The Hottest Industries for Sales Jobs
October 01, 2007
By Izabella Iizuka
As the American economy goes through difficult times in the credit markets and consumer wealth declines due to higher interest rates and cost of living, sales forecasts paint a darker horizon for many retail sales professionals. But if sales jobs survived the 9/11 crisis, the current situation should pose no problem for talented and dedicated professionals.
Sales always has been one of the most highly competitive economic segments. It continues to experience strong levels of job creation, and top sales workers will always be in demand. "The sales industry is always hot," says Jason Ferrara, vice president of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder.com, the Chicago-based job search company. "No matter what industry you have experience in, most of your skills can be applied to whatever the hottest sales industry is at that particular moment. Right now there are plenty of sales jobs available, and employers actually cite finding highly qualified candidates as the biggest challenge."
The Numbers
According to USA Today's latest job forecast survey, more than two-thirds of hiring managers and human resource professionals reported their companies hired new full-time permanent employees during the first six months of the year. Forty-three percent expected to recruit the same amount of employees in the second half of the year as the first half, while 24% expected to recruit more. Twenty-one percent expected to hire fewer employees in the latter half of the year. The healthcare, information technology, and sales segments were expected to remain especially active.
Job growth was expected regardless of the company size. Forty-one percent of the surveyed organizations with more than 1,000 employees, 40% of organizations with 501–1000 employees, and 42% of organizations with 251–500 employees planned to recruit. Among smaller businesses, 35% of organizations with 51–250 employees and 27% of companies with 50 employees or less anticipated an increase in their number of employees.
The South and West continued to show the greatest hiring activity. Thirty-eight percent of employers in the West, 37% in the South, and 33% in both the Northeast and Midwest planned to increase their staff. The greatest increases were expected in the areas of sales, information technology and healthcare. Forty-seven percent of sales employers, 46% of information technology employers and 41% of healthcare employers expected to increase staff, followed by 35% in hospitality, 33% in retail, 31% in finance and 28% in education.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total payroll employment continues to trend upward. Employment has risen in several service-providing industries but has changed little in the goods-producing industries. In terms of specific industries, employment has grown in healthcare, financial activities, credit intermediation, insurance, securities, commodity contracts and investments. Within professional and business services, employment in computer systems design and related services continue to grow. Business support services employment also should rise.
No More Easy Sales Jobs
The sales role has evolved. According to Ferrara, "It's no longer a sit down, shake hands, sell one product and leave deal. Successful sales reps are the ones who truly embed themselves into their client's businesses—riding the trucks, working in the dry cleaner's, spending their day in the senior living facility [and] actually working alongside their prospects to understand their client's business."
Truly dedicated sales professionals show that they have the passion and the drive to make a business succeed. "There are no easy sales jobs anymore," Ferrara concludes, and there aren't too many workers willing to put in the time and make the sacrifices that are needed today in order to become top sales professionals.
To compensate for the demand for extra dedication, many sales employers surveyed by CareerBuilder reported that they were willing to pay higher salaries to new employees and give raises to increase retention of good ones. While that makes for a much more competitive market for sales professionals than it's been in the past, new and better opportunities are available for those who have what it takes.
Even in industries that have experienced a downward trend in the recent past, such as real estate and loan sales, the professional who manages to differentiate himself within the organization is guaranteed to keep a profitable job. "Good branding and marketing is important not only for the organization, but also for the rep himself," Ferrara says. "Using the 'I rode the truck' stories is one way to be differentiated in the field."
Ferrara explains that this evolution of the sales role originates with the client. Nowadays, the client demands more from the salesperson both in terms of knowledge and dedication. This trend has created a new school of thought that has affected the whole sales philosophy. And that, in turn, determines the type of professionals companies will be hiring.
Of course, other driving factors for change depend on industry trends, and according to Ferrara, companies are now investing in innovation because that's where the competition is. "Most products out there are pretty similar," he says, "except for the companies that really change their products in a special way—like the iPhone, which solves many different problems with a single device." Therefore, sales professionals now have to be flexible and innovative so they can not only meet the new demands in service created by their clients, but also sell the new products.
Marc Cenedella, founder, president, and CEO of TheLadders.com, a New York-based job search company, agrees. "Now it's more about solution sales rather than widget sales," he says. "You've got to look at the customer's problem and sell them something that solves the overall problem, not just a product that they have to figure out how to use. You really have to sell them an integrated solution they can rely on and that will take them to a happier place. It requires a cleverer salesperson, with a lot more training and talent."
