Unit 1: Sales Positions
Beginning a sales career can be very exciting and offers a wide range of professional possibilities. Diving head first 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 12 hours.
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.