The job market is changing, and it will become more difficult for people without a college degree to find work. There are, however, a few ways a person can make a living as an entry level sales rep that doesn’t require a college degree.
Get ready to build your future in sales. Not with a piece of paper, but with a real job. In the 2024s, there will be more job opportunities available than ever before.
The world of sales is changing every day. Companies are hiring younger people who have little experience, and are training them up to take on sales roles. That means that you should take note, as many businesses are hiring sales candidates with absolutely no sales experience. Some are hiring sales graduates without a degree, and some are even hiring candidates with no sales experience at all. The key, it seems, is to learn how to get started.
Finding a job may be a minefield. One incorrect move, and your prospects of landing a fantastic job are gone. This is the third installment of our sales recruiting series, which explains how to get a sales position.
We had just started our quest to fill one of our jobs at Sales Hacker in Part 1, and we revealed how our job posting had over 375k views. We discussed our selecting process in Part 2 of this series. In this section, I’ll go through the do’s and don’ts for your LinkedIn profile that I learnt from reviewing 150+ applications. Then, from the viewpoint of a hiring manager, I’ll describe how to obtain a decent sales position in 2024.
But first, a few words from our winner…
ARVE Error: src mismatch url: https://youtu.be/kspTSL1oSUs src in: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/kspTSL1oSUs?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.saleshacker.com src gen: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/kspTSL1oSUsActual comparison url: https://youtu.be/kspTSL1oSUs src in: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/kspTSL1oSUs?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saleshacker.com src gen: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/kspTSL1oSUs
What Can I Do If I Don’t Have Any Sales Experience?
Don’t be concerned! To begin a career in sales, you do not need to have any professional sales experience.
Hiring managers for sales positions are aware that some individuals begin at the bottom and rise to the top in a short period of time. Furthermore, you may be shocked to discover what qualifies as sales experience.
Starting a career in sales may be a rewarding decision. Salary ranges for sales jobs vary greatly depending on where you live and work, but the top tier may earn up to $300,000 per year.
Here are a few things you may look at to determine whether you have what it takes to be successful in sales.
1. Demonstrate how your current abilities are transferrable.
It’s possible that you have more transferrable talents than you realize. For example, you may rely on sales expertise if you’ve ever sold anything, such as a television at Best Buy.
Even selling lemonade on the side of the road as a child qualifies!
If you’ve ever worked in retail or in a customer-facing position, you may be eligible. You’ll have no trouble connecting the dots between your talents and the requirements of the position.
Finally, if you took communications or marketing courses in college, that’s another “selling point” you may include in your resume and cover letter to potential employers.
If you are goal-oriented and have excellent time management skills, you can succeed even if you have never sold anything or attended a marketing course. You already have some excellent ideas on how to get sales experience just by reading this post.
2. Be willing to start from the beginning.
You may have to swallow some pride in the beginning, start at the bottom, and grind it out for the first several months. The sky’s the limit if you study up, understand some human psychology, work hard, and are ready to take the initiative!
It is critical, however, that you remain resilient and confident, and that you do not allow rejection to get you down. Top sales prospects are always working on themselves, exercising active listening, improving rapport-building abilities, and keeping a good attitude even when faced with challenges.
You’ll be reaching your statistics in no time if you’re persistent and have some business drive.
3. Completing your homework
To be successful in sales, you must first learn about your client and get to know them well before speaking with them. Investigate their wants and problems, then provide a solution. Describe how you can assist them with their current greatest problem.
An interview for a job is no exception. If you do your research, you’ll be well-prepared for the interview, knowing all there is to know about the hiring manager, their business, and their problems.
Pretend that your hiring manager is a client, and that you are offering to assist them solve their issues during the interview. You should perform well in the interview if you’ve studied up on sales tactics and practiced your communication abilities.
You may not get the job on the first try, but it will be excellent practice and a chance to perform even better the following time.
Whatever you do, be open and honest about your previous sales experience. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever Candidates that take shortcuts or make promises they can’t fulfill are the last thing hiring managers want when it comes to sales jobs.
Here are some tips on how to obtain a sales career, as well as some dos and don’ts.
Get a Sales Job by Following These 5 Steps
Step 1: Make sure your résumé and LinkedIn profile are up to date.
Before you start on the search, make sure your CV is up to date with your most recent abilities, sales experience, and achievements. If you’re applying for a particular sales job (or kind of work), you’ll want to add certain key phrases and tailor your resume to that position.
