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 Blacks 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:

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.

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 75^th 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 75^th 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.

I don’t want you to stop selling even for a minute.  On the other hand, I do want you to recognize the impact that coworkers have on you day-to-day.  You may have seen these before in Black Sales Journal.  Know these topics, tactics, and skills, and your life may be easier.  Remember , you cannot pick your relatives or your coworkers!

Master the relationship!

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Making Enemies at Work – It Has Nothing to do with Color!

Success can sometime be vexing if you are a sales professional. As success and increased income for many sales professionals increases so do the rivals and detractors in the workplace.  Yes, the very things that we all wish for can turn into a terrible wedge and fuel attitudes from slight jealousy to flat out envy.  When this happens, the competition becomes less than productive, and relationships strained.

“Making it rain” is getting you notoriety along with the accompanying benefits of being the number one sales professional in the unit. Sales units are not teams, whether they are called by that term or not.

The Golden Rules

What I am going to say may not be golden, but if you treat it as such, your results will certainly be worth more.  Work on a simple set of principals at all times, not when you find the elusive success.

• Practice being discreet – no one needs to know your income, or even how much you made on the last sale.
• Be humble – at work, recognize that being humble is a sign that you recognize you did not do it alone.
• Give credit and recognition to others – be honest and open about the impact of others in your success.  If you did it all alone, you don’t have to broadcast it, they will already know.
• Help others – Remember the objective of mentoring, and if you cannot be a mentor, offer assistance where needed.
• Continue the routine – If you are doing all of the above and finding success, continue the routine, and ignore the criticism.  If you are true to the above and doing your best, you don’t need to give anyone the power to deter you.

No one needs to see you dance on top of your desk when they are not having any results.  You can be happy and respectful of others in difficult times without sacrificing your success and gain.

We all have worked with sales professionals who whooped and hollered, and bragged and boasted when they scored a sale.  They even handed out cigars as if they had a new offspring after a new sale.  What they really did was to mock the fact that success can be fleeting.  To coin a football quote “…act like you have been in the end-zone before.”

There is no reason to not celebrate, just do it discreetly.  You can celebrate with your manager, or with your family or both, as all are beneficiaries.

One Last Word

You may not care about these ‘enemies’, yet you should.  One could end up your manager, or your manager’s manager one day.  This could be important stuff.

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Friends, Coworkers,  and Vampires!

A sales department is best when it has a vibrant atmosphere and unbridled activity.  Once it gets going, sales professionals can be fueled by this activity and a desire to ‘compete’ with their fellow sales professionals.  If the atmosphere in your sales function is electric you will endeavor to be a part of it, hoping that success spills over to you.  If the atmosphere is more like a funeral, you will utilize your best judgment in attempting to separate yourself from it or at least insulate yourself as best you can.

Friend or Coworker?

As you already know, if someone is on the payroll they are a coworker.  The important issue is that in the sales profession, not all coworkers are your friends.

This is not meant to be divisive, but to stand in recognition that unless your sales function is organized in a different fashion than most, sales departments or functions are designed in a way that spurs competition.  This is not bad; it is just an environment that pits employees against other employees.  In sales you probably have learned to accept it.

Situations occur when you forget that ‘Emily and John’ are the competition and you believing they are friends share ‘trade’ secrets.  This is where feelings get hurt.  Be ready to compete fairly and recognize that these are coworkers, and you owe them respect, but give no quarter from a business standpoint.  Compete and win on the virtue of hard work, and doing things smarter.  Be relentless in terms of your persistency and always be ethical.  Your friends are not the same as your coworkers even though you may be committed to them.

The Vampire

I once worked in a sales department that had a variety of characters.  There were journeymen, sage veterans, hard working upstarts, and then there were those who were full of complaints and found nothing right with the manager, the company, the product or…. the world.

I call them vampires and if you know some of these individuals, your quest will be to keep away from them.  You won’t need garlic, or a crucifix, but will need to strictly avoid this person whose quest is to ‘suck the life out of you’.  These unhappy sales people have the poorest of attitudes.  To them everything is wrong with the organization and that they bear not fault or blame for anything.

• The vampire is constantly on vigil to determine who is trying to accomplish anything new and innovative, so they can discourage them.
• This individual is peering over your shoulder to determine if you are taking any new training or courses for self-improvement, as he or she would love to talk you out of it.
• The vampire is trying to determine what prospect you are working on as he or she knows all of them and they want you to think it will be fruitless.
• This individual would do anything possible to engage you in a long 3-hour lunch as he or she has nothing to do, and they want to make sure you get the same amount done as they do…nothing!

You know them, and they are a pain, once you realize what they are doing. You might avoid aligning yourself with them.

Always be the professional!