For the love of sales! Why… you should launch your career in a sales role What… top employers are looking for from you How… to build and manage a professional sales career

Why listen to me? I built and own Sales Talent Agency, Canada’s #1 sales recruitment company I had a pretty good sales career that set me up for entrepreneurship My company interacts with thousands of sales professionals at all career levels each year We hire sales people for more than 170 companies across Canada in every industry (from SAP and salesforce.com, to Monster, Groupon and Castrol)

Get into sales! Highly measured: effort and expertise are always rewarded Highly paid: best sales people will often earn more than 99% of the company Incredibly empowering skill-set to develop: opens your career path to both executive and entrepreneurialism Lower than average lay-off rate

Don’t get into sales! Highly measured: no place to hide Paid for performance: if you don’t make it, you don’t earn it Higher than average firing rate: no matter how much they like you, you better bring an ROI

So, do you have what it takes? Drive [The engine] Empathy [The rudder]

What are top employers looking for? Talent [how you get in the door today] Experience [how you earn more money tomorrow]

A sampling of the market (for top performers) IndustryYear 1Year 10 Technology e.g. Software, Cloud, Data Storage, Infrastructure Outsourcing, etc. $40-60k base with an $80-120k total income 90% inside sales roles/10% outside sales roles Enterprise-level outside sales rep (or Manager/Exec) earning $200k+ consistently Media Deal-of-the-Day Advertising, SEO/SEM, Job Boards, TV/Radio, etc $30-50k base with an $60-100k total income 50% inside sales roles/50% outside sales roles Key/National Account Manager (or Manager/Exec) earning $120k-$160k Consumer Goods (B2B) Pharmaceuticals, Beer/Wine, Gift Cards, Electronic Appliances, etc $50-80k base with an $55-100k total income 99% outside sales roles Key/National Account Manager (or Manager/Exec) earning $70k-$150k

How to navigate from here Pick an industry and stay in it (so pick carefully) Choose based on where you want to be 5 years from now (not where you want to be today) Embrace hunting – this is a life skill you will never regret developing (and it pays more!) Don’t be put off by inside sales if it is in the industry you are interested in Keep track of every win, accolade and metric

What you should be looking for A compelling and unique value proposition Good sales technique/strategy training (as well as product/service training) Access to “subject matter experts” who can attend meetings to help you work through complex deals Good competitive analysis A strong understanding of what is “low hanging fruit” Case studies, reference letters and/or testimonials from happy customers Well developed and constructed marketing materials (including a strong company website) A good boss to help you plan meetings, analyze your sales pipeline, set realistic quotas AND strategize accounts An easily understood commission plan

SALES TALENT AGENCYSALES TALENT AGENCY For the love of sales!