Selling the endeavour of hard working people

The much vaunted phrase  “ for hard-working people” continues to be used by the Government and Opposition politicians. It is used by those who favour the Brexit and those who wish to remain in the EU. .

Part of the reason it is used by the political PR folk is to resonate with those enduring the strategy of austerity  to show they are appreciated but also to encourage them to carry own.

Well some of the hardest working people I  work with are salespeople !!!

Let’s take a look at what makes up this fantastic group of people responsible for bringing in revenue to their organisations in the top entry of the Profit and Loss Account as well as providing for their families and our nation's prosperity.

To understand your full responsibility as a professional salesperson you need to look at your job  from three different perspectives:

·         Your own

·         Your client’s

·         Your company’s

The professional sales professional of today has to combine many roles and satisfy many needs.

Your own viewpoint

The first place a sales is made is in your head. So let’s start with you and your

viewpoint

Hard worker:  results come from a combination of ability and effort, but without effort you will never be truly successful in the long term.

Self manager:  you are your own boss for most of your working time and you are responsible for your own organisation, target setting, motivation and control.

Optimist:  you must be positive and enthusiastic and expect success or it will not happen, and you must be able to pick yourself up after things have gone wrong - focus on opportunities and challenges rather than problems.

Realist:  optimism must be tinged with realism - things will not always be easy, mistakes will be made, what you need to do will not always be what you want to do.

All of these can be summed up as having the right positive mental attitude to your job.

Your client’s viewpoint

To be fully effective in opening, building, maintaining and servicing an account there are four different roles that you will have to be able to adopt, depending on the situation that you face at any one time.  They are:

1. Diplomat:  a friendly representative who relates well to other people.

2. Bulldozer: a persuasive communicator who clearly communicates what his organisation can offer.

3. Administrator: an efficient organiser who makes things happen as they should.

4. Consultative Seller a business adviser who helps to identify and satisfy client needs and analyse and solve their problems.

You will need to spend most of your time in the consultative seller role - it is this image of being a ‘trusted adviser and/or ‘problem solver’ who acts in the client’s interest which will set you apart from your competition.  There will be  times, however, when you will need to slip into one of the other roles to carry out a particular part of the total sales function.

The real professional has the sensitivity and flexibility to be able to focus on the right role at the right time for the right person - but remember that you must always aim to move back into the consultative seller role as soon as one of the others has served its purpose.

Your company’s viewpoint

If your clients are happy then your manager is likely to be happy also. But there are other roles you need to fulfil to complete your responsibilities to your own organisation:

Researcher:  obtaining and feeding back information about customers, competitors and the market in general. You after all should have your finger on the pulse of your territory.

Public Relations Officer:  projecting an image of professionalism and quality on behalf of your company. To many clients you will be the face of your company.

Business Manager:  contributing to profitability by doing everything to minimise costs and increase sales and cash flow.

Planner and forecaster :  developing your sales territory and your accounts by looking ahead and using the right strategy and tactics.

Your personal success depends on your own efforts.  To ensure success you will need to be  with a business directed style :-

Conversational selling and personalising your offer to your contact

A truly professional sales executive does not appear to ‘sell’.  You must appear to your client to be simply holding a conversation - listening and discussing with them and their needs.  

The twin skills of questioning and listening help you to carry out the consultative seller role and to sell conversationally.  The other main key is to give your discussions is personalising the benefits of your offer - by thinking and talking in terms of your contact’s interests and by using the words ‘you’ , ‘your’ and you’ll as often as possible.  You are there to provide a ‘solution’ to the customers needs, and to build value and trust.

Professional selling is helping people to buy what they have a need for , in any case.

Selling is more than just a job - it's a career, a lifestyle 'for hard working people' whatever their politics and vital to our country.

Related Links


Institute of Sales and Marketing Management

Chartered Institute of Marketing

Institute of Directors

Government Start up loans

#GCSEResults ATTITUDE is more important than Grades. Ever thought of Selling as a Career?

Congratulations to all who passed their GCSEs today.

 If you really want to go Uni - follow that dream, study for A level or whatever else is required.
but today you may just wish to take a pause and ask yourself is going to Uni REALLY your  dream right now ?

