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March 30, 2008 2:32 PM

What is the trajectory of an above-the-line sales career? Assume no college degree but slowly working towards one.

Just started out warm-selling. It's my first actual sales job. I've got entry level marketing, customer svc., and restaurant management on my resume.

I'm working for a small company dealing in a product with an actual market, truly of the highest quality among its peers, etc.

I'm doing well. Sold enough in my first real week to earn a bonus according to their commission structure.

Assuming I spend a year or two with this company and continue to do well, what are my next steps if I really like the money and want to go further? How did you go from making medium bucks to big bucks? How could I do it?

I don't think car sales is for me. And I would prefer to maintain integrity.

posted by sarelicar to work & money (5 comments total)

With all due respect, I think that in a year or two you'll be better able to answer that question than any of us can.
posted by Class Goat at 3:19 PM on March 30

A lot of this depends on your product and your industry. You may get more info if you can provide a little more (understanding that you may not be able to fully disclose).
posted by altcountryman at 7:03 PM on March 30

The biggest bucks seem to be in defense/aerospace. I met a guy who sold Boeings and he basically had three years of unlimited expense account to close the deal, at which point he made a big bonus (which he retired on) if you win the deal, or you get fired if the sale goes to Airbus.
IT has good income, and judging from the people I work with, no great need for smarts or experience to get hired (though you need both to be successful).
Pharma, too, I believe has good prospects for fast advancement and rewards.
As a general comment, getting to the big buck playing field is reasonably easy, but staying there is very hard. Because remuneration is focused on success, there is an incentive for employers to give lots of people a shot at it, often without the back-up and support needed for success.
If you can overcome this, you deserve the rewards.
If you are in a place with a genuine product advantage, that is great. The hardest sell is the mediocre products - "we're not the cheapest, but we are better quality than the Chinese knock-offs" - as that doesn't hit the quality or price buyers, and there are likely some competitors too.
posted by bystander at 11:37 PM on March 30

altcountryman: what sort of more info? feel free to mefi-mail me

bystander: thank you, this is the sort of general advice i was looking for
posted by sarelicar at 8:46 AM on March 31

Congratulations on finding what you do well (although a week is certainly a short history in sales) and realizing that in sales, there are the 'big bucks' to be had.

A bit of background about myself: eight years as a customer (life sciences research with an M.A. degree), a few years in technical support, then a few years in marketing as a product manager, and now a few years in the 'real world' of selling.

My advice: find a high-growth industry and segment within that industry that you are very interested in, have a keen passion for, and perhaps can integrate it in your 4-year degree pursuit. It has to be something you are willing to stick with, of course in sales it can be very difficult at times what with the demands of customers, a changing marketplace, and of course competition. But if you can find that field you like (say for example web software and web services, a recent Forbes (or was it Fortune) had a nice piece on salespeople who kept at it through the bust times selling web ads, now there's such a demand for top salespeople that are regularly pulling down $300K. (I'm not that jealous - not to brag, but last year I made almost $200K, half in base salary, half in commissions, more than I've ever made before.)

What are the next steps? For me it is considering sales management; what is nice is that your quota is now spread throughout the geographies / territories of those you manage. Along with a higher base (think 20-30% more) over many years you will do better than those 'in the trenches'. That being said, the downside is that in high-growth, quota-busting years the people you manage may well make more than you because of the commission structure (it is much easier for a $1M/year rep to do 150% than a $8M/year sales manager to do 150%). It has happened in my own company, unfortunately I have come in on the 'upper 50%' rather than the 'top 10%' or better. (I believe the top 10% hit something like $350K this past year.)

One thing you need to do, though, regardless of the push for higher education in your chosen field to sell into, is to be determined to be the best salesperson around, as well as to be the most-informed about sales salesperson around. (Note - not necessarily the most-informed about your product, but most-informed about selling and the sales process.) These are the folks who bring home not only the bacon, but the entire smokehouse (i.e. the $350K salespeople). I'm well on my way but admit that there's a tremendous amount still to learn.

One thing I've learned is that many salespeople can get by with the minimum amount of 'work' but they sell themselves as 'hard workers'. Another thing is that great salespeople are rare birds, and when you find a good person to learn from then learn as much as you can from them, as well as become their good friends. I owe a lot of my success to very very good salespeople who were more than willing to share some of their secrets and experiences. Of course excellent books / tapes / seminars help out here as well.

Just my two cents from an anonymous poster on the intraweb.

Good luck -
scooterdog
posted by scooterdog at 4:52 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]