Are you in sales?

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I can't find any employment with the exception of sales that is willing to employ a recent college grad with no experience. Would you recommend a caree in sales? I'm a pretty laid-back, non-competitive sort of guy, so this should be, um, great fun.

― FAQtopten, Tuesday, 28 March 2006 20:58 (twenty years ago)

try to sell something to me

― ai lien (kold_krush), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 21:01 (twenty years ago)

every time i've ever had to sell anything (in a capacity where i wasn't ringing someone up at a register or processing an incoming order over the phone) i've been a dismal failure.

― chillaxing damsel on box art (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

yeah, go on

xpost

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Get a job through a friend or relative.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 21:15 (twenty years ago)

great advice for an orphan.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 21:16 (twenty years ago)

If you can get into industrial or technical sales that involves NO cold-calling, it's not a bad way to gain experience. Pharmaceutical sales is also generally not a bad deal. I started out in technical sales of industrial equipment and software which gained me tons of exposure to real-world applications, which I used to springboard into a training position which later led to having my own application consulting firm.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

If you go into pharmaceutical sales and I see you strolling back to pitch my doctor on the new miracle whatever while I'm sitting there waiting to see her for like 45 minutes in a room full of coughing babies and geriatric chatterboxes, I'm going to punch you in the nuts. Be forewarned.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 22:40 (twenty years ago)

pharmaceutical marketing/salespeople are vampire lizards without souls. The most evil, conscience-less people I have ever had to come into direct contact with for work.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Wow. I only personally know one, and he's a nice guy. He must be in the wrong line of work.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 22:45 (twenty years ago)

I used to work for a non-profit AIDS education organization, and the amount of money these companies pour into marketing (over 50% of their operating budgets, with over 100% profit margins in some cases) is unbelievable. Not to mention the fact that their whole MO is to sell product directly to doctors, independent of whether or not the doctors' actually patients need it. Pharmaceutical reps would regularly try to sneak into our events to promote their products directly to the physicians in attendance, and would lie, cheat, and steal to get their products endorsed and/or mentioned in educational literature, regardless of its actual scientific merit. They're ghouls, happily making billions off the suffering and deaths of others.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 22:49 (twenty years ago)

Pharmaceutical sales takes some experience anyway. So I'm clear. Personally, I find recruiters/job salesman the most noxious.

Jaq, your line of adive is the direction I'm heading.

― FAQtopten, Wednesday, 29 March 2006 17:30 (twenty years ago)

Not to mention the fact that their whole MO is to sell product directly to doctors, independent of whether or not the doctors' actually patients need it.

Doctors are the only ones who can write prescriptions; not really sure who you think pharm reps should be selling to if not the people who actually order the product. Although in my experience more than half of selling to doctors involves selling everyone else in the office.

I have about ten years of sales experience. Cold calling is one of the most valuable skills you can learn and mastering it helps you in many other areas well beyond sales. Also, many times the best salespeople are the ones who don't fit the stereotype.

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:08 (twenty years ago)

i'm not sold.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:10 (twenty years ago)

suddenly, everything you've ever posted now makes sense.

x-post

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:12 (twenty years ago)

cold calling still sucks very badly though. never gets better.

FYI, it's hard to get a sales job with no experience that doesn't involve cold calling ("new business development") of some sort.

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:15 (twenty years ago)

I work in recruitment, after a fashion. Selling people, isn't it? I got into it as I enjoyed helping people (I work with socially excluded and people with health problems, amongst others), but selling, persuasion and communication skills are very useful skills to have (like what Don said), and I have talked many a client into a job, or many an employer into giving a client a chance.

I still don't think of it as sales though, if someone asked me to be a salesperson, I'd run a mile. (The fact that I am watching loads of self-opinionated young wankstains on The Apprentice makes me not want to be associated with these people)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Don, I'll be in your area early next week. Would you like to meet with me on Monday at ten, or would Tuesday afternoon around two work better for you?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

OH THE FUCKING NIGHTMARE FLASHBACKS.

Seriously.

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:30 (twenty years ago)

Sleeping on a planter at the Port Authority
Waiting for my bus to come
Seven scotch-and-sodas at the office party
Now I don't remember where I'm from

I think I had a black wallet
In my back pocket
With a bus ticket
And a picture of my baby inside
And if I make it home alive

I'm gonna get my shit together
'Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too fay
And I don't want to fail
I got a new computer
And a birght future in sales
Yeah, yeah
A bright future in sales
Yeah, yeah

Heading for the airport on a misty morning
Gonna catch a flight to Baltimore
Try to kill an hour with a whiskey sour
If there's time I might have just one more

I gotta do some quick reading
For the big meeting
But my head is spinning
And I can't quite open my eyes
As long as I don't have to drive

I'm gonna get my shit together
'Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too far
And I don't want to fail
I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales
Yeah, yeah
A bright future in sales
Yeah, yeah

I had a line on a brand new account
But now I can't semm to find
Where I wrote that number down
I try to focus, I'm staring at the screen
Pretending like I know
What all these little flashing lights mean

I gotta do some quick reading
For the big meeting
But my head is spinning
And I can't quite open my eyes

I gotta get my shit together
'Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too far
And I don't want to fail
I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales
Yeah, yeah
A bright future in sales
Yeah, yeah

"Bright Future In Sales" (Fountains of Wayne)

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

AILSA HOW DO I GOT JOB?