Don’t forget to keep your LinkedIn page up to date as well! (One of the Dos is listed below.)
Step 2: Figure out where to search for sales positions.
Aside from free job sites like Indeed, Monster, and Google for Jobs, you may wish to look at job boards dedicated to sales jobs. To get you started, here are a few (paid) resources:
- SalesJobs: SalesJobs, SalesJobs, SalesJobs, SalesJobs, SalesJobs, Sales It has more than 800,000 postings as of November 2024.
- Rainmakers: Describe your sales experience and pay expectations, then wait for companies to approach you.
- The Ladders: Has the most lucrative sales jobs, with career possibilities worth more than $100,000.
- While this site concentrates only on sales jobs, it takes a more social networking approach.
Above all, make LinkedIn one of your primary tools in your job search. More on this in the sections below on Dos and Don’ts.
Connect with the recruiting manager in step three.
Once you’ve secured a sales position, find out who the recruiting manager is and contact them. It’s extremely simple to accomplish this on LinkedIn, particularly if you have a premium account. Send them a connection request and tell them you’re interested in the sales position.
Bonus tip: Ask them a thought-provoking open-ended question to start a discussion, which will give you an advantage throughout the official application process.
Step 4: Fill out an application for the job.
Many businesses need you to go through the application procedure whether or not you utilize the backchannels. Along with your CV, send them a customized cover letter describing why you want the position and why you’re a good match.
Step 5: Stay on top of things and be patient.
Once you’ve submitted your application, be patient and gently follow up every now and then until you get a response.
As you work your way through these stages to get your next sales position, make sure you’re aware of these particular Do’s and Don’ts (based on our own experiences).
The Do’s and Don’ts of Getting a Sales Job
Here’s what you should do if you want to obtain a successful sales job (or simply start into sales):
When replying to LinkedIn postings, connect with the recruiting manager and send a meaningful LinkedIn message. To make it simple to read on a mobile device, use short paragraphs and lots of white space.
If you’re replying to a LinkedIn post, have trustworthy friends tastefully promote you in the comments.
Use backchannels if you can! Get a recommendation from someone who knows the hiring manager or the owner and is well-known in the industry. One individual was introduced to me by a well-known VP of Sales with whom we often collaborate. This puts you at the top of the list right away.
Make improvements to your LinkedIn profile. This is the public version of your résumé. I didn’t even ask for resumes throughout our hunt. LinkedIn, particularly in sales, reveals the whole narrative of your career.
Case studies and testimonials are used in sales to market a product. It’s the same with selling yourself. Display your numbers if they’re decent. Share your reviews if you have any. If you don’t have any, go out and acquire some. Customers are also interested in seeing this. Now is the time to get them from your coworkers! Don’t put it off.
Anything else that sticks out, such as your attention to detail, statistics, experience, social presence, network, and so on, should be shared. This is a dream come true for a recruiting manager, since this is all the information we need at the initial stage of the hiring process.
Make an effort to be engaged on LinkedIn. Hiring managers like candidates that provide relevant material that demonstrates their enthusiasm for the business and their profession, particularly if it coincides with their sales process. They’re looking for individuals who are active on a social media platform where their consumers are.
Demonstrate your enthusiasm and passion. Hiring managers like to recruit individuals that are eager to work for them. We want individuals who are so enthusiastic about it that it is obvious. These individuals will go above and beyond the call of duty. I’d rather hire someone who is enthusiastic about this work than someone who is marginally better on paper 99 percent of the time.
Make sure you have a good profile picture. A decent photo is one that is dressed professionally, has a grin or a pleasant facial expression, and is free of caps or sunglasses. You want to seem approachable and approachable while being professional and trustworthy. Remember that you’ll most likely be approaching them cold.
Obtain a Gmail account, a personal email address, or an email address for your personal limited liability company. Even if this is not the case, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and AOL are indications of someone who is out of touch with technology. No way, SBCGlobal or Earthlink. Sorry, maybe I’m a snob when it comes to email servers.
The Don’ts of Getting a Sales Job
If you want to obtain a decent sales position, there are certain things you should avoid doing, just as there are other things you should do to get the job. Here are three things you should never do…
Take your time. A few individuals made the mistake of included a link to their LinkedIn profile in their job applications. How can I employ you if I can’t have access to your information? Please take your time.
