8 Step Guide to a Sales Job with No Experience

There are many reasons to focus on a career in sales, check out my article  Top 10 Reasons – Why You Should Choose a Career in Sales , for further insight.

We have all had to start our careers with little and in most cases no experience. In fact if you are reading my article right now, I bet you are one of these people, wondering what you can do to beat the competition and secure that dream sales job and start earning money.

I am going to share with you, my 8 Step Guide from mentoring and interviewing countless people with little to no experience. Read on to learn the secrets from a professional with over 25 years sales experience.

If you were fortunate enough to work a casual retail job through school, then you may have been exposed to sales and customer service.

In fact, my after school job was working in a skating business as a DJ playing music. Occasionally they would have a roller skates sale and I would become involved, helping to sell these products, but it was few and far between and it hardly counted as sales experience, but it was a start, a foot in the door, as they say.

Fortunately in the digital world, most people have the resources to get a head start, to research and learn what it takes to start a career, which is probably why you are reading my article.

Like many people, you may have realized the harsh reality of landing your first job, like many before you, you may have spent the past 3-4 years at university or college studying for that dream career, only to find that when applying for jobs, despite your efforts, you barely receive a response to your job applications.

This is definitely the situation in sales, so take my advice below and start planning ahead.

1.  Networking

Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, it is who you know”

Well I am here to tell you that this statement is the truth and if you nail this point and follow my guide below, you WILL land a sales role. Like many people starting out, you may only know your family and friends and close friends and family, so let’s start here.

Make a list of every person you can possibly think of in your family and friendship tree. If you think of a family tree diagram, think about how everyone is related and to whom. For example you might start with your mother or father, where do they work and whom do they know? Ask them if they know any sales people, sales directors, or even better the Vice President of Sales and then ask for a introduction.

If they don’t know anyone, ask them to ask their closest co-workers if they know these people and so on until you get an introduction.

You can test this process out with your Uncles, Aunts, Cousins and the list goes on. You may also have a sporting coach, music teacher that happens to be in sales as their full time job or again may have a close friend in this field.

If you do not have a large family or people to ask, then look to your friends and what their family do for work and see if they would be willing to ask their family the same questions to help you find a introduction.

Given the popularity of sales as a career, I can guarantee you that you will find someone.

Next ask the sales person (either directly or through your contact) if they would meet to help you understand more about sales. Most people will want to meet you, as sales people are generally helpful and quite talkative people.

Buy them a coffee and show them that you really value and appreciate their time. Think through the questions you want to ask them and write them down before the meeting. The sales person will likely do most of the talking, but it shows initiative if you come prepared.

The fact that you have taken the time to request a meeting and shown a willingness to want to work in sales, most people will want to help you and will recommend a job to apply for, may even put you forward for a job or act as a reference. All three are brilliant outcomes.

If you like this person and want to continue meeting them, ask them to coach or mentor you. This means that they will start to teach you from their experience, how to become a sales person which is also great for their career if they want to become a sales leader.

People buy from people they trust, people hire people they can trust and the only way to trust a stranger, is through a referral from someone trusted.

When I have recruited for sales positions, once the job is advertised, the amount of resumes received is unbelievable, on average 300 – 800 depending on the role and company name. The culling process, well normally there isn’t one, despite what everyone says about resume writing etc, 95% of the time, companies only interview people that are internal or referred by someone trusted.

How do I know this?  I see it everyday in companies big and small.

The reason is that the hiring manager still has a day job and sales targets to meet, so they need to prioritize their time and usually that means filling the position as soon as possible with someone recommended.

The only job I ever applied for was my first Entry-Level sales role where I was an unknown, not referred.  The reason I landed this job was because it was commission only, NO salary, so there was zero risk to the company, if I didn’t sell or perform, they didn’t pay me. Every other role thereafter was from people I know, recommendations and as they say “Taps on the shoulder”