Ferrara points out that "among the industries that are getting the most job postings and searches on CareerBuilder.com, consumer products, technology, insurance, banking [and] financing have shown the most activity."
Cenedella says TheLadders.com shows that "Tech and telecom have seen steady growth in sales jobs. Services in general are growing fast as far as percentage per year, and healthcare is holding steady."
According to Cenedella, the five fastest-growing cities are Portland, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago and Columbus. He says that some rapidly growing cities such as Phoenix have few high-end sales jobs despite the population growth.
Spreading Your Wings
What about international sales? Globalization is a fact, and more and more of the country's large companies are expanding their businesses to take advantage of ripe and underexplored overseas markets. But, Cenedella says, "If a company expands into Portugal, for example, they'll look for sales professionals in Portugal rather than transfer a salesperson there. Like politics, all sales jobs are local. You can't offshore a great relationship, and that's what a great salesperson brings to the table."
But the American economy is so powerful that it naturally drives worldwide business decisions and trends. "International expansion is one of the greatest business stories of the next several years," Ferrara says. "When you have an employee who understands the business, as well as the language and the country, that combination is what's going to give power to the business in that country." International expansion is one more innovation the ambitious sales professional can invest in. Learn the language, learn the culture and apply the American sales philosophy and strategies.
Moving Up
Many sales workers report they are unsatisfied with promotions and pay. As a result of shrunken staffs, workload has increased and many salespeople claim their workload is too heavy. Others are dissatisfied not only with their promotions, but also with the training and learning opportunities their current employers offer. So how can you move on to greener pastures and find that perfect top-dollar job?
As indicated by the rapid removal of applications from sales job search sites, the market seems to be slightly in favor of the job seeker. Since the inability to find qualified workers has been cited as the biggest hiring hurdle—in addition to increasing salaries in order to remain competitive in the search for top-notch sales candidates—employers are trying to attract the type of professionals they need by making compensation packages more competitive, increasing bonuses, offering better benefits packages and increasing less tangible benefits (such as flexible hours, telecommuting and job sharing).
New Guidelines for Job Applications
Sales employers are re-evaluating the way they are marketing themselves to potential job candidates, trying to communicate more clearly their benefits and culture in order to attract the top candidates that best match their needs. With the advent of the Internet, there have been many changes in the job seeking and recruiting processes.
The do's and don'ts of applying for a new job haven't changed, though. "You must distinguish yourself from the pack," Ferrara says, "show what's unique about you, and demonstrate the performance you have been able to deliver through quantifiable performance indicators on both your resume and cover letter." He points out, however, that cover letters restating the resume content waste a potential employer's time. The cover letter should fill in details and give some color around your experience. "It's like a baseball game, where you have the play-by-play announcer and the color person—the announcer being the resume, and the color person, the cover letter," Ferrara explains.In terms of innovation in job applications, video resumes are the new thing. Ferrara says that this feature, offered by CareerBuilder.com, "allows employers to create a video-band experience with their job postings to give a job seeker a better understanding of what it is like to work at that company, express what the values of the company are, [and] give a good first impression of the company."
The benefit for job-seekers is that they have the opportunity to create video resumes that give potential employers a much richer experience of what it would be like to work with you. This innovation is a step beyond the cover letter-and-resume combo, a good way for a candidate to stand out when looking for a job in which personality and first impressions are really important—like sales jobs.
"No one really prints out resumes or mass-mails them anymore," Ferrara points out. "Four years ago, nobody looked for jobs online, and that's all people do now." But resumes and cover letters are not everything when you are looking for a job. "There are new processes to your resume online, but the part of networking, contacting colleagues [and] making a good impression during your interview hasn't changed," he continues.
Cenedella says, "The simplest but toughest advice for people to accept is to get your resume professionally written." Just like when you want a brochure for your product, you should get professional writers to do it because they know what works and what doesn't. Cenedella sees the resume not as a simple biography, but as a sales document designed to sell three different people: the screener, the HR person and the hiring manager. And to do that, you need a professional resume containing nothing that shouldn't be there.
You must also be careful when sending your carefully crafted documents. "Great subject lines catch the eyes of the recruiter, while general lines bore them," he warns. Cover letters go in the body of your email message and consist of three lines that succinctly tell them what you'd like to do for them. "In the old days you wrote three or four paragraphs," Cenedella says. "Now you just need to be short and sweet." And remember, confidence goes a long way. If you know you're good and you have the drive to succeed, now is the time to dream big and aim high.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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