Sales Representative Job Description– Individual needed to convince buyers to do something that they otherwise might not do!

Job Duties - To make this happen, you need to be able to create interest, develop relationships, clarify the product/service and its uses, close the deal, and service the customer.  Not capable of being done by a machine or robot.  Cannot be outsourced!

Why Aren’t There More African Americans in the Sales Profession?

As a Black sales professional, or an aspirant one, you may, or may not, have wondered the answers to this question.  As the question is intriguing, I attempted to research it on the basis of items written and published.  There is not much discussion in print. There is not much out there other than a couple of doctoral works done in the late ‘70s.  As those are somewhat stale I will pose some of my own observations on this issue.

Most professional sales positions interface with the ‘paying public’, also known as customers, in business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-personal (B2P).  Thus the sales profession is where the “rubber meets the road” for most organizations involved in manufacturing and distributing durable and non-durable goods as well as personal and business services.

Simple observance would tell you that Blacks are underrepresented in the nation’s professional force.  Whether it is sales positions in large thriving organizations, or sales positions in small and medium sized firms, there are very few organizations that have “too many” Black sales professionals.

There are several reasons why Blacks never get exposed to professional sales positions.  Here are some of them:

Many Qualified Blacks Avoid Jobs with an Uncertain Income - Those of you who are in sales know that many of your friends and your relatives marvel at the fact that you can’t tell them how much money you will make next year.  In the Black community jobs involving only commission are intimidating and not highly sought after.  Positions that have compensation schemes that involve salary are much more desirable.  Positions that have variations of the two (salary and commission) such as salary and bonus, or a salary draw plus commission garner suspicion because income at risk is not as desirable as a good salary.

Many organizations don’t seek out Black Sales Professionals – There are organizations that do recognize the benefit of the Black sales professional and actively recruit and hire.  Many large organizations have formal recruitment programs and planned goals as they measure hiring and retention of their minority sales talent.    The converse of this is that mid-sized and smaller businesses do not actively seek entry-level sales recruits with or without college educations.  These organizations lack formal sales training programs and thus expect candidates to come into the job with sales experience, and some indication of success.  This can be limiting for aspirant Black candidates, as they must attempt to garner the experience somewhere before getting the most desirable sales positions.

There are Hiring Managers that Discriminate in Hiring - This will not come as a surprise to those out there in the job market.  Discrimination will always exist in the job market. Remember, individuals, not a company or organization, do the hiring!  As long as hiring managers, with their own racial preferences, racial perceptions, and racial prejudices, select the candidates, the door is open for discrimination.  There is some basic human nature at play here, such as racial preference, although there can be the ‘dark side’ of human nature which includes basic racial prejudice.

Mobility within organizations – When Black college seniors are recruited they enter the organization through the sales operation.  That makes sales jobs a gateway position.  Many recruits that enter in this way find mobility within the organization and move to positions, even promotions that are more desired. Using the sales position as a portal to get inside an organization is fair, and a good way to work the system. This means that Black professionals in both simple and complex organizations migrate throughout the organization after finding success in the sales job.  Many new Black college graduates have little desire to be a career sales professional, but are highly desirous of getting on with a quality organization.  Many of those quality organizations that hire and train Black professionals allow them upward and lateral mobility within the organization, as these professionals are a known quantity and stable performing minorities are needed.

Lack of confidence – Based on the fact that most buyers are white, the Black sales professional often has many concerns regarding acceptance, preference, and possibility of success.  Depending on the firm that is in question, this might be only a perception, but it can be a serious and a limiting problem.  How many times have students or aspiring professionals indicated to me that they don’t think they could do the sales job?  More than I could ever count.  In reality many of them could do it, but they are intimidated by the nature of the job…. they lack confidence. Although mentoring, training, and general support can help a professional gain confidence, success is the best catalyst to creating that aura of confidence.

‘Bad’ assignments – Often when a Black sales professional is hired, they are more likely to get a difficult assignment.  Sometimes that assignment is related to an area or territory which has languished, or a company trying to reach Black businesses.   Have no doubt -Black sales professionals should be very clear about the territory that they are entering and should have agreement on what is expected upon hire and deployment. Hiring a Black sales professional in hopes that individual is going to handle Black businesses is unfair and limiting.  If you agree to it, that is ok (even though it is limiting).  I consider it a form of discrimination.  Your universe of prospects should be the similar in composition to all of the other sales professionals if your territory is similar to other sales representatives.  This scenario happens too often and can result in failure on the job.

Lack of mentoring - It is well known that we need more mentors to help Black sales professionals learn to navigate the sales environment.  As you will see later in this book, that need for mentors spans both an understanding of the intricacies of the organization as well as the sales environment.  Consequently, the sales professional may need more than one mentor.  Mentoring will help professionals who need to know more about the sales profession, the market, and the organization.  We need to increase this activity to fill the void, as it is obvious that there are deficiencies in this regard.  Organizations need to provide more mentoring, yet mentoring from outside the organization can be effective as well. Mentoring, when done right, represents a way to give experience, expertise, advice, and support.

Lack of training and support - Organizations who hire should attempt to provide the proper training and support. As they have made the first move, now they need to give the Black sales professional the opportunity to succeed. The Black Sales professional should request details about training, and ongoing support prior to accepting a position.

Retention of Black sales professionals is difficult – Much of this is based on what is above.  A solid Black sales professional has many talents, and if thwarted by the points shown above, they will move to other sales positions, and possibly to other occupations.  Having them move out of sales positions keeps the numbers anemic, but also makes managers wary in the hiring process.  This is not favorable for other Black sales professionals.

