STEP 1: WHAT’S SALES ALL ABOUT?
- Overview: For complex, expensive products, a Sales team can close deals that wouldn’t be feasible online. This includes both B2B (e.g., Salesforce sells a $10MM package to IBM) and B2C businesses (e.g., Facebook sells a seven-figure ad deal to Ford).
- Example project: Sell $2MM in Salesforce subscriptions by the end of the fiscal year.
- What you do all day: Research opportunities, talk with prospects or customers, give demos, and close deals
- Roles: Sales Development/Inside Sales (generating new opportunities by emailing and calling), Account Executive/Field Sales (closing deals, often at the customer’s site), Account Manager (upselling existing clients)
- What they look for: Candidates with a track record of results, customer obsession and incredible powers of persuasion
STEP 2: WOULD YOU BE A GOOD FIT FOR SALES?
Ask yourself if you’d love doing these kinds of things all day:
- Leveraging market data to identify potential customers
- Cold-calling/emailing these prospects
- Making persuasive presentations
- Negotiating and finalizing deals
- Managing relationships and upselling
If your answer is “Yes” to the majority of activities, you’d likely be a good fit for sales.
STEP 3: WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED FOR SALES?
For each major activity, I’ve listed the most common keywords from across dozens of job descriptions, as well as a sample resume bullet:
· Leveraging market data to identify potential customers
o Keywords: CRM, Salesforce, account strategy, sales plan, territory planning, uncover opportunities
o Sample Bullet: Devised a new sales plan to target the SMB segment, generating $2M in incremental sales within the first year
· Cold-calling/emailing these prospects
o Keywords: lead generation, lead pipeline, prospecting, cold call, inbound leads
o Sample Bullet: Implemented sales development processes that doubled pipeline value in six months
· Making persuasive presentations
o Keywords: value-based sales, product demos, events, unmet customer needs
o Sample Bullet: Managed presence at all industry events, producing $5M in sales through that channel alone
· Negotiating and finalizing deals
o Keywords: contract generation, closing, sales goals, quota, revenue targets
o Sample Bullet: Outperformed quota 24 months in a row, earning two consecutive invites to the President’s Club
· Managing relationships and upselling
o Keywords: account success, training, enablement, strategic business plans, consultative sales, customer relationships, onboard new customers
o Sample Bullet: Leveraged relationships with existing clients to drive $300K in pure upsell busines