Unit 1: Sales Positions
Beginning a sales career can be very exciting and offers a wide range of professional possibilities. Diving headfirst into a list of want ads can be time-consuming and may lead to applying for sales positions that do not fit your strengths and desires. When considering a sales career, it is helpful to look at the profession from a general perspective, exploring the types of sales positions available. Looking at the sales profession in this way does not mean studying the different varieties of products and services you could sell, although that is important too. Instead, you want to look at broader considerations, such as whether a sales opportunity requires multiple and frequent sales like selling used cars or whether the position has more sporadic sales over a longer period of time like airplane sales. Another difference to examine is whether a position requires you to go find customers and clients or if your customers come to you.
In this unit, you will learn the primary distinctions between different types of sales positions and how sales professionals are compensated.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- compare and contrast transactional and relational sales;
- explain the standard commonalities of relational sales positions;
- explain the standard commonalities of transactional sales positions;
- identify the defining characteristics of inside sales positions;
- identify the defining characteristics of outside sales positions; and
- recognize appropriate compensation levels for different sales positions.
1.1: Types of Sales Positions
1.1.1: Transactional Sales
This section gives an overview of the types of selling with highlights on transactional and relational sales. Ask yourself if you think you would be able to form these types of business relationships, as they will be important to your career.
1.1.2: Relational Sales
This article discusses how relational sales is used by those in the pharmaceutical sales industry. While this article deals with pharmaceutical sales, relational sales comes into play in many venues. The need to establish and maintain relationships with prospects and clients is often a key to a successful sales career.
This chapter elaborates on the importance of relationship development in sales. Some of the items addressed in this chapter will be revisited later in this course. Also, make use of the very helpful links to additional materials within the text.
1.1.3: Comparisons between Transactional and Relational Sales
Read sections 2.1 and 2.2. These sections provide a comprehensive overview of skills needed in a sales profession and how to best utilize those skills. These sections will help you assess your own skills and what you need to develop to be successful in a sales career. The accompanying videos also offer useful insights from a wide range of experts, which you should find helpful.
1.1.4: Inside and Outside Sales
Real estate expert William Cook's commentary is designed for those in the real estate industry; however, it provides useful distinctions about general principles in inside and outside sales. This information will be helpful in determining which types of sales careers you will find most appealing.
This article provides helpful and specific insight into the pragmatics of an outside sales career.
1.2: Compensation in Sales Professions
1.2.1: Entry Sales Positions
Read the instructions below and post and respond to the following topics on the course discussion board. If you have not done so already, you will need to create a free account at the link above to participate in these discussions.
To begin, go to any job search website or listing in a newspaper and view the range of "Sales" or "Entry Level Sales" positions available in the general area where you live. Identify three to five positions that most appeal to you.
- Post a listing of the positions and their descriptions in the discussion forum.
- Identify why the positions appeal to you (e.g., income, product or service, territory, etc.).
- Explain what you know or can infer regarding the sales positions in terms of being transactional versus relational and inside versus outside.
- Report what you know about sales positions others have posted in the discussion forum that you believe might be helpful to them.
- Post a listing of the positions and their descriptions in the discussion forum.
Read the section of this page titled, Motivating and Compensating Salespeople, regarding compensation for sales professionals. Now that you have read about sales positions that would suit your interests and the salary that might be expected, it is useful to read about a wider range of issues involved in compensation.
This article offers helpful advice for job interviews for sales positions. Balzano is a sales expert with several publications to his credit. He specializes in software sales.
1.2.2: Professional Sales Positions Salary Ranges and Averages
In this blog post, Paul Gumbinner raises an essential question about sales professional compensation with commissions and salaries. Be sure to also read the responses to his post and query.
1.2.3: Sales Management Salary Levels
This brief article provides an argument for why you might consider a sales manager job over a sales management position. Basic but clear distinctions are offered in the article.
Unit 1 Summary
We frequently hear people refer to the sales profession as a single employment opportunity, as if all sales jobs are the same. From Unit 1, however, you have seen that the sales profession includes a wide range of job opportunities with differing expectations and compensation levels. Compare your own strengths and weaknesses along with your personality to the material presented in Unit 1 to discover the best sales positions for you.