A Career In Sales – Is It Worth It?
Is a career in sales worth pursuing?
Will it give you fulfilment, job security, or the income that you’re wanting or need?
The answer to that question, is that it very much depends.
Ultimately, it comes down to intent.
Why do you want to pursue a career in sales?
Is it for the money?
Maybe it’s to meet new people, or because you believe in your cause and what you’re selling.
Perhaps it’s both.
In this article, we’ll explore the question is a career in sales worth it, and then what you’ll need to be successful in sales; by looking at some important factors that separate average salespeople from the top performing five percent.
Related article: Sales As A Profession – Is It Worth It?
A Career In Sales – Is It Worth It?
If you’re considering a career in sales, there are a number of key factors to focus on prior to making this career decision.
First – do you want to serve people in a way that solves their personal problems or business issues?
If so, then a career in sales may be right for you.
Every buying decision is based on solving a problem. People buy because they want to escape pain and move towards a more desirable state.
Secondly; are you open to following systems? Meaning, do you understand the importance of, and are disciplined to follow a step by step road map?
If you are, then a career in sales may also be right for you. If not; it may not be the right choice.
Finally; just like other careers, you’ll need to up skill your personal development, understand the sales landscape and how it is changing, and be open to evolve with it so that you can continuously succeed.
We’ll break down the importance of each of these, and why you need it to be successful if you’re pursuing a career in sales.
A Career In Sales Means Becoming A Master At Solving Problems
Many sales professionals make the mistake of presenting their products or services, without knowing their potential client’s problems – or whether they can in fact solve them.
As per our article in Entrepreneur; we call this ‘premature presentation’ – and it harms your sales and closing efforts.
In order to be successful with a career in sales, you need to become an expert at finding pain.
Each of your clients will have pain points; your role, will be to ask them sales probing questions to slowly uncover their pain points, and then prescribe an offer that can help alleviate their pain, and get them to where they want to be.
Mediocre salespeople present their offer, with the hope that something sticks, and that their potential client or customer will then buy.
Excellent sales professionals do the opposite; they’re positioned as trusted advisors, because they ask careful questions that uncover the true pain their potential client wants solved.
To learn how to find pain, read the linked article below.
Further reading: Pain Points & Sales – Your Ultimate Guide
You’ll Need A Proven Roadmap
The most important toolkit you need to have a successful career in sales, is to master your road map.
A road map; better known as a sales flowchart, is a step by step system or framework that guides both you and your potential client towards the sale.
Although there are various kinds of sales process frameworks; we recommend using a seven step framework.
The steps we teach, known as The 5% Sales Blueprint, covers the following:
- Building rapport
- Qualifying
- Pre-framing and positioning
- Uncover pain and desire
- Discussing money
- Presenting
- Handling objections and asking for the sale
A good sales process will allow you to do the following:
- It gives you a clear outcome
- Consistency
- It creates certainty for both you and your potential client
- Allows you to control the conversation
Read the article below, to learn in more detail as to why you need to be following a sales process.
Further reading: The Sales Process – A Step By Step Guide
Personal Development
Finally, if you wish to pursue and become successful in a career in sales, then you need to be willing to invest in your personal development.
Put simply; pursuing something as a career means to be aligned with acting as any other professional would.
Lawyers, medical specialists, and sales consultants are all professionals.
If you needed legal assistance, and your lawyer wasn’t aware of the latest laws or proceedings for your requirements, would you feel comfortable seeking their advice?
Perhaps you needed surgery – how would you feel if the medical specialist told you that the last time, they did any medical training was 20 years ago when they became a doctor?
Of course, you would have an issue with both cases, because they’re not acting as professionals should.
The same is true if you wish to pursue a career in sales.
To help you with this, we’ve put together a no cost 7 day sales challenge.
Each day for seven days, you’ll receive a video directly to your inbox, to help you with your sales process, understanding buyer behaviour, and positioning yourself as a specialist in your field.
Register at the link below to get access.
Free Sales Training: The 7 Day Sales Challenge
Final Thoughts On Choosing A Career In Sales
A career in sales can be very rewarding, if you follow the right sales process, prescribe an offer that solves their pain points, and by having a mindset of personal improvement and development.
Furthermore; it’s very important to sell something you believe in.
If you sell something just for the money; chances are you won’t be successful.
The reason being, is conviction is important when selling anything.
Your potential clients will want to know that you genuinely and authentically believe in your product or service, before they’ll make a buying decision.
Being a sales professional means to find people’s problems and pain points, and then through conviction – presenting and demonstrating how you can get them to where they want to be.
A career in sales can be very lucrative and rewarding, if you follow the points outlined in this article.
Want To Learn Exactly How To Close Sales – Consistently & Easily?
If you’re committed to wanting to learn exactly how to close sales consistently and more easily, then you may be interested in our sales blueprint.
Our online sales training course is self-paced, affordable, and completely online for your convenience.
Click the link below to learn exactly how The 5% Sales Blueprint can help you learn how to close sales on a consistent basis, and will get rid of all the guesswork.