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More info
- Meet customers to persuade them to buy products or services
- You'll need sales and negotiation skills, presentation skills, and customer service skills
- You could become sales team leader or an area sales manager
As a sales representative, you'll specialise in a particular industry like consumer goods or engineering components.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Contacting new and existing customers
- Making presentations to promote new products
- Agreeing sales, prices and delivery
- Keeping in contact with customers before and after a sale
- Recording orders
- Going to conferences to understand industry trends
- Meeting sales targets
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You could work in an office, from home or in a contact centre. You may need to work evenings and weekends and may need to drive to visit customers.
You'll need
This role would be ideal for someone with excellent sales skills and negotiation skills, presentation skills, and customer service skills.
There are no set requirements but GCSEs in English and maths, or a certificate in sales and marketing could help you get a job. You could start as an administrator in a sales office. Experience in a retail or customer service role may help you to become a sales rep.
You may need to do a degree in a subject related to your area of sales, especially if you're selling specialist products or services, for example pharmaceuticals.
You could do an intermediate or advanced apprenticeship in sales and telesales or vehicle sales. You could then move onto a sales executive higher apprenticeship.
CAREER PROSPECTS
With experience, you could become sales team leader or an area sales manager. The Institute of Sales Management (ISM) could help you develop your career.