Black Sales Journal

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.

This is not theater, it is your career.  Show the real “you” in the most positive light!

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Sales is a tough but rewarding career.  It pays extremely well if you are with the right firm, and when you get it going well, you will always have a group of skills that you can call upon to increase your performance, and your income.

Not only is sales a tough career, it is one where opinions and impressions of others can rocket you to success, or make it more difficult. Much of this is because perceptions and trust are so important.

I would like to show how building a perception could boost your sales career.  This is not smoke and mirrors, it is real.

Build A Perception

At a point in my sales career I decided to specialize in transportation and trucking.  I am going to indicate how the three major constituents (customers, coworkers, and managers) can positively affect you career by using a couple of examples of situations that happened to me.  I think you will agree that even though the wind blows both ways, good and bad, having people believe in you is a game changer.

I realized early on that I needed a “hook” in my career as there were so many different individuals that a customer could buy commercial lines insurance coverage from.  How was I going to be any different?  It was a plus that I sold for a reputable company that had a national advertising campaign.  The rest was up to me.

Your “hook” will be based on finding a niche, underserved segment, or category that you can build a constituency in.  Let me go on describing my situation and you will see what I mean.

I made a decision that I needed to “specialize” in something because being a “jack of all trades” was not working too well.  I needed to save my career by specializing, and needed something that would result in near immediate results.  I chose selling insurance to medium to large trucking firms because they would listen.  Remember, I believe in being an expert, and you might want to refresh yourself by reading BSJ – Your Customer Needs an Expert .

What Does Your Customer Believe?

The most important thing that I did was to study the industry, the terminology, and the buying habits.  At the point that I think I knew what the customer wanted, I began to say, “I specialize in trucking business”.  When I said this to my first customer, he asked me some rather in-depth questions about the business that I answered well, and he said that he would give me a chance.  I had passed the first test.

Following this, I researched his business and made a host of suggestions as to things that he should do to make changes.  He shot down every one of them except one.  But… he realized that I did understand his business, and maybe just did not understand his operation well enough.  When I sold his account, he said to me that he was so very concerned that he aligns himself with someone who was working with his business for the long term.  I think he was saying that he needed an expert!

This customer then referred customers to me, and me to customers, and were loyal to me during my sales and sales management career.  Darn it, if the customer said I was an expert, I was an expert!

What Do Your Coworkers Perceive?

Coworkers can help you to build a business persona as well.  They have the ability to tear you down as well.  The more you learn the more you can assist them in learning, so it is important to recognize that when you get the knowledge you will gain more by sharing than by not sharing.

They will sing your praises to others regarding your expertise and will refer others with questions to you.  In situations where there are new technologies or processes, you will be the ‘de facto’ expert and gain ‘expert power’ from this.  The people that you work with will ‘need’ you, and the perception of your skills might even be stronger than the skills themselves.

You might be saying that none of this puts money in your pocket, but I want you to recognize that it increases your credibility.  Giving you a power that you cannot claim without others ‘perceiving’ you in a certain way.

It was always said that if you see three people in the morning and they say you look sick or ailing, you might want to go lie down.  Well…if your coworkers proclaim you are an expert, and you customers consider you an expert….

Does Your Manager Believes In You?

Your manager is bright and  astute enough to be the  leader of your unit, but even this individual must yield to the fact that customers and your coworkers see you as a force to be listened to.  The manager is concerned with results, not just yours, but results for the sales unit.  It is a difficult to manage a band of sales professionals, and any help by having resources within the unit is welcome.

If your manager believes in you, this individual may give you more latitude with this type of business.  Sending call-in prospects or giving orphaned accounts in your field of specialty is an excellent way to recognize your abilities.  Your ability to retain, or convert these to sales gives you one more feather in your cap.

Remember that this individual is the key to increased compensation in many firms, as well as improvements in territories, resources, and support.

You have the ability to shape the perceptions others have of you, and it is time to start doing it.  Always remember that relationships help you win, and the professional who has the best relationships will win in the end.

Your comments are appreciated.