Sales professionals and their job search

In January, we released our latest annual report, which included a survey of sales professionals. In this survey, we asked them about their motivations for looking for a new job. Below, we have published the finding in the hope that you find this information useful for your hiring efforts, for example, creating a job advert. 

We asked them the following questions:

• How often do you search for new jobs?
• Would you still apply for a job if it didn’t display salary information?
• When did you last receive a pay rise?
• Why are you searching for a new job?
• Which of the below is most important to you when searching for a new job?
• How far would you be willing to travel for work?
• Would you be willing to relocate for work?

How often do you search for new jobs?

When asked how often they searched for new jobs, a whopping 71.4% of professionals told us they searched daily.

23.5% said they searched for a new job weekly, while 5.1% said that they search monthly.

Would you still apply for a job if it didn’t display salary information?

73.4% of sales professionals said they would not apply for a new job if it didn’t display salary information. Jobseekers want to know the ins and outs of the role, including the salary on offer before they jump in to applying for a new job, only to be disappointing later down the line if the salary doesn’t meet their expectations. So providing full clarity on basic wage and any commission or benefits on top could prove useful for your job ad.

When did you last receive a pay rise?

58.3% of sales professionals said they received a pay rise annually. Salary is a big incentive for many in this industry, so it comes as no surprise that there would be an annual incentive should they deliver, as well as earning commission on top of it.

18.3% said they received a salary raise more than a year ago, while 15% said the last time they got one was more than two years ago.

5% said they receive a raise bi-annually while 3% said quarterly.

How far would you be willing to travel for work?

38.3% of sales professionals said they would be willing to travel 30+ miles for work. 

21.7% said they would travel 20-30 miles for work, while 16.7% said they would travel between 10 and 20 miles.

15% said they would travel just 5-10 miles for work, and 8.3% said they would travel no further than 5 miles.

Why are you searching for a new job?

43.2% said they were looking for a new challenge, while 26.3% said they were in search of career progressions. 

13.7% wanted a better salary, while 9.4% were looking for somewhere a bit closer to home. 7.4% were relocating.

Would you be willing to relocate for work?

42.9% said yes, they would relocate for an attractive job.

Which of the below is most important to you when searching for a new job?

37.9% of sales professionals said salary was most important to them. 

27.2% said location was important to them, while 15.5% said impressive benefits would win them over.

14.6% said that flexible working was most important to them, an idea completely achievable in today’s technology driven world, however some companies are still reluctant to embrace it. 4.9% said other. 

So why is this information useful? Well, if you’re a recruiter looking to create a job advert that stands out from the rest, then the data above could help. Crafting a targeted job advert relevant to sales professionals could increase the amount of applications you see, and small changes like allowing flexible working could prove successful for both your hiring efforts and retention. 

If you’d like to post a job advert with Simply Sales Jobs, click the button below to do just that. 

Want to see more jobseeker insights? Download the full annual report here.