• Your parents will be proud of you. They will be telling other parents of your achievement ( and in no small measure vocally justifying the sacrifices they made for you). 
• Your school teachers will also be proud of your achievement after all they have facilitated your progress.
• Your School will be proud because one of the Indexes they love to quote is the number of pupils who got GCSEs, A levels and University places.

Some young people ( and you may be one of them) are pushed into staying on at school or college trying for A levels and university.  

But WHAT REALLY is YOUR WISH?

Determined Attitude Andy Murray style !
 Probably best not to wield your tennis
racket in the interview room though :) !

As the Times Newspaper on August 20th points out Attitude * beats exam grades in the jobs market.  A can-do approach is more important than an A* .

 A survey of 200 employers was carried out in July 2014  by the Recruitment and Employment Federation.

•  Nearly 50% half said that the most important quality they looked for in a young person was their attitude.
• 20%  said they key criterion was the level of qualifications that an applicant held such as an honours degree, A levels and GCSEs
• Only 4% said they studied the grades of the candidates and based their decision on that.

Qualifications can be a good indicator of ability but the survey shows employers put a high value on attitude. Chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Federation Kevin Green says

 " Our advice is young people need to think about how they project a positive, can-do attitude when applying for jobs"

This blog covers Professional Selling.  If you have not thought about a career in this sector take a look around the site. Take a look at the posts Career in Sales or the other topic labels on the right hand side.

What ever YOU decide - and it is YOUR decision- good luck and if you join the brotherhood and sisterhood of selling- welcome ! 

Your country ( whichever country that is) needs you ! 

 You will also have a lot of fun and you can earn a 'bob or two' along the way as well.......

Related links

* Developing Positive Mental Attitude

Useful tips for Job seekers

The Recruitment and Employment Federation

Is Going to University really YOUR wish ? #alevelresults #resultsday #Clearing2015

Congratulations to all who passed their A levels today.

 If you really want to go Uni - follow that dream.

 but today you may  wish to take stock and ask yourself is going to Uni REALLY your  dream ?

• Your parents will be proud of you. They will be telling other parents of your achievement ( and in no small measure vocally justifying the sacrifices they made for you). 
• Your school teachers will also be proud of your achievement after all they have facilitated your progress.
• Your School will be proud because one of the Indexes they love to quote is the number of pupils who got to University . It is a ‘ measure’ of THEIR success. OFSTED will be looking for such evidence no doubt.

Yet some young people ( and you may be one of them) are  pushed into taking university courses because of Britain’s “snobbery” towards technical qualifications – leaving many struggling to find work when they graduate.

Also today will not be your last chance to decide to go to university.

You may well do better to go to University later in your life. Colleges like the University of London’s Birkbeck College has a long pedigree is lifelong learning and the ‘mature’ student. Similarly the Open University.

But is going to University right now REALLY YOUR WISH?

The continuing high number of drop-outs at some universities raises concerns that too many students are still taking courses that fail to fully meet their needs.

More than 26,000 students dropped out of university last year amid continuing concerns that school leavers are being pushed into taking inappropriate degree courses.

Official figures show that around one-in-15 undergraduates – 6.7 % – failed to complete the first year of their degree and numbers grew to almost a fifth at the worst-performing colleges.

At least one-in-10 students at 18 universities across the UK quit higher education altogether after less than 12 months.

It also emerged that 18.5 % of students – around 73,500 – are projected to fail to complete the course they started after either dropping out, transferring to another university or graduating with an alternative qualification.

Students can face £40,000 debt over 'no limit' tuition fees.

This suggests school leavers should give more serious thought to post-18 study options, particularly with the size of student debt rising.

The disclosure – in data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency revealed that more than £1.3bn spent on student bursaries over a five year period had failed to prevent poor teenagers dropping out of university.

The Government’s Office for Fair Access found that grants worth up to £4,000 a year had "no observable effect" on students’ chances of remaining on their degree course.

 This blog covers Professional Selling.  If you have not thought about a career in this sector take a look around the site. Take a look at the posts Career in Sales or the other topic labels on the right hand side.

What ever YOU decide - and it is YOUR decision- good luck and if you join the brotherhood and sisterhood of selling- welcome ! Your country ( whichever country that is) needs you ! 

 You will also have a lot of fun and you can earn a 'bob or two' along the way as well.......

