My Experience In Sales

The idea of sales has always been interesting to me, a job that requires serious skills to do successfully. One of the things that always intrigued me about sales was the grind associated. The idea of knowing you would have to bust your ass and refine your skills in order to make a solid paycheck is unique from most other jobs out there. I was drawn to sales because of these unique factors, and because of how unpredictable the job was. Over the last year I spent 3 months on the sales team at Vector Marketing selling professional grade kitchen ware. Today I'd like to share a bit about my experience with sales and the lessons it taught me.

I did truly enjoy this job. I met so many great people and was always doing something different. Unfortunately I'm at a place in my life right now where I need to be saving a lot of money, and to save a lot of money you need to make a lot of money. The reason I left Vector after only a few short months was because of how inconsistent my paychecks were. As someone just starting out in sales I was learning as I was going, and that meant some weeks I'd do really good and make a few hundred dollars, but some weeks I wasn't on my game and would pull down less than 50 dollars. For this unfortunate reason I had to look for a more consistent job with a solid schedule and a solid paycheck. However, the experiences I had and the lessons I learned had a sizable impact on me in both my professional and my personal life.

The hardest thing I had to learn was how to deal with rejection and keep going. My first few sales calls I didn't sell a single thing, I was getting turned down left and right simply because I wasn't doing a good job of pitching my product. As I improved in my sales skills over the first week or two I started to make the occasional sale, but was still being turned down more than anything. It was hard to deal with this at first as it felt like I was personally being rejected, but over time I got used to this and was able to keep pushing with a good attitude and go into my next sales call even stronger than the last. What really helped me was the realization that it wasn't about me. While there were times I could have had a stronger pitch, there were more where the product just wasn't right for my customers. Even the seasoned pros get turned down from time to time, it's just a part of the job and something you get used to after a while. The important thing to remember was to just keep pushing. This wasn't the only lesson I learned throughout my time with Vector though. I also learned the importance of being excited about your product and your job. How can you expect a customer to be excited about what you're trying to sell them if you aren't? Your attitude plays a huge role in how you perform in a sales role. Beyond that though, I've found the same to be true in my new job. The better your attitude is about what you're doing, the better job you're going to do. While these lessons may be simple, I think they can have a great impact on your life if you apply them everywhere. If you didn't get that big promotion at work, don't walk away from it feeling like a failure. Realize that maybe it just wasn't the right time, and work harder at it the net time you're presented with that opportunity. Regardless what you do for work and how awful it may feel, go in every day with a great attitude excited to conquer the tasks set before you. You'll find yourself happier with your job as a whole.

Overall, I'm very grateful for the time I spent in sales. It broadened my view of the professional world, and taught me things that changed the way I think. Although it was short lived, maybe I'll find myself on another sales team at some point in my life, and I can say without a doubt I'd be happy to be there.

-Braden Schmidt 11-27-2019