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LogoutAs we move another step forward on this journey of sales, we ask an important question. What exactly is a sales job and what are the opportunities in terms of career for MBA students?
A sales job is the one in which the person is responsible for generating leads and meet sales goals. A typical definition of generating lead is to arouse customer interest for that particular product/service with the goal of turning it into a sale.
Sales Development Reps – A sales development rep is product knowledge specialist, whose job is researching, prospecting and qualifying leads. In simpler terms, he/she is a problem solver. Their main job is prospecting outbound sales and reaching to potential prospects. They identify and follow through with the lead and once it is qualified, a sales rep takes over the deal.
They are the entry point to sales and their performance is measured generally on no. of calls done or converted.
Area Sales Manager – an ASM is responsible for an assigned geographical location. They are responsible for achieving sales target from end-to-end posts. They keep a track of sales being done by different retailers, amount being sold, monitoring of various distributors, retailers, and salesperson in terms of sales challenges or resistance being faced. They lead the sales team and close sales.
They are generally promoted from an SDR role or other sales training role to it after a 12–18-month work experience in the role.
Regional Sales Manager – an RSM manages various ASM falling under his/her jurisdiction. They are mainly responsible for meeting the long -term goals of the company. In some firms they are directly responsible for overseeing the sales while in others they are mainly responsible for defining the strategic goals by analysing the sales patterns. They may also be responsible for budget decisions and laying out overall sales strategy along with other regional sales managers.
They are promoted from an ASM role after a minimum of 3 years’ experience.
Director of Sales – A DoS is responsible for all sales of a company. They are the bastions of maintain an efficient sales team by training sales manager, forecasting sales, identifying new markets, keeping up to date with latest trends and maintaining good relations. They work with different teams and develop long-term goals with a kitty of multiple products. He/she is the leader responsible for guiding and motivating the overall functioning of the company’s sales domain.
A Dos doesn’t only require a work experience of around 8-10 years but a track record of success.
Vice President of Sales – A VP is responsible for the overall growth of the company and meeting its goals in collaboration with other domains. It’s mostly a strategic role which identifies how sales as a function can be developed and improved, managing its budget, finding bottlenecks in overall performance, and setting goals for the company’s overall bottom and top line.
An employee is generally allotted as VP after 10-12 years of work in the firm and those who have shown exceptional performance, especially by showing results over and above the targets set.
To check out the previous story on why sales - [Career Prospects in Sales - Why Sales?]