THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SALES PART 1: INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Will Freemen
I Teach 6, 7 And 8 Figure Entrepreneurs How To Play And Win The Game Of Life.
I worked in?sales?for the better part of a decade and the skills I learned in that time are the most important ones I have in business and in life. Everything in life is?sales, from companies?selling you products to your girlfriend selling you on marriage. You are selling and being sold every minute of the day.
Now I’m not going to lie and tell you I liked being in?sales?because life in sales is hard. I don’t have to lie to you because I’m not your boss and I’m not a?sales?trainer. But despite how tough it was at the time, what I’ve learned from almost a decade in hard-nosed sales is invaluable. At the end of the day I came out of the meat grinder tougher, more skilled and holding?a wad of cash to fund my?new life.
When it comes to your?mission, you’re going to need capital and you’re going to need to know how to sell. Despite the fact that it’s,?sales?is the best place for you to make bank and hone your craft.?Sales?is one of the rare industries where a guy under 30 can get his hands on the cash he needs to buy his freedom. A good salesman can?make over $200,000 per year and even a half decent salesmen should be making $70,000. There are few industries that give non-specialists that kind of pay, especially young guys.
If you’re planning to go into sales?or are already there, look at your time in the game?as B school for hustlers. Learn how to close, learn how to service your customers and most importantly, learn how to toughen up in the face of stress and rejection. But don’t do what I did and give the corporate world most of your 20’s. Grind out a few years, hoard your money and get the f*ck out.
In this four part guide I’m going to break down the game in-depth from an industry overview in this article, to what to expect from life in sales in part 2, to how to sell in part 3 and how to service your customers in part 4. I want to give you everything I know so you don’t make the same mistakes I did and so you can get the most amount of cash and skills out of your time in?sales.
Now before we get into the job terminology, sales environments and breakdown of the key industries, you need to understand what sales really is:
WHAT SALES REALLY IS?
Sales is manipulation. A great?salesman is a great manipulator, no exceptions. The dictionary definition of manipulation is:?“to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose.”?But I would take it one step?further and say that all communication?is manipulation. Everything you communicate to people is to serve your purposes, how artful and how unfair you are depends on your level of skill and your ethics. Even when you’re helping others it’s only because it makes you happy. Everyone is manipulative, a good salesman is just better at it.
Sales?training is nothing but learning how to manipulate others and how to lie effectively. Sales training is school for sociopaths. Everyone lies, lying is social lubricant but average people are rank amateurs, salesmen are professionals. That’s another thing your boss and sales trainers won’t tell you. All the objection management, inflection training and closing pressure you learn is not to service your clients better, it’s to make their money yours.
Now, manipulation on its own isn’t going to get you paid. What gets you paid is solving a problem. And like everyone else, your potential client will want the best product for the best price to solve his problem. Your job as a salesman is to manipulate your potential client into thinking that you have the best product for the best price. Whether you actually do is just a bonus.
Once you’ve got interest, getting someone to buy from you is just a matter of overcoming their objections which are only about two things,?trust and money.?Trust that you can solve their problem and whether your price?is worth having that problem solved.
DOES THIS MEAN YOU HAVE TO SELL YOUR SOUL TO SUCCEED?
Absolutely not, just understand that your average sales manager will expect you to do things you might not be comfortable with,?but the choice is always yours.?How ethical you are in solving your clients’ problems is up to you.
But make no mistake, doing the right thing will almost always cost you money, it’s cost me plenty of deals over the years. I’m not going to preach to you guys but I truly believe it was worth it.?You’ll never feel good about yourself when you defraud people for a living no matter how good you are at rationalizing. Try and hold onto as much of your soul as you can.?If that means you need to quietly kill a deal where the client isn’t a good fit then do it.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SALES
The sales force is the most important department?of any company because if you can’t sell your product, you don’t have a business. Sales is the only department that generates revenue, every other department is an expense. Ironically salesmen are treated worse than almost all other employees for the very reason that they are so vital.
If the HR manager f*cks up and forgets to fill the diversity quota nothing happens because her job is irrelevant. When you?f*ck up, companies lose money. Most companies can’t afford to have their salesmen f*cking up so they drive them hard and replace them often.
Sales pays well?not because its rocket science but because no one wants to do it. Most people can’t even make a cold call let alone endure one week on a high pressure floor. Your willingness to endure pain is what will get you paid.?Most people can’t handle the constant beating you have to take while still forcibly imposing your will.
SALES JOB TERMINOLOGY
INSIDE SALES
OUTSIDE?SALES
HYBRID?SALES
SHORT?SALES?CYCLE?
LONG?SALES?CYCLE
PRODUCTS?
SERVICES
HUNTING?
FARMING
B2C
B2B
SALES JOB?ENVIRONMENTS
1) BOILER ROOM/CALL CENTER
Expectations
Perks
Rundown
Culture
2) SME (SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE)
Expectations
Perks
Rundown
Culture
Conclusions
3) LARGE COMPANY
Expectations
Perks
Rundown
Culture
Conclusions
SALES JOBS BY?INDUSTRY
1) DIRECT SALES
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
?Job Description
2) CAPITAL EQUIPMENT
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
3) TECHNICAL?SALES
Channel
Role
领英推荐
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
4)?INSURANCE?
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
5) RECRUITING
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
6) FINANCIAL SERVICES
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
7) ADVERTISING
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
8) REAL ESTATE
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Requirements
Companies
Job Description
9) PHARMACEUTICAL?
Channel
Role
Salary
Environment
Products And Services
Companies
Requirements
Job Description