Related links

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/level-grades-not-what-you-hoped-for-why.html

A-level grades not what you hoped for?– why not apply to the University of Life in SALES #alevelresults #resultsday

( Photos of great murals in Brighton, scroll down for useful links at end of post)

As you opened the envelope this Thursday 13th August 2015 you might feel that since you haven’t got the A level grades you needed to get into university you don’t actually want to go ( by the way there is always going to be lifelong learning anyway - nowadays you can study part-time and keep a full time job e.g. my old college Birkbeck, London www.bbk.ac.uk/uni2011 )

In any case, don’t despair!

Plenty of today’s top businesspeople did not go to university. For example not all the Dragons Den dragons went to University!!

How you handle this current disappointment, how you pick up yourself , dust yourself down and take stock is all part of positive mental attitude , courage and toughness of character – all important attributes as it happens of a professional salesperson. Not all graduates who apply for sales jobs have these attributes in their character incidentally.

Have you considered SELLING as a career?

Although companies will engage graduates they do all not limit themselves to graduates exclusively.
What is selling?

Selling is a part of your daily activities. You sell your views, your ideas and yourselves to colleagues, clients, bosses, partners and families.

And that’s not the whole story either.

You are often talking with sales people – on the street, in stores and even on the phone.

Selling is a very important process – it is the lifeblood of most organisations.

Just look at the top of a Profit and Loss Account for a company- it’s SALES or REVENUE

If Companies do not sell their products or services, companies they go bust.

They recruit promising trainees, give them the best opportunities and hold their good sales people in high esteem.

Good sales skills comprise of helping customers to buy a product or service to meet their needs.

As a profession, this involves meeting people, building relationships, addressing challenges, being creative in offering solutions , self-reliance and independent thinking.

Such skills are relevant to our daily lives, selling isn’t merely a business skill; it’s also a valuable life skill that could help you in many circumstances such as ‘selling’ your skills at a job interview .

As an Apprentice you could find yourself working in a range of sectors.

 You may be, for example, a sales advisor in a retail store, or a membership advisor in a health and fitness club.

On an Advanced Apprenticeship, you could take on a supervisory role as team leader and have the ability to earn higher rates of commission.

Ultimately, your goal will be to sell as many of your company’s products and services as possible, while taking into consideration the interests of your clients.

Customers are important, and you’ll have to seek out new customers while still looking after the current ones.

Businesses realise the importance of salespeople – money tends to be good, most salespeople earn commission, and they can even be treated to presents or other bonuses like free holidays.

In fact, a top-flight senior salesperson could command a salary of up to £100,000, plus commission.

HOWEVER just because you’re selling something doesn’t mean that people want to buy it!!!


Salespeople have to work to ethical standards that reflect the profession. Their training focuses on the ability to remain calm under pressure and be able to handle rejection gracefully…with the motivation to try again when the opportunity arise.

The selling profession’s trade body is the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management. They have produced some handy guides on popular sales topics such as

• Understanding buyer behaviour,
• Preparing and delivering a sales presentation
• and Time and territory management for sales people.

These colour guides contain explanations and activities which give you the knowledge and understanding you need for your sales role. You can see a sample Study Guide on our website at http://www.ismm.co.uk/ed_qcfstudyguides.php
There are plenty of books to consider reading – see book reviews on this blog under the labels directory on the right hand side of the home page.

Learners can be registered by companies for the QCF level 2 Knowledge Based Qualification in the Sales and Telesales Apprenticeship framework, through the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management ISMM.

Their qualification is called the Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Selling and attracts public funding. It’s recognised by Ofqual and provides an introduction to the core knowledge to start a first job in sales.
You can see the specification at http://www.ismm.co.uk/ed_qcfspecs.php

Here are some related links and useful websites:

Have you a flair for Sales ? article
http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/think-youve-got-flair-for-sales.html
Government Site
www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/index.htm
Apprenticeships
www.apprenticeships.org.uk
Princes trust
www.princes-trust.org.uk
Institute of Sales and Marketing Management
http://www.ismm.co.uk/
Chartered Institute of Marketing
http://www.cim.co.uk/home.aspx
Modern Selling website
http://www.modernselling.com/
Job Hunting
http://www.modernselling.com/forum/topics.aspx?ForumID=14

Of course nothing will be 'handed to you on a plate ' - perseverance is part of selling.

