Job Seekers Hub | How to get hired for a sales position: 10 tips that will help you land the job

Sales is one of the most challenging, rewarding, and competitive professions out there. It’s also a profession that offers excellent career growth potential and high earnings potential. If you’re interested in becoming a sales professional and landing a job in this field, you need to know what it takes to get hired for a position. As an experienced sales trainer and consultant, I see many job seekers come through our training programs who are looking to land their first sales job or transition into another sales role. Oftentimes, these individuals struggle to understand what they need to do in order to sell themselves effectively as a candidate for hiring managers who will be interviewing them for the position. In this blog post, we’ll cover ten tips on how you can get hired as a sales candidate so you don’t have to worry about your next opportunity again!

 

1 Know the company you’re applying to and why you want to work there

Why does this matter, you ask? A hiring manager is likely to assume that you don’t care about the opportunity or that you’re not taking your search seriously if you don’t even know the basics about the company you’re applying to. When you’re applying for a sales position, it’s important to start by researching the company’s product offerings, portfolio, and target audience. For example, companies that sell to businesses (B2B sales) will likely have different needs and sales requirements than a company that sells to consumers (B2C sales). You should also take the time to read up on the company’s strategic vision, its go-to-market strategy, as well as its sales and marketing initiatives. For instance, if you’re interested in working for a B2B technology company that’s looking to grow its sales team in the next couple of quarters, you should find out the following: 

• What is the product or service that the company provides?
• What industries does the company currently sell to, and what industries is it targeting for expansion?
• What are the company’s strategic vision and sales initiatives for the next 6-12 months?
• Who are the company’s top executives, and what are their backgrounds?

 

2 Network and be visible

Networking is one of the easiest ways to get noticed by hiring managers and recruiters. You should be actively participating in professional networking groups and events and have an online network you regularly engage with. You should join niche-specific groups and build relationships with other sales professionals, recruiters, and hiring managers in your industry. You’ll often get insider tips on hiring trends, as well as hot opportunities that hiring managers are actively looking to hire for. Regularly checking in with your connections is also key to building a strong network and keeping your name out there. You can also take a more proactive approach to networking by regularly sending out personalised outreach emails to people in your network.

 

3 Create a resume that shines

A lot of sales professionals struggle with creating a great resume. If you’re one of them, don’t worry. There are plenty of sales resumes that are ineffective and don’t truly showcase the candidate’s value.

A lot of sales resumes are filled with buzzwords and empty phrases. As a hiring manager, I often see sales resumes with bullet points like “driving new business”, “generating new leads”, and “selling through to executive-level decision-makers”. While these phrases might be true, they don’t tell me anything about the candidate. When you create your resume, you want to focus on the results you’ve produced. What have you done in the past that has helped grow a company’s revenue, increase its customer base, or enabled it to retain its customers?

 

4 Showcase your relevant experience and accomplishments

Following on from the above, you want to include the most relevant and important information on your resume. There’s no point in listing every job that you’ve ever had on your resume when you’re applying for a sales position. What you need to do is take a critical look at your past positions and decide which accomplishments and skills are relevant to the sales job you’re applying for and will help you get hired. Once you’ve identified the accomplishments that you want to include on your resume, you can then decide how to best showcase them. This could be with a bullet point next to the position, highlighting them in your work experience section, or even creating a separate “accomplishments” section on your resume.

 

5 Be confident and show that you’re enthusiastic

This might seem like an easy one, but you’d be surprised how often it comes up in conversations with sales hiring managers. Many hiring managers want to see that candidates are confident and enthusiastic about the company, the product, and themselves. You don’t have to be a sales superstar who’s been rocking it for 10+ years, but you do need to show that you’re excited about the opportunity, have a clear understanding of why the company is unique, and have a clear plan on how you’ll contribute to the bottom line. You’ll want to make sure that you’re speaking with confidence, have an optimistic tone in your voice, and are speaking at a good pace. You don’t want to be talking too quickly, but you also don’t want to be talking too slowly.

 

6 Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses

Sales is a competitive profession, and hiring managers will expect to see that you’re confident in your abilities. They will also expect you to be honest about your weaknesses, as the best sales candidates know that they need to make improvements on their soft skills and areas for growth. If you’ve been out of work for a while and are worried about how to approach this topic, don’t worry. You can talk about how you’ve been actively looking for work over the last 6-12 months and be honest about the fact that you’re looking to improve your skill set. Hiring managers want to see that you’re honest about your weaknesses because it shows them that you’re humble and driven to get better.

 

7 Have an answer for “Why are you leaving your current job?”

If you’re currently employed, you’re likely going to be asked why you’re leaving your job. This is a normal part of the interview process and something you should be prepared for. You might be tempted to say that you’re leaving your job for a better opportunity. While this might be true, it’s not going to help you sell yourself as a candidate. Instead, think about the following questions:

• Why do you want to leave your current job?
• What challenges have you encountered there?
• What opportunities have you been presented with? 
• And what opportunities are you seeking now?

By answering these questions, you can focus your answer on the positive and show hiring managers why you’re a valuable candidate.

 

8 Strengthen your soft skills

In many cases, the most important aspects of succeeding in a sales role are your soft skills. This is especially true if you’re transitioning from another industry or trade. While certain hard skills may be transferable such as your technical or product-related skills, others, such as your communication style, ability to use influencing techniques, and methodologies for solving complex sales problems, will be unique to the sales profession. Therefore, it’s critical that you strengthen your soft skills to ensure that you are prepared to succeed in a sales role.

 

9 Be Confident – Especially if you’re currently unemployed

If you’re currently unemployed, you are likely feeling a lot of pressure to perform well in the interview process. At the same time, you may feel like you have little to offer a potential employer. Generally speaking, an interviewer wants to see you as confident, decisive and engaged in the interview process. This shows them that you are invested in the opportunity. The best way to show confidence as an unemployed candidate is to be prepared for the interview. Know your story, know the company, and understand exactly how you will impact the organisation if given the opportunity.

 

10 Lastly – Don’t neglect the interview process

You might be tempted to relax and coast through the interview process, especially if you’re currently employed or have a strong network of connections that can get you in the door. You might think, “I’ve got this in the bag,” or “I’ve done this many times before, so there’s nothing to worry about.” What you don’t want to do is relax so much that you neglect the interview process and don’t make an effort to show the hiring manager that you’re genuinely interested in the position.

You want to go into the interview with the following mindset:

• Why do you want to work for this company?
• What value can you bring to the table?
• What questions can you ask that will showcase your interest in the role?

 

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR CAREER?

Explore a vast array of IT, sales, and marketing roles spanning across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the wider Australia and Asia-Pacific and the United States regions. With Pulse Recruitment, you’ll find positions that resonate with your skills and ambitions. Embark on a transformative career journey and submit your resume of LinkedIn profile today!