Sales professionals are a critical part of most businesses. Whether a company is engaged in manufacturing a product or providing a service, they depend on sales representatives to sell their product to their customers. Marketing activities can promote the item, pricing and distribution strategies can put the item in the right place at the right price, but without knowledgeable and competent sales professionals, most products would never leave the factory. There are many types of sales careers, from retail sales of low-priced items to selling to high-priced items to corporate accounts. Some companies consist almost entirely of sales professionals (representative agencies). This research examines the sales profession as a potential career, including the types of sales representatives in the market, knowledge and experience required, compensation and future outlook.
Sales representatives are found in nearly all industry segments. One of the most common places to find salespeople is in the retail environment, where salespeople sell items to the public. At this level, representatives may work on commission, or they may receive a straight salary. In some cases, the selling is passive, where sales representatives wait for customers to come into the store, or even into their department. In other cases, sales representatives actively seek out customers in order to communicate the features and benefits of the particular products. Generally, retail sales professionals are associated with more than one product, and in some cases, must be knowledgeable about a wide variety of products and brands (Capell, 1993, p. 12).
In many retail environments, the sales individual is little more than a clerk who serves as an order taker. There is little interaction with customers in the pre-sale process, and most of the clerk's time is spent ringing up the sale and offering limited pre-sale assistance. However, some retail environments demand m...