Sales Overview

The one job that rarely features in a list of sought-after careers is that of sales professional, and it is something that the vast majority of Service leavers will not even consider … until they have been outside the Forces for a little while, that is, and learn that there is nothing 'wrong' with selling and no organisation can survive unless it is somehow able to persuade other people to give it money in return for some product or service.

Historically, selling has been at the root of the development of civilised society. The subsistence farmer who traded his surplus stock for products that he couldn't make or grow for himself was a salesman. So too were the great sailors and explorers who established trade links with previously undiscovered continents.

Sales is at the very core of any successful organisation. Irrespective of the product or service supplied, it is a company's ability to sell that dictates whether it succeeds or fails. Whatever jobs individuals perform they are dependent for their income on the ability of someone to sell the product or service they supply. Even organisations in the not-for-profit sector sell - sometimes quite aggressively.

A great emphasis is placed on the quality of a sales person's relationship with his or her clients. By working in partnership with clients, a professional sales person can ensure that the client/supplier relationship is more mutually beneficial. It is essential that customers regard the sales person as someone who provides them with solutions to their problems, almost as if they were part of their own team. This consultative attitude to sales has replaced the adversarial approach where the sales person's job was to unload the maximum amount of product at the best possible price.

In order to succeed in this partnership-centred sales environment, sales people need to understand far more about their customers' business. They need to be able to think creatively in order to provide their customers with business solutions that are going to make them more effective in their markets. To achieve this, sales people need to be all-round business professionals. They must be able to extend their horizon beyond the next sale and appreciate the long-term business opportunities that exist for them and for their customers.

Selling in the Services
Apart from the Defence Export Services Organisation, people in the Services rarely become involved in selling, but they do a great deal of buying - from expensive machinery like aircraft and ships at one end of the spectrum to local contracts on operations and exercises abroad. The two functions have many things in common, and nowadays each will often be a stakeholder in the other's business, trying for the deal that makes both happy and that will generate repeat business.

Service people also do a great deal of negotiating. Trade-off and compromise are part of such processes. Each side starts from its best position and moves, quickly or slowly depending on culture and custom, towards the middle, which is where agreement is possible because there is something for everybody.

Recruiting involves selling, using modern and highly sophisticated sales techniques, and it is probably where the Services are closest to business. They are addressing potential recruits, while in competition with each other for their share of suitable youngsters. Presentation skills are highly practised in the Services, but the anti-selling gut feeling possessed by many Service people needs to be overcome. Of course, there have been times when sales people have behaved unethically to close a deal, but there have been people in the Services who have behaved dishonestly or improperly, and this does not brand everyone in uniform a crook.

Personal qualities
The list of personal qualities desirable for sales people will surprise nobody, but it is interesting to note that they are virtually the same qualities that people in the Services are supposed to have when they are recruited, and that Service life aims to develop. They are:
• reliability
• determination
• self-discipline
• self-motivation
• resourcefulness
• commitment
• teamwork
• a 'can-do' attitude.

Employment
There are a number of different areas of sales employment:
• advertising and media - persuading clients that an advertisement in a publication or on a radio or TV station, or website will be advantageous for them
• product sales - including medical, pharmaceutical, cars and financial services - selling directly to a customer, to a retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer
• exhibition sales - using a stand as a form of mobile shop, often selling to organisations in similar business areas and building relationships with clients
• retailing - the traditional high street or corner shops with a general or specific product range
• door-to-door - a job that still employs people and can involve some excellent products.

Network marketing involves selling products to friends, family and other contacts. Individuals buy products, which may be of high quality, from the supplier and a proportion of the purchase money goes to the person who introduced them to the network. The individuals then form their own 'downstream' network by persuading their contacts to sell the products to their contacts, and they in turn receive a proportion of the resultant purchases. The more people that everyone introduces, the greater the amount of money they will all get from purchases. It is most certainly legal, as opposed to pyramid selling with which it is often confused, and a number of people are very happy doing it; but it is not for everyone and people should understand what they are getting into before joining the network.

Sales functions include:
• telesales - on the phone all day every day, usually surrounded by others, working in-house or in a call centre where people might be selling insurance one day and cars the next
• field sales - getting out to meet customers, making visits and presentations, and often organising a schedule to meet individuals' needs and those of their customers
• management - when people have earned promotion through their sales record; sales managers may well then take further qualifications to enter general management.

When looking for their first employer, people should ideally choose a company that will offer good training. They may need considerable training before being allowed out on their own - either in the field or on the phone. Early training may well be about sales techniques, the company and product knowledge.

Training and qualifications
There are National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications in Sales, at Levels 2 to 4, which consist of a number of units and are assessed in the same way as any other NVQ or SVQ. Some of the units will be the same as those in NVQs/SVQs awarded in the military.

The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM) has a range of professional qualifications:
• Certificate in Sales and Marketing (aligned to NVQ Level 2)
• Advanced Certificate in Sales and Marketing (aligned to NVQ Level 3)
• Diploma in Sales Management (aligned to NVQ Level 4)
• Diploma in Key Account Management (aligned to NVQ Level 4).

These qualifications can be studied at further education colleges and through distance learning, as well as being offered by approved private training centres and company training departments. Members of the Institute come from all sectors of industry and commerce, and it offers membership at grades from Student to Companion, conferences and seminars, training services and a monthly magazine.

Salaries
Rewards vary enormously, probably more so in this industry than any other. It is relatively easy to measure performance and pay accordingly, and that is why many packages have low basic pay, supported by profit-related and/or bonus payments that reflect the individual's success or otherwise. Someone starting out in their early twenties as a junior sales person with plenty of skills but few academic qualifications could earn about £15,000. At the other end of the scale, the managing director of a large chain of stores could earn upwards of £100,000. Typically, a sales manager would earn around £25,000 to £40,000 with commission, bonuses and other incentives on top.

Sales training and ISMM qualifications are available through the Career Transition Partnership. For more information contact a resettlement consultant or look at the website at www.ctp.org.uk for dates of Marketing and Selling in a Small Business courses.

The Institute of Sales and Marketing Management is at Romeland House, Romeland Hill, St Albans AL3 4ET Tel: 01727 812500 Fax: 01727 812525 Website: www.ismm.co.uk