Good luck in the next stage of your life in the University of Life and I hope you consider joining the Selling Profession - it needs young active and intelligent people like you.

Recruitment of talent - Who is the Buyer? Who is the seller?

“62% are Arrogant,

42% are unprepared

43% had poor questioning skills

and that’s just THE INTERVIEWERS !!!"

(These are some figures from a survey from online recruitment specialists Monster.co.uk on the views of recruitment candidates and interviewers. Their site has useful tips on preparing for interviews - CV preparation etc., a company profile section for those extra pieces of information you may need on a prospective employer, career snapshot and benchmark tools plus they cover sales and marketing sectors. Scroll down for link )

An interesting question came from a delegate last week at a sales skills course I was facilitating in central London.


It came from a sales professional of 12 years’ experience in the engineering world ( heat tracing sector).

“What are the differences between the skills sets of the buyer and seller?”

It was a good opportunity for the group to discuss and analyse the roles and skills set of sellers and buyers.

The group felt that the skills sets were very similar.


Our conclusion for the range of businesses that the group sold in, was that selling and buying are two sides of the same coin.

Later on in the week I met a trainer specialising in purchasing training at HRD 2011 held London's Olympia Exhibition centre. He told me that companies spend 10 times more on sales training than on purchasing training.

Since recruiters may well feel they are "The Buyer" one wonders how much training they as interviewers undertake. Plenty of people are coached on applying for jobs but from the Monster.co.uk survey maybe the interviewers could do with some refreshment training as well.
Opportunities for Graduates in marketing , sales and purchasing was reported on last year. One wonders whether the Monster.co.uk research reflects our sectors.

London’s Evening Standard newspaper on 5th April ran the story of the Monster.o.uk findings.

The survey researched candidates and recruiters for their views of the opposite party in recruitment interviews .


Recruiters also have to sell the benefits of their company through the advertisements and the interview process as well as buy suitable candidates.

Similarly a candidate needs to sell the benefits to the recruiter of employing them as well as choosing whether to buy the recruiter's offer of an appointment.

There is a pendulum-like swinging back and forth between the two parties adopting selling and buying positions in a recruitment meeting.

Employers were considered off putting by their arrogance by 62% of the candidates in the study

42% said that the employers were poorly prepared for the interview

43% felt they were asked irrelevant questions.

Interviewers were surprisingly candid by admitting that:-

30% had forgotten the candidate’s name during the interview

28% confessed that they had indeed gone to the interview unprepared

19% had even forgotten an interview entirely.

There has also been quite a debate about ' internships' in the news during the week. Deputy PM Nick Clegg declared family assistance in getting introduced to his first job in a bank. Such introductions can occur in Sales also , but what has been clear for graduates entering the Sales field is the likelihood to find that previous sales experience on their will be of help. ( see research by The graduate market in 2011)
FIRST IMPRESSIONS DO COUNT

54% of employer respondents in the Monster.co.uk study admitted they have taken an instant dislike to a candidate.

Yet 26% Candidates thought that researching the person interviewing them was the least important homework.

25% of candidates admitted to arriving late to an interview. This figure is somewhat at odds with the employer’s perspective which said 81% claimed to have experienced a candidate being late for an interview.

41% of candidate respondents don’t think looking online for interview advice as an important preparation task. ( 59% I suppose do!)

What I guess the Monster.co.uk. research shows, is that punctuality, questioning and listening skills plus planning skills are common skill- sets for Buying and Selling.

Like my school reports both candidates and recruiters may well " try hard but ( they) could do better!" it seems.
Click for Monster Co UK On line recruitment site

Think you’ve got a flair for sales? opportunities for graduates – and where can a job in sales take you

In a live Q&A on 9 December 2010 I had the pleasure in joining the panel for a live Q & A with the subject“A guide to your first job in graduate sales for the on line site Guardian Careers”

( Scroll down for the questions they asked)

The invitation to readers read

”Whether you prefer dissecting - or mocking - the efforts of 'Britain's brightest business prospects' on The Apprentice, it is clear from watching the show that to be worthy of landing the chance to work with Lord Sugar a flair for sales is essential.

After all, whether you are a fan of the series or not, you don't have to look far to see how important sales experience is to getting ahead in business.

