Completely different from your usual Door to Door sales role. The
Corporate Sales executive has the advantage of working with blue chip companies whilst being the one responsible for driving their business forward. Let's face it, without a sales team companies wouldn't have any revenue!!
The really successful Business to Business salesperson is the professional consultant who has the ability to listen and match all clients’ requirements whilst building a very tight rapport ensuring repeat business.
Sales exist in most industries in one way or another although the most common
Corporate Sales opportunities are found within the Business Information, Financial, Property, Consumer (FMCG), Media, IT and Telecoms sectors. Below you will find a brief description of the different roles within the
Corporate Sales umbrella.
What is it like to work in Corporate Sales and are you right for the job?
Choosing Corporate Sales as a career has some fantastic rewards but is not an easy ride. It is a role where you will get out as much as you put in and where you have direct influence over your career progression and salary. Depending on what sort of person you are, this will either terrify you or seem very exciting.
In Corporate Sales, you will have targets to meet. At the beginning, these targets may be daily and will consist of Key Performance Indicators, which demonstrate you are undertaking the components of the role and doing what is asked of you. You will be monitored closely and given lots of support to ensure you achieve these. As you become more confident and have a better understanding of what the role entails, you will be set monthly revenue targets, which will be related to your Commission or Bonuses. Are you the sort of person who enjoys a challenge and will take advice from others on how to achieve your goals?
An average day in sales can be quite long. You may work from 8.30am to 6pm depending on workload and determination to succeed. If you want to do well, you are likely to want to work long hours and put in the ground work for your success. It can be very satisfying working that little bit extra and seeing your pay packet grow as a result. Are you someone who really wants to make that commitment to your future career?
Managing the many components of the role can be demanding. There are a lot of areas to juggle with many things happening all at once. This in itself can be very stressful and tiring. Do you thrive on having many things to do at once?
There can be many ups and downs in the role. When things are going well and you are winning business, making deals and taking home good commission it can be the best job in the world. However, sometimes things will not go your way. Sometimes your client may significantly reduce their budget with you or pull out of an almost done deal and you will feel highly frustrated! On a smaller scale, at times you may feel that you are not being successful when making new business sales call; you may speak to people who are not receptive to what you have to say. When times are tough, how resilient are you? Are you the sort of person who will look at how you could be better at your job, who will pick themselves up from being down and try even harder to get to where you want to be?
Other things to think about as you consider this Career Path are; How much do you enjoy persuading other people to your way of thinking? How confident are you? How do you get on with different groups of people? Are you happy talking at lots of different levels? Do you want to become an expert in a field of business? If so, what area?
What are the Rewards?
Corporate sales can be a very dynamic environment to work in. It gives you the opportunity to work within a very sociable atmosphere with like-minded, driven and confident individuals. As most of your salary will be based around very generous, uncapped-commission schemes there tends to be a direct correlation between the amount of work that you put in and the size of your pay-cheque. Such a meritocracy means that those who are willing to put the most work in will be rewarded with both a higher salary and also a faster-route to promotion!
Many managers and directors of today started as sales trainees and simply worked their way up! The companies we work with have strong positive promotion cultures where they recruit a pool of talent with a view to fast tracking trainees to positions of responsibility.
Corporate Sales offers the opportunity to learn both invaluable, vocational skills (transferable to any industry) and in-depth industry knowledge. On that basis, you become a very valuable resource to your clients-you are a person in the know! The days are long but it is so fast-paced that the day goes in a blink of an eye. Finally, and probably most importantly, it gives will give you the opportunity to earn an incredible amount of money within a very short period of time!
Salary
Your salary is made up of a basic salary, commission and bonuses. It will usually take about 3 months to build up commission. The commission can either be linked to your individual performance, team performance or both.
Companies may also pay Health insurance, Pension contributions, mobile phone bills, gym membership, loans for travel cards etc-this will vary on an individual basis.
Corporate Sales gives you the opportunity to earn top salaries along with the strongest opportunities to climb the career ladder. To give you an idea the average entry level salary in London is £21K and the average salary for an entry level Corporate Sales executive is a minimum of £25K - £30k package per annum consisting of £18-20K Basic + Commission.
How does JPA fit into Corporate Sales?
Corporate Sales is becoming an increasingly popular career choice. HR Departments of organisations receive thousands of CVs each month, so it can be very difficult to get yourself noticed. The best way to guarantee success in applying is to go through a recruitment organisation specialising in Corporate Sales such as JPA. We can facilitate your first step into this market, leveraging on our long-standing relationships with the top corporate companies in London.
We work across all sectors and have an excellent reputation in the market for quality of service. We always meet our candidates face to face so we can get the best feel for which of our numerous clients would offer them the best opportunity for success and the best cultural fit according to what they say is important to them. We have selected our clients because we believe they can offer excellent opportunities in terms of career progression, remuneration and training to our candidates.
Speciality areas include:
- Media
- IT
- Business Information
- Telecoms
- Finance
- Conference & Exhibitions
- Property
- And many more to come...
Telesales/Telemarketing
As Frank Sinatra once sang "If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere!" What the sales industry defines as the best grounding opportunity ever.
This role is not for the faint hearted but boy can one reap the rewards here. Persistence is the key in this office based environment and YES you will be conducting 50 BtoB calls a day and YES you will receive many rejections but once you realise it all gets going and you're earning lots of money…THERE'S NO STOPPING YOU!!!!!!
Field Sales
Fancy being out an about all the time? In this sales role, Field Sales Executives visit clients all over a designated area. You will most likely be provided with a company car and be expected to be out of the office closing deals most of the day. This role is usually mostly common within Property and Consumer Goods industry where clients need to see physical product samples.
Sales Executive
So now you know what corporate sales involves, but I hear you asking what will my role involve as a Sales Executive?
As a sales executive you need to have the eye to spot a sales opportunity with another client that is ultimately going to make your organisation and you money. As a sales executive you have got to be confident on the phone, be able to speak with decision makers of all levels, have the guile and the charm to make a client warm to you and want to stay speaking with you on the phone.
One key thing to remember is that you most probably are the fifth person to have called them within a space of half an hour so you have to stand out. You need to be on the ball 100% of the time, your client is likely to work by the well known phrase 'time is money' and that means if you are wasting their time, you are not helping them make money and so they will not want to chat for longer- sounds harsh and tough but that’s business and that’s sales.
As a sales executive you can really develop in a trial and error sense, because you will learn something from every call and visit you make allowing you to improve for the next time you pick up the phone or meet a client.
Business Development
New Business Development is the key to all businesses, whether you are a leader in your market or newly established, there is always room to expand. Business Development ultimately means generating new clients for your organisation, this can be initially through cold calling (contacting a company for the first time) or through following a lead, informing you that another company is likely to be looking for the product you are selling. Business Development requires you to be determined and not easily put off, you are likely to experience a number of knock backs, but the best sales people are those who are not easily put off and have resilience like a boxer, someone who after being knocked down will always get up and be ready to fight on.
Business development can generate new clients that potentially will become the core of your sales figures, when picking up that phone to call someone who you only know as Mr X, remember all business relationships have been started somewhere so the next call could be the big money maker.
Account Manager
So the NBD has been done, the clients love you and as an account manager then all you have to do is wine and dine them, sound easy?...Well unfortunately its not true, being an account manager can be one of the hardest roles within sales. The client relationship has been built up and it is your job to appreciate the client's needs and most importantly service the client in the manner that they have become accustomed to. It is imperative to remember that one small slip and the relationship could be ruined, so ultimately a key factor to remember is why did the client want to work so closely with you in the first place? The answer to the question informs you of the level of service you need to provide.
