When many people get their first job, often it is in sales – and this shouldn’t overly surprise, given the variety of the skills this can help generate. Joel Goldstein, a globally renowned speaker on entrepreneurial matters, has cited the common saying that “if you know how to sell, you can do anything.” He has also provided guidance for excelling in your first sales job.
Seek a mentor
To draw heavily on metaphors, you might be Luke Skywalker, but that doesn’t yet mean that you can skillfully wield a lightsabre. You still need to find your Yoda who can teach you the ways of the Force – and it might be in your sales team that you come across someone who could mentor you.
The company might already run a mentoring program; turn to your sales manager for clarification on this point. If there isn’t a mentoring scheme, you could still ask your manager to recommend a contact who could be approached if you want someone to be your mentor.
After finding a mentor, you should ask them for various pieces of information. Those include what they have learned from their time with the company, how to handle excessively demanding clients and effective tactics for promoting the firm’s products. Taking initiative in this way will impress your manager, Goldstein enthuses in a Lifehack article.
Educate yourself about the product’s merits
You will struggle to make people enthusiastic about a product if you aren’t yourself keen on it. Make sure that you know what benefits the product offers and try that product yourself. This means that, if it is food that you are endeavouring to sell, you should taste a sample of it and read through the nutritional information.
All of this is vital because, if you lack enthusiasm about the product, potential customers will be capable of sensing this even while you are promoting what is supposedly good about it.
Familiarise yourself with your new company
You should aim to provide the same kind of experience as your cohorts on the sales team. It wouldn’t be ideal if a customer asked you something about a particular product or service and you realised that you will need to put them on hold while you seek a manager’s assistance.
You should instead aim to always speak with confidence and answer any customer questions without faltering. Fumbling when certain questions are put to you will leave you looking short of experience and organisation. Therefore, it would be advisable that you thoroughly research the business and its offerings before your sales efforts get underway.
Look for suitable opportunities to progress
Once you are excelling in the entry-level sales role, you should seek a team leader position, as recommended in an article for The Guardian. You should also extend your learning by undertaking sales courses from our company, Frosch Learning, which can assist you in making that big leap. More details about these courses are available when you give us a call on 020 3859 0707.