How to Become a Salesperson

Everybody encounters a salesperson in any kind of shop or service place. Salespersons can be of both sexes and it is job which is not difficult to get into.

A salesperson has a constant presence everywhere – from your neighborhood grocery store, to the newspaper agent, to the milkman, to the shop or department store where you buy your clothes from or the mobile store where you buy your phone or refill coupons, the gas station and more. As such jobs are plentiful and always available. Why, even the waiter in a restaurant will be taught to up sell dishes and beverages to you, so that your bill is higher!

The Work

The work can be interesting provided you want to make a career in selling. But as a consumer there must have been times when you have gone shopping and experienced bored and disinterested salespeople, so if you are looking at a career in sales, make sure you are really interested in selling.

You will have to attend to customers with various demands and try to fulfill their demands, to the best of your ability. If you are a door-to-door salesperson, you should have the ability to walk up to unknown people’s houses, ring the doorbell and try and sell whatever it is you are supposed to sell.

You may also get work at business to business selling, selling products or services to large business houses – in the end it is all sales. Whether you are selling a car, a television, cosmetics, diapers or food items, you are a salesperson.

Personal Qualities

You should obviously have people skills because you will be interacting with people constantly, whether you have a fixed time job or a flexi time one, whether you work at a shop or a restaurant or at a business. It is extremely important that you should be pleasant and well-mannered even when dealing with rude and demanding customers and be able to conclude a sale. So you need to have a great deal of patience.

This quality comes in use when there are lean times or you have to wait for customers or wait on them. Understanding the needs and requirements of your customers is an important part of a salesperson’s skills. It is only when you are able to do this will you be able to make a sale.

Qualifications

You need to have a minimum of high school education. Apart from that you should be fluent in the language which you are required to speak in. For certain sales jobs, you may require to be fluent in more than one language.

Subjects like business studies, economics, marketing, public relations and commerce are some of those which will give you a good grounding. You can also read up on the many sales and marketing books available in bookshops.

Jobs

In the beginning as a fresher, you may have to take any kind of sales job you can get – this will serve as a valuable training period to you as well. Some companies do offer training or probationary periods.

Later you can decide what you want to specialize in – whether you are suited to man a cosmetic’s counter in a department store, sell food items in a supermarket or medicines in a pharmacy. You may prefer becoming door to door sales person.

Once you have experience under your belt and like what you are doing, you may do further studies in business, marketing or sales related subjects or courses to augment your educational qualifications. This will help you rise to supervisory or managerial positions.

Earnings

A starting salary for a salesperson can vary enormously but should be in the range of at least $20,000 a year. Remember there are also jobs where salary may be less, but commissions may be more. Also you can get perks on the job like discounts if you are working at a shop.

With work experience and commissions (where applicable) you earn a good living and at the higher end – for instance if you are working at selling equity products, you can easily make $100,000 and more. At managerial and executive levels, depending on the place you are working at, you can draw $40,000-50,000 annually.

Other Resource:

http://www.wethechange.com/how-to-become-a-great-salesperson/
http://admissionsuccess.endlex.com/Types/services/salesperson.htm
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Salesperson_%2F_Salesman_%2F_Saleswoman/Salary