Miles Brignall, writing for Guardian Money, said a close look at the profiles of managing directors which routinely feature in the broadsheets will often reveal sales experience on their CV - quite often at the start of their career.

In fact, he said sales experience is almost a prerequisite if you want to be a corporate leader.

It's not surprising then that working in sales is perceived as a strong graduate career choice - and working in this area even acts as a springboard to bigger and better things. According to Brignall, a stint in sales can allow graduates to get their foot in the door of a large organization, which can open up a raft of career possibilities.

So, if you'd like to know more about what is involved and how you can land your first sales role, we've decided to run a live Q & A examining what it takes to break into graduate sales “
Here are some of the questions from undergraduates and graduates :-

1. I'm not 100% sure whether I want to do Sales in the long run, or even if I will be a good Salesperson. Should I commit to a 2 year Sales training scheme if this is the case?

2. I have noticed a lot of CEOs have sales experience. My question is, would you say that if a graduate who doesn't particularly excel at sales is doomed to have a mediocre career?

3. I don't class myself as having an innate ability to sell, but surely given the right training I would be able to do it?

4. Additionally, would it help the many unemployed graduates if companies (sales sector included) acknowledged that training is the answer, rather than placing very high standards on their many competitive graduate schemes?

5. We've touched a bit of the different types of personalities that are attracted to a career in sales. I was wondering if the panel could explain how a graduate can discover if they have what it takes to get ahead in sales?

6. My question is how is best to develop my career through sales & what progression should I am for.

7. Why pick a graduate over another 21 year old with 3 more years’ experience in the world of work?
8. Any market trader can sell. Why do people need to put themselves £30k into the red to get a job with no security?

Respones can be found on
Click for responses

Click for info on Winning Edge Magazine & Institute of Sales & Marketing Management Membership Information

Graduates in Selling 2011 - the value of work experience

3/5th of employers from the High Fliers Research Survey stated that it was either 'not very likely' or 'not at all likely' that a graduate who'd had no previous work experience - either with their organisation or at any other employer- would be successful during their selection process and be made a job offer.

Many recruiters commented irrespective of the academic results that a graduate had achieved, it would be very hard for an applicant to demonstrate the the skills and competencies that they were looking for if they'd not had any prior work experience.

Across all the employers featured in the research , an estimated 32% of this year's graduate vacancies will be filled by applicants who have already worked for an employer as an under graduate and in some sectors the proportion increases to 50% or more.


High Fliers Research measure the impact of recruitment activities with 120+ employers selected from the 100 Top graduate employers for 2010.

Almost all of the UK’s leading graduate employers are offering work experience programmes for students and recent graduates during 2010-2011 academic year. Total of 10,665 places are available.

3/5th of employers are providing industrial placements for undergraduates (typically 6-12 months) or vacation work lasting more than three weeks.

2/3rd of recruiters warn graduates who have no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job for their organisations’ graduate programmes.

High Fliers Research have recently published their 32 page report on graduate vacancies & starting salaries at Britain's leading employers.

It is organised into 5 sections Click for High Fliers Web site where you can down load the report scroll down to the bottom left hand site of their home page.


1. Introduction: Researching into the Graduate market. The Times Top 100 Graduate employers.
2. Graduate Vacancies : Job vacancies, Type and Location plus the impact of the recession
3. Graduate salaries
4. Graduate recruitment programmes
5. Work experience: Types of work experience on offer, availability and value of work experience










Other useful links:-


Click for Careers Guardian forums well worth following



Click for free executive summary of the Buyers Views of salespeople research study

Click for New 2011 open course in Sales, Leadership, Finance and Personal Development.

Do you have the right skills set for Sales? - Graduate Sales

As a recent panelist for a online discussion forum for Guardian Jobs last Thursday I noticed there were a number of questions from recently qualified graduates asking about what skills were required for a career in Sales.(Click for Guardian Jobs on line )
So here are some further thoughts:-

Identifying your skills

List out all the skills you feel you have currently on a sheet of Paper or a word document.

These can be anything you think relevant. (Don't forget skills like driving.)

You're looking for particular knowledge and experience that might differentiate you from a lot of other candidates in the market.
e.g. Do you have skills in statistical analysis, report writingetc. ?

Create a skills audit to find out more about you.



