Is a Career in Sales or Business Development Right For You? – Stewart, #

Conviviality

Businessman, author, and philanthropist, the late W. Clement Stone, once stated, “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect”.

People with a convivial attitude love the company of others. They’re never happier than when they’re interacting with another human being, and they are so ingenuous that there is no doubt about their sincerity or desire to help. These people are altruists to the core.

And provided they also possess the next skill, these are, inevitably, the very best sales people; for the simple reason that people like to do business with people they like.

Knowledge

Familiarity with the choices available is essential, too, because if you don’t know all the options that exist, you may not be able to provide the answer that your customer needs, even though what they need or desire is entirely possible. Top salespeople don’t confine themselves to stock responses. Mixing and matching available solutions can provide an exact answer for the client, inspiring additional business.

By crafting a custom solution, you not only fulfill the customer’s requirements, but you make them feel valued. Spending a little extra time and effort to afford them exactly what they need means they’ll be eager to do business with you again.

Breaking In

If you are a rank beginner in the sales field and are seeking to break through, there are numerous techniques you can employ to get started.

• First, you need to find a product that you believe in; something that will make the world a better place, and improve the lives of people, if you can just get a chance to show them.
• Research your potential employer. Learn everything you can about the company that makes the product that you want to sell. Find out what sets them apart from their competition; what makes them better; and, to show that you’ve done your homework, where they may be headed in the future.
• Make a direct approach to the person who can hire you—some research on LinkedIn and company blogs will reveal who that is—but don’t enter blindly. This is where the selling begins—only this time, the product is you.

The strategy, as in any sales pitch, is to know what the customer wants. This gatekeeper wants someone who is ambitious, likable, well-spoken, who can think on their feet, and knows how to look at a situation from the other person’s point of view. You need to be polite, respectful, and engaging; in other words, you need to be someone they would want to have a conversation with.

Tell them about any past success you have had (even if it’s only working on a carnival midway, or selling items for your school to promote an athletic team), and then project it forward into your future potential as a top-salesperson.

Ascertain whether they have roadblocks to sales, and offer an interesting solution or workaround to get past that particular point of contention. If you provide a fresh perspective that offers insight or helps them to solve a problem, you’re as good as hired.

Imaginative and creative people are the bread & butter of the sales industry. Be that person and you are in, no matter what your level of experience, because they can teach you just about anything except those two vital qualities.

What is Business Development?

This is an area of business that is painted with very broad brush strokes. It includes everything from IT programmers through account managers; it employs Advanced Marketing experts and Developmental Engineers.

The basic proposition of Business Development (BD) is that proper analysis and preparation, combined with appropriate technology and forward-thinking, will allow a business to prepare for and take advantage of potential sales before they might ordinarily be recognized or discovered.

Ordinarily this group develops strategies for future sales, and connects rather directly with the C-suite level executives or the Board of Directors. They consult with the less-esoteric departments which actually generate money for the company (sales, marketing, production, and R&D), to make sure that their plans are feasible.

Sometimes the relationship between these departments and the BD Group is uneasy. BD ideas often mean dramatic changes which can represent a substantial amount work for these departments, and though they don’t actively oppose them, if they’re not kept informed and apprised of the potential benefits, BD will encounter resistance.

Skills in this area are a rather ad hoc admixture of talents that include strategic management, legal experience, marketing/sales, and the field of finance. On the other hand, they also require people with practical technical knowledge to let them know what is possible as they are developing their proposals.

If this area sounds interesting to you, as you can see there are number of ways to break into this area of business. If you are great at persuasion, managing relationships, and decreasing friction, along with your other talents, this could be the perfect place for you.

The Takeaway

Both Business Development and Sales require fairly specific personality traits in order to be successful. If you happen to fit into that particular mold, as described, it could be the ideal career, provided you find your “bliss”, which is to say, the perfect product or service for you to sell or promote. However, search for a product or service that honestly engages your enthusiasm, one you truly believe in, and can sincerely and eagerly sell to the public with a clear mind.

Fred Coon, CEO

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