Why is it Important? – The Professional Sales Outlook 2012 – 2018

The importance of this issue is based on the fact that as many occupations languish, professional sales is projected to grow through 2018. Let’s quickly look at the number of sales positions available.   The source of this information is the United States Department of Labor.  This report projects through 2018. A quick look at the sales profession in this jobs report will show the following information:

Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Mfg.  1,973,000

Sales Whsl. and Mfg. (Excl Tech and Sci)      1,540,000

Sales Whsl. and Mfg. (Tech and Sci)                 433,000

The jobs pay well in the overall also:

• Wage estimates ex tech/scientific– Median $51,920, with the 75th percentile showing $74,310 in the overall.  This is wage, and does not include commissions or bonuses.
• Wage estimates tech/scientific – Median $71,300 with the 75th percentile showing $100,910 overall.  This is wage, and does not include commissions or bonuses.

Total sales employment for 2018 is projected to rise to 2,116,400 by 2018 for a 7% projected increase. All of the numbers shown are from the May 2009 DOL Report. Almost all sales positions have some arrangement regarding bonus or commission, although some sales positions are commission only.

In a country that has a reduced focus on manufacturing products, the occupation of sales has increased in importance.  This importance comes from selling US manufactured goods as well as goods manufactured outside the US to businesses in our country.  This is basically the essence of distribution. In professional sales, you cannot successfully outsource distribution.   It will be domestic, and almost all of it will be face-to-face.

Your comments are appreciated.

Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been “considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived.”

You may recognize the name, and you will also recognize his principles – and yes, they do relate to sales.  Yes, it may seem unlikely, but his principles relate to the occupation of sales in a less than scientific way.   These are actually Newton’s Laws of Motion, and they are universally accepted.  Physics is physics and math is math, yet some things are naturally transferrable to what we do, and these fit that bill.

We will quickly examine two of Newton’s more famous laws and how they relate to sales and the sales process.

Law – Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

This is the law of inertia.  It relates to us that nothing changes until someone does something to change it.

Example I - A sales professional sits in the office contemplating the future, and trying to figure out how he or she is going to make their quarterly goals.  The sales manager calls the rep in and advises that in the last two quarters the quarterly goal was not met.  The manager advised, “Something has got to change quickly and we will be sitting down and discussing it two weeks from now.”

Object – The Sales Rep

State of Motion – Inaction, lethargy, sitting on one’s rear end

External Force – The manager’s promise that action will be taken and the admonition that it would be discussed two weeks from now.

______________

Example II – A highly performing regional sales unit, the best in the country for this Fortune 500 organization, was doing everything correctly.  The sales unit recently was noted as 21st out of the 22 regional sales operations for the company.  Sinking so low has been difficult, but it was suggested that it was because of the numerous defections from the sales unit.  They had lost their best sales professionals, and the results showed it.

Object – The sales unit

State of Motion – High performance

External Force – Personnel losses, recruitment of the unit’s sales professionals, depletion of talent

Law - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The strength of this law is that you must anticipate the reaction when you take the action.  This is the best known, and one that is particularly relatable to sales and the sales process.  If you ever step off of a skateboard onto a platform, you feel the skateboard move opposite the way you are attempting to advance.  The movement of the skateboard is considered the reaction.  If you are not careful, you will fall flat on your face.  It is only logical in physics, and in other activities.

Example – A notable employer plans a lucrative sales ‘sprint’ contest to attempt to spur the sale of widgets as it is the most profitable product in the portfolio.  In the process, the sales of the company’s flagship product, ‘gizmos’, suffers and the organization, long considered to be number one in sales of gizmos falls to the number 2 in the sale of that product and thus loses its leadership position and notoriety.

Action – Imposing a sprint campaign to sell widgets

Equal and Opposite Reaction – Sales markedly decreased in the sales of another important product to the point of losing market leadership; activity and presumably sales increase on widgets.

Law – What goes up…must come down!

We cannot forget the most well known of Newton’s Laws: The Law of Gravity.  This one is well known, and very simple.  It is the saying that you heard from y0ur mother, your father, or even your coach.  Don’t act like a jerk when you are on the top or on the way to the top, because very few sales professionals get to the top and never come down.   Success is not necessarily fleeting, but it is obvious that many sales professionals forget that over the long haul it is not promised.

We all know sales professionals that have had problems with that issue.

The Balancing Act!

Everything that is done to the sales force by an employer has a reaction, and everything that you do as a sales professional has some ‘physics’ attached to it well.

Be calculated and careful in your moves and anticipate how those moves will be received, as well as whether they get the intended results.

One of the best manager’s I had the pleasure of working for (J.G.), continuously stressed to me that many actions could have unintended consequences, and we should think things out carefully and be prepared for all consequences.  Sometimes you can do everything right, but affect other variables in a way that will one day manifest themselves as ‘a problem’ as a result of your actions.

I have always said that you should “Do the Right Thing!” (Excuse me Spike Lee!), but in many cases, there is a possibility that there is more than one, “Right Thing”.  Have business confidants (people you trust that have good judgement) that can help you with decision making and always make your decisions in light of the advice you get as well as your best judgment.  Businesses have the same problem that individuals do.  Manager’s who run sales operations need to take the same course as individuals, using proper judgment and analysis.  The difference is that managers who make mistakes usually affect more than one person, and usually several in fact.

Newton’s Laws of Motion (these three) are important as when applied to the sales area they can speak to making decisions and the effect on you, your company, and your customers.  It would not hurt to know them as the concepts are universal.

You don’t have to be a scientist to think about these theories.

Be the Best.

Your comments are appreciated.