Once you have exhaustive list of skills rate them on a scale strong to weak.

This will help you define your strengths and weaknesses.

It will also help you identify if there are any areas where you are particularly strong compared to your colleagues at University or college. These strong characteristics are the things which will help sell you. The weaker scores are where you can develop and create activities where you can demonstrate improvement in the weaker areas.

Highlight the areas where you are strong and other areas where you are able to improve quickly these can for the basis of your CV.



Work Experience

The purpose of work experience is it assists you in achieving a number of things:

1. It defines what you do and often what you don't want to do
2. It helps you gain key skills
3. It helps you to understand the general world of work a company culture
4. It allows you to make industry contacts and start a network for work
5. It allows you to develop skills which can differentiate you from other candidates

Why do some employers value relevant work experience highly?

Think of the situation from the point of the employer for a moment. Recruiting people is a costly process. The time searching and advertising, interviewing costs them time ,resource and money.

When taking on Graduates they also cannot expect an instant return on their investment. There will be time and money needed to spent on training even if the learning curve for most graduates is a shorter period than average.

Depending on the size of the firm the numbers of opportunities for further advancement is limited and why 2-3 years down the road graduates move on. Will they get a return for their initial investment? Recruiting is a risk to them.



You will be less of a risk to an employer if you can demonstrate you can do the job.

A previous employer allows a potential to request a solid reference.

It will take less time to train you and therefore you are more cost effective.
Any network contacts made previously can often be transferred to a new a new employer (this can often be useful in sales roles)

The key to understanding the context of work experience is understanding what you have done to date and presenting it in a way which relates directly to a potential employer. To do this it would help to create an audit of your work experience.

Think about the company and your contribution along the lines of the following headings:

your role - role title, duration, start date, location

the company - big / small, revenues, products, departments

the Market - how has market developed, competition, regional / global, market value, market share

how you fitted in - what you did on a day to day basis, how your role fitted in to the overall contribution, of delivery of service for example or contribution to revenue or reporting and subsequent decision making

skills required and learnt - what were the key elements learnt which would be of value to other employers?

achievements - did your or your departments actions have any impact on the overall success of the organisation or improvement in the department?

From this record of work experience you will be able to select key pieces of information and recall them in either interview or on application forms.

This exercise will also help you identify :

1. what you're good at,


2. what you enjoyed during your work experience up to now and


3. what you could use as indicators to the direction you might wish to take in the future.
   
   " But what if I don't have any or relevant work experience?"
   
   Chances are you'll have had some sort of part-time job either during the summer or whilst at University.

All experience is relevant and it's easy to overlook good work, management of others and planning as 'just part of the job'. Don't go exaggerate any roles into something that they clearly weren't.


If you have none at all then get something sorted even if it's some temporary voluntary work just to demonstrate that you are keen to succeed, have a positive attitude. There are more volunteer opportunities now as the Government's initiatives to the fostering of the 'Big Society' become clearer.


Then use this expertise to demonstrate that you can perform effectively as part of a team and make a difference.

Click for free executive summary of the Buyers Views of salespeople research study

What are Graduate employers really looking for?

Yesterday I took part in an on line discussion as a panelist for Guardian Jobs. The subject was 'Graduate Sales'Loads of questions were raised so I thought might post some blogs on some of the issues raised from the forum.
For starters:

What are graduate employers looking for?

Think about what skills, ambitions and experience relate to what employers actually want:

IMPORTANT: List the skills, knowledge, ambition and experience which you demonstrate as many elements in the wanted list as possible (preferably from the nearer the top of the list). Have examples prepared which you can adapt for application forms or use during interviews for as many of the above headings as possible.

A common pitfall is to continue to think in terms of your application for UCAS points and degree level.

This is important but it's not enough to say "I have a 2:1 what can you do for me?"

You seriously need to think about what makes you different and what makes you stand out above those other applicants who no doubt also have a 2:1.

You will need to demonstrate this with evidence and explain how will it benefit an employer.

Willingness to learn
Commitment
Dependability
Self Motivation
Teamwork
Oral communication skills
Cooperation
Written communication skills
Drive/Energy
Self management
Desire to achieve / motivation
Problem solving
Analytical ability
Flexibility
Initiative
Can summarise key issues
Logical argument
Business awareness
Numeracy
Adaptability


Source: Harvey L. et al. (1997), Graduate Work, organisational change and students attributes, CRQ, University of Central England.


