This week JOE’s careers expert Eoghan McDermott deals with a query about the high flux of sales positions right now in Ireland.
Hi Eoghan,
I see there are lots of companies looking for sales people and I’m really attracted to a role like that. What should I do?
Mike, Sandyford
Hi Mike,
Apply – if you can sell. Companies can only survive if they can get business in. To get the business in, they need people who can sell that product or service effectively. Get the idea?
In an ideal world when you’re applying for a job, it’s always best to have direct experience of the role the company wants to fill. If you don’t, all is not lost.
Job hunting is like selling. Identifying the needs of the person who is buying, and meeting those needs with your product or service. This time, you’re the product.
A good sales person is able to communicate and listen superbly, build relationships effectively, achieve targets, and is well organised and motivated. But as a sales manager said to me last week about the good times, all a person in his team needed to do was “take down orders from clients”. Now, as with a lot of roles, that’s changed. And for sales it’s gone back to basics.
If you’re looking at sales as a potential career, you need to make sure that you have developed the skills mentioned above, whether that was from selling experience or other roles that you had. And another skill that is needed for a sales person (and arguably all roles), in these tougher economic times, is resilience and the ability to learn from setbacks. If you have that, you’re on the right road.
Good luck,
Eoghan
If you have a question about your job or career that Eoghan could help you with, why not email JOE at shout@joe.ie?
Eoghan McDermott is Head of The Careers Clinic in The Communications Clinic and is the author of The Career Doctor- How to Get and Keep the Job You Want.
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