Sales careers are one of the few that reward your work dollar for dollar. However, there’s a thousand sale companies out there so how do you choose? You need to carefully research the company you want to work for and make sure it’s the right fit for you.
Take a look at these helpful tips for finding and excelling your goals with any sales company.
4 Steps to Build a Successful Career in Sales
Define your goals
Choose the best company to help you accomplish those goals
Get the job
Excel in that position
Step 1: Define Your Career Goals
In sales, you’ll always be setting goals and trying to meet or exceed them. That’s why it helps to start out by writing down your own personal goals before you go after a job. This will help you choose something that aligns with you on a personal level, giving you a better chance to stick with it and succeed.
For example, let’s say you want to grow into a leadership role, like management. You’d start by researching companies in your area that are expanding rapidly and could offer you that career path, starting from the ground up. Conversely, you might have found a large corporation that pays more to start, but if it’s clear that you won’t advance, it’s better to go with the company that has a better upward trajectory. Even if it doesn’t work out down the road, you still have that upper-level experience to help you get an even better job in the future.
Step 2: Find the Right Company and Goal
Once you have clearly defined goals, you can start narrowing down your options. It’s important to note that not every sales job will be a good fit for you. You might love 5 different companies, but there is a BEST FIT for you.
Start by looking at the things you need. Maybe you’re already supporting a family so you need a benefits package, flexible hours, vacation time, etc. That should help you narrow down the search. You probably won’t stick with a company and be able to succeed if company policies interfere with important things like family.
Next, think about the future. What is this company offering to teach you? Well, sales probably but is there more? Are there professional development programs, more technical skills like using CRMs to up your sales game in the future? Look into what can help your career in the long term.
There are a lot of job boards that can help you narrow down the necessities like health benefits, but you need to do your research and ask questions during the interview process if you want to learn the more important details that will help your career down the road.
Step 3: Get the Job
It may sound a little silly, but voicing why you’re choosing this company and this position can go a long way in the interview process. If you followed the previous steps above, you should have a clear path of what you want to do. Letting your interviewer know your goals and why you chose their company over others will show the hard work, dedication, and research skills that a lot of interviewees typically lack.
Step 4: Excel in the Position
If you’ve worked a job you’ve hated for a paycheck before, then you know how easy and quickly it is to burn out. However, if you’ve chosen a company and a position based on deep seeded personal goals, then even the most mundane tasks can feel rewarding.
Now, you’ve gotten this far so hopefully your new sales job is a little more exciting than that but often you will start at the bottom of a company and need to work your way up. However, if your goal is to start on the field, then move to leadership, then management, then upper-management, and eventually to an executive level, then everyday will seem like an opportunity to move up that ladder, notch by notch, until you have what you want. This is the meaning of setting out a plan with actionable goals.
The secret to success is to know what you want and reach for it with everything you have. It’s just a lot more fun when you’re working on those goals in a fun company atmosphere. Speaking of, If you’re looking to start, learn, grow, and succeed in sales, learn more about what we do here at Trelevate.