We generally have two different types of sales representatives who work for us: the career salesperson, whose long-term goal is to be a salesperson; and a development person, whose goal is to move into sales management. The two different types are evaluated a little differently. There is a quota, and everyone is expected to make the quota. This is more than a job evaluation; it is a job requirement. Then the line breaks from there. Career salespeople are judged more on their selling skills, their ability to sell and move the product ahead, and their ability to help other people do that. A career salesperson may help other people learn or be used as a standby trainer. Development people, on the other hand, are judged on their sales ability; quota accomplishments; and their ability to manage people-for instance, their intelligence, their basic managerial skills; and their ability to communicate with people, to make decisions, to solve problems, and to lead.
A - What do you like about this type of sales?
A - It's a position that you never totally learn, which keeps it interesting. It is not a job in which you can easily fall into a routine because you are always learning something new. There is always some new twist to the business. You never totally learn it, but that is partly what broadens its appeal. It takes probably a year or two or three to totally grasp what is going on, to really figure out the different movements of scrap, what different markets do, how different markets affect your buying and selling. It is not an easy business to learn.
Real estate is challenging. My opinion is worth something, and people are willing to pay for my opinion, because I'm out there in the field all the time. There are some big bucks being thrown around. People throw around millions of dollars like it's nothing. It's interesting to be involved in something like that.
I like the total experience-the travel, being able to be on my own, and the compensation are all part of it. You are sort of running your own business-the more effort you put into it, the more money it seems you make in the field. It introduces you to a wide variety of people, mostly at a professional level, so it opens up the social world for you. If you get yourself a desk job, report to a certain place each day, and see the same unsmiling faces from 8:00 to 5:00, it is a different world altogether.
It's totally unstructured. No two days are the same. Pays very well. It is personally challenging. The job is never done. So, if you have the need to be constantly challenged, then there are probably few other jobs that can compare to it. It is also rather unique. In this particular kind of product area I can work seventy hours a week for weeks on end and never encounter an ignorant person. I encounter a lot of people with whom I disagree, but they're all smart. And that makes for a very, very stimulating environment!
Q - What do you dislike about this type of sales?
A - The job is very taxing. It's physically taxing to some people, but it is mentally taxing to many as well. It is a stressful job. If you know how to cope with stress well, it doesn't bother you. It's a business that is very competitive and that requires a person to be tough and thick-skinned, yet project it in nice ways. It's very easy for people to walk all over you. It's a business in which people are constantly testing you, especially when you are new. People are constantly trying to twist your arm to get the highest possible price for their product on the processor end, and on the consumer end they want to buy at the lowest market price. So, you have to be firm in determining what is a fair price, and you have to be able to convey that to people.
There are a lot of different people in the world, and a lot of the time you have to deal with some who aren't so pleasant. Sometimes people say you have misrepresented a property. "You told me this roof didn't leak," this, that, or whatever. Sometimes there are questions about your integrity. That's happened about three times in my career so far, and that's a bummer. Sometimes you lose a deal. Sometimes you work four or five months on a deal, and you get a call saying, "Fred, the board of directors just changed their mind. We appreciate all the time and effort you put into it. If we do change our mind again, we will certainly give you a call." That's kind of depressing. But there are many more good things that happen than bad.
The company is a little bit too conservative. I would think this is a general feeling in sales. In sales you are getting the reaction from users immediately, what they would like to see changed or improved in your product. Manufacturing is generally fairly slow to respond, however, and that is a very discouraging part of sales. You can't get things that you need in the field as quickly as you need them. As a sales representative, you don't have the big picture of why or why not you don't get that item, but sometimes it's very discouraging when someone tells you that if you had it they would buy it from you, but you can't get it to sell to them.
What sort of advice would you give someone considering this type of sales? If you like to work with people, want to do well financially, and want to be challenged constantly, then you probably can't pick a career that offers a better, more fertile ground to accomplish these objectives than sales. Likewise, if your objective is to move on to something else, either something that has the bent of an entrepreneur about it, or onto some other specialty, there are probably few areas you can enter that would give you a better background. Salespeople who have the opportunity to work with business people get to see a great deal more of business than most of their counterparts who go into some particular specialty and try to work their way up without ever seeing the rest of the world. Marketing is a super, real-life schoolhouse, and those who have aspirations to the top chair of an existing business organization or perhaps into their own field of endeavor, would be well advised to look for a marketing opportunity first. It offers a great deal of education that can't be taught and that's invaluable once learned.
Book knowledge in school is fine. It is excellent information. The shocker is that when you hit the field, you will find out that the book knowledge does not answer all the questions all the time. You have to have some intelligence to be able to solve the problems. You have to have a good head on your shoulders. You have to be able to understand the total picture. There are problems that the professor forgot to tell you about.
