There are two types of entrepreneurs. One type is when the entrepreneur has directly started his own business and has not worked in an office environment. The other type is the one who has worked in an office and then shifts to his own business. We feel that, if you are the second kind of entrepreneur, who has worked in an office before shifting to full time business, than a Sales career is the best career you should have before you make the big move of becoming an entrepreneur.
There are several reasons that we believe that sales is the best career for entrepreneurs. 6 such reasons are mentioned below.
Understanding people – The first thing that sales teaches us is to understand people and their cues and any signals that they give showing that they are interested in a sale. As an entrepreneur, this quality will come in handy, because you have to continuously measure people, good and bad, and you have to get your work done from them.
Facing rejection – A bitter thing which you learn from sales is facing rejection. Sales guys know for sure that they will succeed in selling their product 1 out of 10 times. Or at least they know their conversion rate and they do not get disheartened. In business, you will face rejection again and again for your product or service. You have to take that rejection with a pinch of salt and handle it.
Handling stress – When there are month ends and you have to achieve sales target, than you learn how to handle the pressure. At the same time, you know what kind of smart moves you need to make to convert the client to your company. Thus, managing stress or pressure is an art which a sales guy learns on his job.
Understanding the market – A sales guy will always understand the basic concepts of marketing. This is because he is in the market at all times and he knows what the competition is doing, what should he do against the competition, what are the needs wants and demands of his customers and what is his company’s core competency. While being in the market all the time, the sales employee understands his products in and out and hence he also understands the market.
Meeting new people – As a sales guy, you have to meet new clients and customers, new vendors, new channel partners and in general you have to keep on searching for new people day in and day out. This is because the existing clientele will give repeat business but that will be limited. Thus, as a sales guy, you understand the IMPORTANCE of meeting new people. As a sales guy, you have no resistance at all to meet new people. And as an entrepreneur, be rest assured that you will have to meet and also gel continuously with new people. Your network counts.
Risk taking – Business involves taking calculated risks. And trust me when I say that sales guys are calculating people. They know their targets and the efforts that will go in achieving them. They know how to understand and handle people. They know how to handle stress. Thus automatically, they come to know how to take calculated risk. They also know how to handle defeat if at all they fail at their risk taking enterprise.
Communication skills – No sales guy is complete without his communication skills. Sales people are known to be smart talkers. And they have to be because they might get only minutes to convey their products. Thus, these guys know their goal and more importantly, they know how to communicate to the customer about the product and achieve their goal. Thus, they know the importance of good communication.
Overall, the benefits of being in a sales career are manifold for an entrepreneur. Even if the entrepreneur starts with digital products, he needs to show a panache and a style for doing business so that he penetrates the market quickly.
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