Get Off the Phone!

Some career paths can be simple progression routes, where each step requires doing more of the same but at increasing levels of responsibility. You can usually stay within the same environment, learn a bit more about that area of business and improve on the skills you are already using. However, in the sales profession career development can mean jumping from one distinct type of role to another, so how do you make the transition and prove you are capable? If you have started your sales career doing telesales, you are immediately dealing with a challenging role in a demanding environment. But much of what you do will be scripted and monitored and there will always be the back-up of a team manager when things get tricky. With so much planning and co-ordination of work computerised and with data at your fingertips, this is a role you can do (once initially trained) without any daily preparation. So in this sort of role how do you prove that you are capable of the field sales or sales representative side of things? Sales representatives need to be able to plan their own schedules, develop their own leads, research their clients' backgrounds and retain a lot of that information for face-to-face meetings. They will be dealing with clients alone so will need to be able to manage difficult situations without support. Another area of the role requires building up contacts and networking, so you will find yourself in a lot of situations which will be far from scripted. You will need to be able to assess a situation and judge the right approach quickly in order to make the right impact. To start proving yourself, you can take more control of the difficult types of calls you deal with and show how you were able to handle them without management involvement. To prove other skills, you may need to take advantage of the internal departmental opportunities where you are not on the phone, such as team meetings, co-ordinating social activities and volunteering for company initiatives, whether they are project-based or charity fundraising. As long as the right people can witness your efforts, it can all work towards you proving you have the right skills to progress When opportunities for progression are not available in your current employment, you need to look elsewhere. Sales recruitment agencies in Shropshire are a great place to start. As well as having offices which you can visit to discuss your options, sales recruitment agencies in Shropshire also have online vacancies listings so you can start searching immediately.