Please don’t be offended if I don’t reply straight away. When I posted our job opening, I was going to London for a conference. One individual messaged me on Instagram (an underappreciated platform), and when I didn’t reply within 48 hours, they threatened to unfollow me for not responding. I’m quite certain I’m not losing out on anything.
Don’t take it personally, and don’t destroy any bridges. With so many qualified applicants, hiring is always a difficult choice. Frequently, just one individual will be employed. That said, don’t be disappointed if it’s not you or if you don’t hear back from the recruiting manager.
When searching for a sales career in 2024, the greatest thing you can do is follow up and ask for feedback. Tell the recruiting manager that he or she should not hesitate to contact you if they have any questions. This will increase goodwill, a long-term currency.
RELATED: How to Become a Best-in-Class Vice President of Sales in 25 Minutes
Bonus: Special Follow-Up For Our Unsuccessful Job Candidates
I didn’t sure what to do with the remaining applicants, but as a space leader, I couldn’t simply send out a general “sorry, not at this time” email.
So I sent a message on LinkedIn, asking for assistance from the community. I knew there were a lot of excellent businesses recruiting, so I asked them to nominate their company and tell me what positions they were looking to fill.
The LinkedIn post was as follows:
“Greetings, Everyone!” I’m having a serious issue and need some help.
For our Sales Hacker – Partnership Sales Exec job, we have received over 150 (excellent) applications, but I can only employ one individual.
This means I’ll have to let some excellent salesmen go. I’d want to assist them in finding a suitable home somewhere because I won’t be able to make the hiring.
Please leave a comment with your business name and the roles you’re looking for if you’re hiring for Inside Sales. I want to provide them with alternatives for following up with you.
I hope it turns out to be a win-win situation!”
The next day, the post received over 70,000 views and over 100 comments from people promoting their businesses and job openings. It got over 350,000 views and 218 comments after a week.
I collected these 200+ comments, filtered them for eligible businesses, and had my virtual assistant compile a spreadsheet with the company name, sales positions, locations, and LinkedIn profiles of those who commented.
There were plenty of alternative choices and the appropriate individuals to contact in my follow-up email to the applicants who did not win the job.
I’ll keep an eye out to see if this leads to employment with any of them.
This is something we do out of a sense of kindness, and it distinguishes us, but I wish it didn’t.
I urge other businesses to follow suit and pay it forward as well. I’m the only one who can make this hiring since I’m the CEO of a sales firm.
So, if I can do it while hosting a 450-person conference in London and managing the whole interview process from Europe, there’s no reason your company couldn’t. We hope you’ve learned something useful about how to obtain a sales career from this series!
Also available on Medium.
Hi everyone. I’m a 20-year-old college student from New Mexico. I’m looking to make my next career move, and I’d like to know the fastest way for me to get my foot in the door and gain experience in the fields of sales and marketing. If you could give me any advice or tips, I would really appreciate it.. Read more about sales job interview no experience and let us know what you think.
{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”FAQPage”,”mainEntity”:[{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”How do I prepare for a sales interview with no experience?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”
There are many ways to prepare for a sales interview. The most important thing is to be confident in your ability to sell yourself and your product. Its also important to know what the company youre interviewing with does, so that you can talk about it intelligently.”}},{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”How do I get a job in retail with no experience?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”
Retail is a tough industry to break into. You can try looking for internships, but its best to start with volunteering at your local store and then ask the manager if you can work there part-time.”}},{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”Can I get a sales job without a degree?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”
Yes, you can get a sales job without a degree. However, it is important to note that the higher your education level, the better your chances of getting hired are.”}}]}
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I prepare for a sales interview with no experience?
There are many ways to prepare for a sales interview. The most important thing is to be confident in your ability to sell yourself and your product. Its also important to know what the company youre interviewing with does, so that you can talk about it intelligently.
How do I get a job in retail with no experience?
Retail is a tough industry to break into. You can try looking for internships, but its best to start with volunteering at your local store and then ask the manager if you can work there part-time.
Can I get a sales job without a degree?
Yes, you can get a sales job without a degree. However, it is important to note that the higher your education level, the better your chances of getting hired are.
Related Tags
This article broadly covered the following related topics:
- how to get a car sales job with no experience
- how to answer sales interview questions with no experience
- sales job no experience
- how to start in sales with no experience
- resume for sales job with no experience