Thinking of a career in sales? Leading employers across all sectors are looking for ambitious talent to join their sales teams. It’s an increasingly attractive career where high-calibre graduates can progress quickly and reap the rewards for their performance.
Why choose a career in sales?
There are plenty of reasons why a career in sales could be a fantastic option for you:
Variation. Every day is different when you work in sales. You may be speaking to new people or travelling to see new and existing clients. You’ll always be on the go and will have the freedom and flexibility to manage your workload.
Rewards. In sales, you’ll receive a base salary but also the opportunity to make a lot more in often uncapped commission or bonuses. Talented salespeople can take home incredibly high salaries.
Relationships. Sales is all about building and maintaining profitable customer relationships. It requires strong communication skills, confidence and a thick skin. Your job is to get clients or customers to choose you over your competitors.
Results. Working in sales means you’re rewarded for your individual performance and results. If you enjoy a challenge and are money-motivated you’ll soon see the rewards for your hard work.
Tailoring your CV to graduate sales jobs
When applying for jobs, you should always tailor your CV to the role. If you are applying for graduate sales jobs then you should think about what skills and personality traits employers will want to see. A career in sales is well-suited to those who have the following skills and personality traits:
Ambitious
Energetic
Great communication skills
Influential
Money-motivated
Relationship builder
Results-driven
Self-motivated
Target-driven
Tenacious
Consider how you can use your education, work experience, achievements and interests to demonstrate that you have these qualities.
An interview is essentially a sales pitch; you’re selling yourself as an employee, hoping the interviewer will buy it. With this in mind, you have the perfect opportunity to show your interviewer that you would make an excellent salesperson.
Know your stuff. Try and find out what you can about the company’s turnover, their clients/competitors and, most importantly, the products or services.
Give evidence. Bring anything that will show your potential employer what you can achieve. Any proof of achievements/awards will only boost your application.
Make it personal. One of the most important sales interview tips to bear in mind is this one: try to create rapport with your interviewer. Show your ability to build relationships and allow your personality to shine. The interviewer should think you’re someone they’d be happy for their clients to meet.
Your plan of action. Don’t be afraid to talk about what your plans would be if you got the role. If you have a sales strategy in mind, tell the interview all about it! How would you reach your targets? Which prospects will you target?
You’re a salesperson, the employer is going to expect you to barter when it comes to package or salary. However, only dive in if you feel confident that you will be able to do this well.
Employing these sales interview tips will help you to wow your interviewer and close the deal! Remember to know your facts, bring evidence, showcase your personality and be prepared to sell. Bringing all of this together will ensure that the employer buys into you.
Let’s find you a graduate sales job
If you’re looking to kick-start a successful career in sales, you will most likely want to consider business to business (B2B) sales opportunities. These involve establishing new client relationships in order to sell your products to businesses as well as maintaining existing accounts.
At Bridgewater Graduates, we offer graduate and trainee sales roles with progression to management with market-leading businesses across the UK and Ireland. Search and apply for our graduate jobs here!
Bridgewater Resources build real, lasting relationships with our clients in order to help shape their businesses and we get to know our candidates’ personalities, skills and ambitions so we can find them a role that changes their lives for the better.
