Not everyone has theright kind of personality to be a sales person. Amongst other thingssales people will need a pretty good dose of optimism; partly fortheir own benefit, and partly for the benefit of developing a goodrapport with potential customers. But when they come to be looking atSales Vacancies, i.e looking for their next jobs, thatoptimism needs to be balanced with an equal measure of realism.
For an establishedsales person looking for a move there would always seem to be plentyof variety as regards products and services to sell, andcorresponding Sales Vacancies to consider. But through longexperience one has learned that the nature & health of thecompany itself is, ultimately, more important than the products,services, or the vacancy details. If you join a company that isheading for failure / bankruptcy you sign up for all the stresses ofbeing part of a company that is going down, and then for the furtherstresses of having to start your own career again from scratch.
Here are some tipson checking out the "background" to Sales Vacancies ...
Courtesyof the Internet you should be able to find out quite a bit about thecompany that is advertising the Sales Vacancies.The Companies House web-site will give you all sorts of informationabout the company and its directors. Have a look at their mostrecently filed accounts, check out their turnover, and profits. Ifthe company is in some sort of difficulties it should be apparent.
Thenext good source of information about a company, and its SalesVacancies, is its customers.If you can talk to a few customers you will, so to speak, be talkingto someone with an "inside view". Their views of thecompany's reputation and economic health are likely to be prettyaccurate. If you encounter negative views, then tread carefully.
Whilsttalking to customers about the Sales Vacanciesthat interest you, you could also mention your potential newboss(es). If they have been customers for any length of time theymay have come across them and have opinions. Likewise, ex-employees.Although beware of any criticism coming from ex-employees. It mightbe quite justified, or it might simply indicate that for somepersonal reason the employee was unhappy during that employ.
Yetanother strategy would be to call the company, the one that isadvertising the Sales Vacancies,whilst posing as a potential customer. Your experience as apotential customer will be yet another indicator as to what sort ofcompany it is. If the company doesn't appear to have a good salesset-up, or doesn't seem to be dealing with you in a professionalmanner, you might then want to think again a bout the said SalesVacancies.
Atfirst sight any adverts for are likely to look good. After all, they are being advertised bypeople whose job in life is to encourage people to buy things.Another good idea, therefore, is to make a list of criteria for thenew job that you hope to find and then start to measure up a wholebunch of jobs against those criteria. Viewing a whole collection ofSales Vacancies jobsat the same time can help you to form a balanced view of each.
Havingthe optimistic outlook so common in salespeople, I have in thedistant past made poor choices by viewing Sales Vacanciesthrough 'rose-tinted glasses'. Hopefully the above will help other tomake better choices.
Good luck.
