Sales Reps???

Question

Hey guys, if there are any sales reps for marketing and sales companies out there, could you tell me if you started out in entry-level and what were your experiences? And those of you who know someone who did could you let me know?

Answer 1

I'm a sales rep. I'm involved in the financial services industry. As I started, I was completely nervous on what to say to people. The more I talk to people, the less nervous and more confident I became. The products are easy to learn. My company holds weekly product training. Though these trainings are repetitive, its good for the rep attempting to explain it to the client.

As for all sales rep, you do start as entry level. If you meet a certain quota, you get promoted to earn higher commissions. In my company, I'm allowed to recruit people. I don't get paid for recruiting or training my recruit, but whatever they sell, they earn full commissions and I earn some too. This is called an override. And get this, when I make money, my upline and his upline and so on earns commissions as well! Its completely mind blowing. So my company I work for pays lots of commissions off of one sale!!

Answer 2

Door-to-door salesmen discovered that they could increase their sales by using specific words and specific persuasion methods. This lead to the perfecting and proliferation of sales techniques that focused not on the customer's needs or building a relationship, but on closing techniques and methods that rated a one-time sale, which was all they were interested in.

The foundations of most modern sales techniques lie in five stages of action. These began in the 1950's and include:

1. Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method.
2. Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company thousands of dollars!
3. Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them its features and letting them sample or test-drive it.
4. Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the worth of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use testimonials from happy customers.
5. Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then many variations of closing techniques that can help get the business.

There is a plethora of closing techniques that range from hard sell to soft sell and everything in-between. Some of these include:

* A Direct Close: Simply asking for the order when you are sure your prospect is ready.
* A Deal/Concession Close: Using this closing technique gives the prospect the feeling that they are making a smart choice and saving money (or getting more value). Use it with phrases like "Order today and I can add this other module for only 10% more."
* A Time-Driven Close: This one works well with statements like, "prices are going up next week, so you should go ahead a let me place your order today."
* Trial Offer: You can let the prospect use the product at no risk for a trial period. This works well if you're selling products that make people's lives easier. They aren't likely to want to give it back if it has saved them a lot of time and effort during the trial period. On the other hand, if they haven't had the experience with the product you told them they would then you probably won't get another chance.

Answer 3

I was a banker till age 27. Then I moved into sales. I started in an "entry level" position selling business to business. It's the 2nd best thing I've ever done (wife being#1).

It wasn't easy. There's a lot to learn and grasp. Sales is a rewarding field. I'm not refering to money as much as the relationships & the daily "learning something new" that it entails.

Good Luck!
(Watch out for the sales openings that are always in the paper. There's a reason turn over is so large)