― naus (Robert T), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Move to Glasgow and ask me. My time don't come for free.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Ailsa's quite right about the value of sales skills. When you go for a job interview, you are selling the prospective employer on the idea of you as an employee. When I pitch an engineering proposal, I'm trying to sell those involved on my ideas. The most important skill I learned from sales was (massive cliche, but so true) listening and learning to read the clues into what was going on behind the words.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:51 (twenty years ago)

Don, I'll be in your area early next week. Would you like to meet with me on Monday at ten, or would Tuesday afternoon around two work better for you?

I've spotted a nasty trick that phone company salesmen tend to do quite a lot. If you say "Sorry, I'm busy right now" when they phone up to chat, they'll say "no problem, can you suggest a time when I can phone back?" If you give them a suggestion, they'll then turn up in person at that date and time, claiming to have an appointment to see you.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 30 March 2006 05:06 (twenty years ago)

"Now if I can just get you to confirm with me that the mailing address we have for you is still accurate, do you reside at 3769 Fairfax Street?"

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

If you want to know lots of the tricks, read Swim with the Sharks or anything else in the sales training genre. Then you can be prepared when the Power of Suggestion close or Fear Factor close or Option close starts up.

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 30 March 2006 17:03 (twenty years ago)

they'll then turn up in person at that date and time, claiming to have an appointment to see you.

the termite guy JUST DID THIS VERY THING TO ME 30 minutes ago. Asshole.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 30 March 2006 18:22 (twenty years ago)

Really good salepeople tend to be able to make an immediate connection to their customers on a personal level. It doesn't matter how shallow that connection is, so long as it is warm and inspires instinctive trust. Once they trust you, their resistance is like warm putty.

If people seem to just like you at the drop of a hat and do whatever you suggest, then sales is your golden stairway to a cushy life.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 30 March 2006 18:32 (twenty years ago)

used to. now i train people to do sales. if you find something you can get passionate about then sales can be quite good fun.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 31 March 2006 12:45 (twenty years ago)

I hate the idea that sales is something you can just fall back on, if you can't find any other job. I'm not saying it right. I'm tired and sleep deprivation always fucks up my brain. But, anyway, I don't think it's something you should *think about*. I feel it's like a vocation: you either are good at or it's not your thing. Yes, I know you can learn it, but I always felt it's something that's in your *blood*. But maybe that's because my family's been in sales for such a long time and I grew up in it... I don't know. But I do know that one has to be competitive in sales. Just don't let the clients know this. ;-)

Look at my pics, I can do that smile AT ALL TIMES. *roffle* I just looooooooooooooove selling. It's so much fun.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 31 March 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

question about sales technique:

is it a thing to begin to tell a personal story, sometimes about an old relative, tell the story in excruciating detail and with much relish, only to conclude with a weak link to a product/service/what have you that they are actually trying to shill? is this a standard feature of the "testimonial" approach, beyond "i believe in axe body spray. i'm derek jeter and you have my word on it" type testimonial?

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 13:47 (twelve years ago)

What like 'my grandmother always used to say to me...' An ending with 'anyway the point is, by a magazine subscription'?

― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 16:37 (twelve years ago)

Like "my favorite place to walk with my great grandfather was this beautiful pastoral animals description flavor of grapes on a sunny day memories blablabla and that is what I always think about when I go to Oliva Vineyard in Okracoke* If you're ever in the area, you must try it"

*which is owned by my brother in law and his new wife after he had a midlife crisis so he could start making wine and living life to its fullest

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 16:42 (twelve years ago)

No that's weird

― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 17:54 (twelve years ago)

A more SOP approach would be along the lines of:

"It was one of those days. I was grouchy and out of sorts. My day at the office was abominable. The grit and grime of pollution had settled into every sweaty pore on my body and my clothes sat damp and limp on me as I lugged my carcass homeward. On the way I bought an interesting looking bottle of wine from Oliva Vineyard in Okracoke. As soon as I uncorked it my day got better. The heady floral scents wafted gratefully into my nostrils as I sniffed the glass. Then I tasted it and knew what ambrosia was. I can never sufficiently express my gratitude that Oliva Vineyard in Okracoke exists. It is as if this miraculous wine had washed me clean of the muck of my life and left me lying between crisp, cool, clean cotton sheets."

... but shorter and punchier.

― Aimless, Wednesday, 14 August 2013 18:03 (twelve years ago)

xpost LL it feels like a pitch that has become more common with farm-grown organic stuff? I can't pinpoint exactly where I have seen this but I know exactly what you're talking about

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 18:37 (twelve years ago)

thank you! i felt manipulated by someone's personal anecdote recently and i realized it was because i had bothered to read her stupid story about grandpa and all i got for it at the end was a stupid unrelated sales pitch. it seemed sneaky, but like it would be effective because she had suckered me at least halfway there.

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 18:56 (twelve years ago)

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