As a fresh graduate or experienced professional looking for how to start a career in the sales field, this post will explain what you need to know and how to get started.
Sales is fundamental to every business, most businesses won’t survive without a proper and effective sales department.

How to Begin a Career in Sales
To start a career in you have to first understand what sales is all about. Sales is a term used to describe the activities that lead to the selling of goods or services or the exchange of value for money. In simple terms, every activity we engage in to sell a good or service is described as sales.

Who is a Sales Professional?
A sales professional is someone who sells products or services to potential customers. They bridge the gap between customer needs and the product/service that fulfils that need.

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Roles of a Sales Professional in an Organisation
A sales professional handles the following duties in an organisation;

- Prospecting: Sometimes a sales person is expected to identify potential customers or prospects and may require to build an ideal client persona. This is more expected in B2B sales where the sales professional may have to identify and qualify which enterprise or businesses could be good prospects to sell to.

- Lead Conversions: It is the responsibility of salespeople to deal with already warmed up prospects and close the deal by introducing further information to encourage the customer to make the decision.

- Business Growth: Sales professionals play an important role in the building of loyalty and trust between customer and business.

- Customer Retention and Support: Salesperson should not only make the sale but create a long-lasting impact on the customer. Long term customer relationships lead to repeat customers.

- Develop, implement and track sales strategies and goals, with different markets and sales modes.

- Create strategies to make sales with new and existing customers and to expand markets.


Skills to Succeed in Sales Career
- Effective Communication
- Active Listening
- Product Knowledge
- Strategic Research and Prospecting Skills
- Time Management
- Presentation Skill
- Basic Computer Skills

Job Prospects and Earnings in Sales
Sales professionals work in several industries like Financial, Oil and Gas, Engineering, FMCG, Education, Construction, Real Estates and many more.

Entry-level sales professionals in Nigeria earn between N50k and N150k monthly, while mid-level sales professionals earn between N150k and N450k monthly and senior-level sales professionals earn over N450k monthly. Note, this doesn’t cover commissions the salespersons earn, which can run into millions on a monthly basis.

Source: https://lentora.com/blog/how-to-start-a-career-in-sales-and-become-a-sales-professional/