Click for free executive summary of the Buyers Views of salespeople research study


Gordon Donkin at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has sent me the following that might be of interest to the group

1. www.getin2marketing.com which has lots of info about marketing as a career.
2. CIM Publications “ Achieve More” and “Professional Marketing Standards”


Similarly you might like to visit the InstSMM site

The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management
Harrier Court
Lower Woodside
Bedfordshire
LU1 4DQ
Tel: 01582 840001 01582 840001 - Fax: 01582 849142
Click for Selling 2010 Article


The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Moor Hall
Cookham
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 9QH
UK
Telephone
+44 (0) 1628 427120 +44 (0) 1628 427120
Fax +44 (0) 1628 427499
http://www.cim.co.uk/about/cimservices.aspx

Also keep on your favourites Click for Guardian Jobs on line

A guide to your first job in graduate sales

Have you ever thought of Selling as your next career step?

As you can see from today's Guardian Jobs 9th December 2010 the numbers of jobs in Sales and Marketing are right at the top end of the Jobs advertised.

Click for Guardian Jobs on line on line

If you've dismissed the idea of working in sales, why not think again?



Have you noticed those profiles of a managing directors and CEOs that regularly appear in the broadsheet newspapers, and examined their potted CV that often accompanies such features?

More often than not, you will identify at least some sales experience in these profiles - and quite often at the start of their career.

While sales experience is almost a precondition if you want to be a corporate leader, it is ignored or avoided by most graduates.

The Guardian ran a poll recently
"Should graduates tap into their inner entrepreneur?"
the results were 71% said Yes 29% No.

Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist, is believed to have coined the word "entrepreneur" first in about 1800.

He said an entrepreneur is "one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediary between capital and labour.

The art and craft of selling is used in the connection between Says' Capital and Labour.








(Adam Smith on the back of a £20 note.)

I dear say fans of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations- The Invisible Hand" might feel he was talking about the selling activities of entrepreneurs before Monsieur Say.








'Graduate sales' is now an important part of the overall graduate recruitment scene today, and is now perceived as a strong career choice in its own right.

Whether in Business to Business B2B or Business to Consumer B2C - the list of business sectors in which sales roles proliferate is lengthy. Even in the Non to Profit and Charity sectors Selling is key - but it called "fundraising".

Sales is a great way to get your foot in the door of a large organisation, which in turn can open up a whole host of other career possibilities.

One of the interesting aspects about a career in sales is that it often appears better suited to those who have done a” bit of living” during their degree studying years.

They are likely to have completed a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Operation Rayleigh or some other character building challenge. That’s the opinion of Head of Sales for Tack International Carole Hudson.

“Evidence of voluntary community work, VSO also shows evidence of someone who is able to step outside their comfort zone and engage with people beyond normal circle. This is particularly important in the increasing importance in networking is modern selling.”

"Social skills, in particular, good conversational skills are key. In addition is the ability to discuss subjects with discernment and interpretation is important."

Those with an adventurous personality who enjoyed life at university studying as well as in the extra mural activities often make good sales people."

Carole admits it can be tough for first time job hunters to get their personality across in a CV or email or letter. However many employers are recruiting through interviews on the telephone.

As Selling moves into the Selling 2.0 arena more and more desk based communication skills are seen as just as important conventional face to face engagement.

While a summer vacation sales job will help, today’s employers are really looking for some evidence of sociability and team playing.

One of the beauties of sales is that your effort can be directly rewarded. The career path is often mapped out in front of you. Progression can be typically from telesales to global account manager and it is in your control" she says.


Employers are looking for raw graduates with personality, confidence and a can-do approach - in short they are looking for relationship builders and solution providers."

One of the other advantages of a career in sales is that it tends to be better paid than lots of graduate assignments. Another is that you are often working in teams of like-minded people, with an emphasis on playing hard as well as working hard.
Most graduates in sales start on salaries £18,000-£22,000, and are typically earning £25,000-£30,000 after the first year. Some go on to earn salaries in the top level.

Even if money doesn't motivate you, a stint in sales is the perfect springboard for a career that can go in a number of directions.

Click for free executive summary of the Buyers Views of salespeople research study