“HI, I work in sales.” Not a blistering conversation opener, is it? Not like being, say, a fighter pilot or a director of Médecins sans Frontières.
Sales can’t quite shake off its overtones of slavish profiteering, corporate drudgery and wheeler-dealery, which means recruitment problems for graduate employers. On the other hand, marketing — a less direct way of flogging a product — is a rather more popular, and dinner-party-friendly, career choice.
Why? Susan Stevens, head of HR at Toshiba, believes that marketing “retains an air of glamour” and that graduates expect to “work on creative campaigns with PRs and go on jollies”. But, on the other hand, sales means “pounding doors and cold-calling”.
Yet this image is misleading. Sales professionals in the UK number 766,000, compared with 545,000 in marketing, according to the Chartered Institute of Marketing. This is partly because those who do fall into sales work realise it isn’t as ghastly as the myths suggest. Stevens says that Toshiba had to market its graduate scheme as a sales and marketing programme because “we knew sales alone wouldn’t attract people”.
The gamble paid off — last year the majority of recruits chose sales, including Ross Snowdon, a marketing graduate. “It soon became apparent that I was much more suited to sales. Unlike marketing, sales is tangible — it has a direct impact on a company’s results. It’s all about meeting people and communicating with different personalities.”
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Part of the reason why graduates are often initially snooty about sales is that it isn’t seen as a profession. Stevens points out that “there is only one sales management degree in the UK, compared with hundreds of marketing degrees, so it’s not recognised by the education sector”.
Clarissa Gent, a chemistry graduate and sales manager at Rackspace Managed Hosting, an IT support firm, agrees: “Careers departments don’t talk about sales and there is a lack of education about the different levels you can go to with it. I always thought marketing seemed more attractive, but it wasn’t the dynamic world I’d imagined. Then I talked to people in sales and realised that it is possible to be passionate about it. Now I speak to customers every day in the buzz of a target-driven environment. It’s fantastic.”
Tom Moody, a commercial director for Procter & Gamble, says that the Del Boy image is outdated. “It’s not wheeler dealing, it’s managing millions of pounds of business and making sure that your customers are happy. It’s incredibly rewarding.”
A convincing sales pitch if ever I heard one.
NATIONAL SALES AWARDS
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CAREER is the media partner for the National Sales Awards 2007.
Now in its tenth year, these awards honour the country’s best sales individuals and teams. In providing a platform to recognise the best in the professional sales industry, the awards promote excellence, best practice and innovation in selling. The 30 categories are judged by an independent panel and the awards presented at a gala evening at Grosvenor House, London, on February 15, 2007. Companies and individuals can access a nomination form by visiting nationalsalesawards.com, e-mailing info@nationalsalesawards.com or by telephoning 020-7378 1188. The deadline for entries is noon, September 22.