview?
Since you are selling yourself, you will be faced with a sales,
“presentation-to-close” ratio. Your selling skills and
telephone approach are critical. While the skill you demonstrate on the
phone is important, there are numerous other factors beyond your
control that will affect the final outcome. A pure guess would indicate
that you should get between three to five responses from twenty
contacts. The quickest responses will usually be from those managers
who are desperate for good sales help. These may be organizations you
would least like to be associated with, however, never turn down an
interview. This is your opportunity to present your best features and
how they might benefit your prospective employer. In other words, you
will have an opportunity to sharpen your presentation. Use it well, and
learn from it.
Getting a top job in direct sales is a matter of selling a quality
product - YOU! It requires prospecting, contact, presentation of
benefits and closing. If you keep at it, you will succeed.
Good hunting.
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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business , matrix, internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer
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