Is sales the most soul crushing job alive?

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Click to expand...

I've had some of the best weeks of my life when I did sales. One summer, around Grade 12 or 13, I was a canvasser for an old school "tin man." I would walk around, knocking on doors, and set up an appointment or two to bring in the "closer" who would sell folks home improvements. Everything from sophet and fascia to replacement windows to vinyl siding to additions, etc. If you had written a nice deal or two and had some appointments set up, most of the day would be spent at the horse track, etc. I made a butt load of money for what was a summer job.

Grade 13? Wtf...

Originally Posted by Astan

Click to expand...

Grade 13? Wtf...
And they say Yanks aren't cosmopolitan. Not every school system is exactly like that in the US.

Originally Posted by CMJTperry

Click to expand...

Its brutal!

Yeah, I do phone sales right now, I call a couple of hundred people a day and might make $20 an hour.

After personal training, I will never take anothing job involving sales for as long as I live.

I love sales. And I **** you not, I sold sunglasses to a blind man. True story.

Selling is all I've ever done. I hope I can get out one day though, for my souls sake. I left my last job because the sales was so crazy immoral I just couldn't do it.

But I can not telemarket, it's just not in me. But I can sell.

Im a telemarketer and I contemplate blowing my brains out every morning.

There is sales and sales. Telemarketing is pretty much at the bottom of the ladder, although after 3 months of character building you will become tough as nails and nothing anybody says will bother you anymore, at work or otherwise.

I work as a Government Sales Exec for an IT company, much more civilised than telemarketing but still has its moments. I've been doing it for around 3 years and have definitely become a more confident person as a direct result of my occupation.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later. I AGREE

TIP: to embed Youtube clips, put only the encoded part of the Youtube URL, e.g. eBGIQ7ZuuiU between the tags.

Originally Posted by Eason

Click to expand...

After personal training, I will never take anothing job involving sales for as long as I live.

there are not a whole lot of jobs out there that don't involve sales skills in some form man.

Most soul crushing job = investment banking, especially at entry levels

Originally Posted by willpower

Click to expand...

IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later. I AGREE

TIP: to embed Youtube clips, put only the encoded part of the Youtube URL, e.g. eBGIQ7ZuuiU between the tags.

^ This.

I found the 'soul crushing' aspect of the job (telemarketting in my case) was directly proportionate to the amount of cases where I didn't believe the product was suited to the customer and lied to them about it in order to get a sale. Sales is essentially about building rapport with a customer so that they trust you, so that if you believe a product is suited to their needs, they will believe you and buy it. You would usually get someone's trust by showing an understanding of the person's lifestyle and an alignment of ideals (e.g: putting family first, enjoying watching football). This trust means people ignore knee-jerk skepticism and think less about the potential downfalls a product might have if they buy it. People for the most part buy on emotion, so if you can gain their trust and suggest an emotional benefit that seems relevant to them, if they trust you they will believe you. (e.g: you'll be much happier (emotional benefit) watching the football (relevant) on your mobile on your train ride to work (again relevant)). The 'soul crushing' comes by the fact that you mightn't always be sincere about the emotional benefit they'll be getting (because after all, it is a theory not a fact, there could be reasons they won't be happy with X that you'd rather not divulge) and that of course because you are focusing on the emotional side, there are countless other logical factors which might be overlooked (such as how much the product will cost the person in the long run, the limitations of the product, terms and conditions etc etc.) because the person will make the assumption that you wouldn't sell them something that won't benefit them, because they trust you. It sounds horrible and it's true that you don't need to overlook things in order to be a sales person, but at least in the position I was in, the products themselves couldn't be sold on the reality of what they were (overpriced and slightly outdated telecommunication solutions). So if you do end up finding a company selling things that you can in fact get behind, perhaps then your job can be ethically sound. But this is the crux of sales, a manipulative salesperson will always do better than an honest one, as you'll always have more sales if you can spin the product to those who mightn't need it because of the greater amount of potential customers.

I think you need to have the right personality for the job. Otherwise it is really horrible.

sales is fun, you develop a thick skin from people telling you to bugger off. The key is to remember you control your own destiny in this field and everyone starts off on square 1.