Your guide to finding your next sales job

If you are reading this guide you've taken the first step towards a new sales position. In this step-by-step guide I aim to give you some hints and tips to achieve your next sales job in today’s market.

Step 1:

Plan - Research - Roadmap

Planning is a crucial start to finding your next sales role. You must develop a plan that best reflects your own aspirations, your personal and professional objectives and suits your talent and purpose. Spend time, and then spend more time assessing what your particular skills and talents are. Address all your skills and list them (this will also help at step 2).

Skills could include:

• Sales
• Leadership
• Conflict management and resolution, delegation, deal making, mentoring, motivating, coaching and management
• Technology
• Creativity and innovative
• Emotional intelligence
• Adaptability
• Flexibility
• Critical thinking
• Communication (verbal and non-verbal) and listening
• Negotiation
• Positive attitude and work ethic
• Teamwork
• Collaboration, empathy, team building
• Time management
• Product knowledge

MAKE THIS INTO A TABLE OF SKILLS (make sure all in step 2 incl. and add more)

Don't be afraid to make a long list of skills and then critically challenge how good you really are at them. If you aren't good enough think about how you can change this, what can you learn, what can you do to keep ahead of the game and how can you re-assess and update?

Researching prospective industries and employers is vitally important to discover the best match for your skills. Its proven that people who work in an industry that interests them have more job satisfaction and more success. Contact prospective employers and see what it is they do and what they need - if they are the kind of employer you would like to work for, they will accommodate such a request. Networking and connections fundamentally make all the difference in a sales role. A connection economy is based on individuals and companies helping one another - use connections to your advantage when researching.

Don't we all wish we could have a pre-determined successful roadmap of what the future might bring? A roadmap should plan out your short- and longer-term goals. It doesn't have to be an exact science, but it needs to gauge where you would hope to be in 3 months, 6 months,1 year, 3 years. It should be a fluid document that you can reassess frequently. Spending time on a roadmap will also be useful when you get to stage 5 of this guide.

Step 2:

Get your CV up to date

It’s often a daunting task to write and update, but a CV is still the first impression to showcase your talent. Gone are the days of 5 or 6-pages of rambling explanations of previous employers and what they can do. A CV nowadays needs to be concise and to the point. It needs to focus on positive action words, sales achievements, essential skills, tangible results and soft skills.

If a prospective employer, hiring manager or talent search specialist looks to your CV in the first instance - it will have 10-seconds to jump out at them. A top sales CV needs to shout product knowledge, client acquisition and retention, goal setting and forecasting and closing sales. Quantified by financial facts and figures, YTD earnings, percentages and targets achieved and surpassed.

If a prospective employer, hiring manager or talent search specialist has already looked at your social media presence which has led them to your CV, hopefully 'Brand You' has tweaked their interest. Your CV will now cement their impression of you. Which leads us to Step 3.

Step 3:

LinkedIn and social media 'Sales Brand You'

Your social media presence has fast become the most important section of this guide. Your online persona is easy to access by anyone, colleagues and recruiters alike and needs to be professional.

LinkedIn is the obvious and perfect platform to promote 'Sales Brand You'. Your LinkedIn profile summary is possibly more important than an executive summary on your CV. This is where you define yourself, show off your personality and achievements and strengthen 'Sales Brand You'. Write your profile summary with the question in your mind, what do I want my audience to do after reading this? Do you want them to just connect or do you want them to offer you a sales job? Be specific and you are more likely to impress and achieve what you want.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all platforms that need to be updated and professional. Consider a separate personal and professional account and ensure that all your media profiles are aligned with each other. In your research in section 1, you should have actively used social media platforms to research prospective companies. Many companies now post vacancies this way, follow companies of interest to be the first to see new posts and information.

Step 4:

Relationships and networking

Personal contacts, networks of friends, contacts and acquaintances all form part of passive job opportunities. Be resourceful to network this hidden job market. If you are actively seeking out a new sales role, make the opportunity come to you. Speak to your network and ask a direct question, is your company looking to recruit at present?

Gone are the days of networking at a sales event - networking and relationship building is now virtual, but you need to be tech savvy. Build you connections virtually, treat every online meeting as an opportunity.

Step 5:

Interview

You've made it to interview stage. Potentially this may now be virtual so make sure both your verbal and non-verbal communication skills are practiced. The first impression is crucial. Understand the tech that the interviewer is using, be it zoom, teams or other. Know in advance how to join, mute, un-mute etc. Think how you sit, how much of you is on view, understand when to laugh and joke, when to remain serious, if you gesticulate wildly, think about calming it down. Don't fidget and establish the correct amount of eye contact, which is hard face-to-face but perhaps even harder online.

You've put in the time to research, now is the time to show your knowledge. Your sales achievements have been detailed on your CV so don't regurgitate what the interviewer has already seen. Be prepared to impress more, have more detail and examples to recall - focus on selling 'Sales Brand You'.

Be prepared for the interviewer to target emotional intelligence at interview. A top sales recruit now needs to prove intelligence in abundance. This may be by way of 'what if' scenario questions - practice in advance.

Towards the end of an interview, use the time wisely to further impress. Find out about the culture and values of the company - prove your desire to bring your sales skills and fit into your prospective new company.

Step 6:

New role and goal setting

Once you are in, this is when the work really starts! Straight from the word go, make sure you are pushing your career. Ensure your role works for you - seek larger territories, more responsibility. Strive for opportunities for coaching, mentorship, management and directorship in the future at your company. Set goals, to match your roadmap back at stage 1, continually assess to ensure you are on target.

I hope this guide is useful in your search for your next sales job. I'd welcome your thoughts and comments - please get in touch, I look forward to hearing from you.

Adam Tully

JIE Search