Sales jobs are the hardest?

[Jasonz]

According to some job board news site 'sales people' are the hardest people to recruit in the US due to 'lack of talent'
I can certainly believe that, the company I work for only seems to manage to keep sales people on the books for a couple of months. I think people don't realise just how hard it is to sell!

[carr]

Originally Posted by Jasonz

According to some job board news site 'sales people' are the hardest people to recruit in the US due to 'lack of talent'
I can certainly believe that, the company I work for only seems to manage to keep sales people on the books for a couple of months. I think people don't realise just how hard it is to sell!

hi
I think with sales you either have it or you don't, with most other industries you can at least learn how it all works. I work in IT sales and have been with the same company for 6 years, in that time I have had people in my dept last just a few weeks!!

[recman1]

Sales is indeed a skill and good people are hard to find, particularly those that are prepared to cold call or work on new business. It is becoming almost impossible to find such candidates, and even more so to find people that have these skills and job stability as well. Good sales people are at a premium and can name their price to a degree. They are also snapped up very quickly. From an employer pot of view I would look more at retaining the good people I had got and have a long term strategy in place to look for new candidates - ideally bringing them on as trainees and developing them within the business. You will get more loyalty and stability that way.

[ashleydrollinson]

Perhaps in the UK the governments target of getting 100% of students going to college and 50% going into higher education is forcing students away from sales.

I'm not suggesting sales people are not educated, but by the time students have spent £1000s if not £10'000s on an education in a usually very specialised area, will they then want to start at the bottom rung of the sales ladder at the age of 23 to gain experience. After all, top sales people need experience in sales not just an education/training!

[Apex Marketing and Promot]

I have been in sales for serviced based companies for 12 years - performing at top levels.

I can say that 85% of the people that I have worked with are filling a resource gap. Throw enough against the wall and some will stick.

[localman]

In all businesses, but especially in small and startup business the sales team are the ones that will make the business happen or not.

Most of you would likely agree with me, that when it really comes down to it everyone's got great product and services, each with strengths and weeknesses, but the businesses ability to properly sell and market will make the difference.

A lot of new business owners underestimate how much selling they in fact need to be doing, and if they dont do it, their business ends up suffering. They focus on the product instead of the business (a la E-Myth by Michael Gerber).

Little wonder that sales people usually do better on average than others when starting and growing a business.

I think a good strategy that a business can take is offering ownership in the company that the salesperson sells for. Perhaps not right off the bat, while relationships are being built, but with a very solid/strong agreement for what WILL happen based on results.

So sell well for 1 year, grow the busines...get your stake in the company.

There...now see if you can attract some sales people!

Localman
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[sales101]

It certainly depends on what your trying to sell, If you have a background in IT and find your self doing a job selling rubber stamps then obviously your heart wont be in it and as such you are less likely to perform.

[Skip Anderson]

Originally Posted by carr

hi
I think with sales you either have it or you don't, with most other industries you can at least learn how it all works. I work in IT sales and have been with the same company for 6 years, in that time I have had people in my dept last just a few weeks!!

In reality, in all fields, you "either have it or you don't". But companies hire salespeople, don't train them, and expect them to perform. Selling is a skill. Golf is a skill. Tax law is a skill. Managing people is a skill. Any of those skills can be improved by the employee or by the employer.

But one thing is for sure, if you don't have sales skills, you won't be able to sell.

[Dani Elm]

Sales should be a skill. Like anything else if you wish to be good at it, you need to learn more about it. And stick with it , which means a lot of rejection. But if you can learn from it you can become better at it. It took me over 15 years to become a sales person, I was always an order taker
Boy! There is a great difference between them and education is the answer.

[lrobertson0207]

I think that it really depends on you and how you view sales. If you think it will be hard and you push the sales onto the prospective consumer they will back away. I think that people try to hard to sell and don't view it from the prospects side of things.