How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer, 2nd edition: The Qualities That Make Salespeople Great, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 9

Understanding the Sales Job

Although all sales jobs involve, at their core, the ability to persuade, the breadth of these jobs is virtually limitless. Sales jobs range from quick-closing, hard-selling, short-term, commission-only positions to the opposite extreme, where the persuasive element is much more subtle and takes place only a few times a year at the end of a long process. Similarly, many sales positions require little technical background, while others require the salesperson to be a technical expert in a particular product or service. Some sales jobs presume that the individual customer will buy once and likely never again, while in most other sales situations, a one-time-only buyer would be disastrous. Numerous additional ...