In your final term of university you’re probably starting to research the types of sales jobs you’re interested in.
If you’re reading this blog, the chances are you’ve decided you want to go into Sales, or are at least considering it. Anna Pitts of the Graduate Recruitment Bureau gives you five top tips for what you can do now to massively boost your chances of success later.
1. Get experience
In today’s graduate job market work experience is a key contributor to application success. This is true for any industry, including sales jobs. A career in sales is often very full on- some have the natural flair and banter needed to excel, and others need to practice to perfect the art.
Therefore, the more work experience you have behind you the more appealing you will be to employers. Apply for work experience placements and internships but if you are having a tough time securing these then remember you can make your own experience. Sales people have incredible business acumen, so using your initiative and creating your own opportunities will impress employers.
Work experience could be anything from working at the Saturday market to cold calling sales jobs- if it involves an element of persuasion then it is relevant. Make sure you keep a track of all the experience you undertake and how you met your target so you have anecdotes to hand to support any claims you make at interview.
2. Network
Being active on social media is crucial to getting a foot on the career ladder in the modern jobs market. Make sure you have a Twitter and LinkedIn account but even more importantly, make sure you use them. Follow and tweet relevant companies and recruiters on Twitter. Retweet, comment and hashtag to get into sales conversations- the more visible you are the higher the chances you will be noticed. On LinkedIn, connect with any person or company you interact or work for; share interesting, appropriate updates and join in conversations in sales groups. The more contacts you have the more possible routes in, so don’t be a stranger.
Similarly (in the least creepy way possible) keep track of the kinds of things people post. If someone always posts about golf, bring up golf at interview to build rapport. Most importantly, make sure you keep your activity clean- your online reputation is extremely important and once ruined cannot be restored. If you have Facebook make sure it is set to private or, perhaps have two accounts- one personal and one public for employers.
3. Practice being lovely
The ability to build instant relationships with people is what is going to get you your sales jobs. You need natural charisma, confidence and camaraderie. Hopefully, you have all these things nailed just by being your lovely self. But, if you know you have a particular habit that rubs people up the wrong way, you might want to work on it before interview.
For example, when you are listening intently you might have a tendency to frown or gaze into the distance, both of which are no-nos in an interview. You need to maintain eye contact, appear relaxed, smile, be interesting and proactive in conversation and, most impotantly, likeable- no pressure. Body language is as important as words so conquer all your undesirable habits before you try to woo the employer.
4. Keep up to date with sales movements
Having an up to date knowledge of the industry you are interested in is massively appealing to employers. Stay on top of recent movements, developments and trends in sales. Set Google alerts for relevant key words so you get an email each time something happens and follow sales blogs for up to the minute news.
In interviews you will often be asked about something recent that caught your eye, so taking an interest and regularly reading about your industry will make this question a breeze to answer. If you have your eye on a certain company then follow them on social media and keep track of whenever they appear in the news. If they are a big name they’ll expect you to know what’s happening in their world, so make sure you do!
5. Send lots of strategic applications
In today’s tough jobs market the more applications you can bear to fill out and send the better. However, do not just copy and paste your answers from one onto another. You must tailor each application to the specific role you are applying for as employers will know if you have just send out a generic mass application. Take time over each one, crafting your answers to really sell yourself- they are sales jobs after all!
Written by Anna Pitts, a Marketing Assistant and Online Researcher at the Graduate Recruitment Bureau. Her work involves PR and outreach and writing informative, interesting advice based articles for graduates and students. Follow her on twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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