If you’re just starting out in the workforce or have recently taken on a side gig, perhaps you’ve discovered you have a talent for sales. Not everyone has that gift, so if you take advantage of your natural ability to sell, you can find a job that’s perfectly suited to your gifts.
We’ll share what sales jobs can help you make the most of your gift of persuasion and what kind of salary to expect for your talents. The amount of money an insurance sales agent makes may differ from what a car salesperson makes, but finding a job that brings you fulfillment and fuels your passion can help you decide what job is best for you.
Traditional Jobs for Natural Salespeople
When you think about jobs in sales, there are probably a few that come to mind right away.
Insurance Sales
Insurance agents are a critical part of helping people secure their finances against catastrophe. A good insurance agent will put their customer first and help them find an adequate level of coverage at the best price.
Some insurance sales agents work for just one company. These are called captive agents. So, for example, if you visit a State Farm Insurance Agency, the salespeople will only offer you State Farm policies.
Other insurance salespeople are called independent agents and can sell policies from various providers.
One of the advantages to choosing a job in insurance is that while you need to be licensed to sell insurance in your state, there usually aren’t other requirements like a bachelor’s degree.
Insurance agents can build relationships with their clients over time, and a good agent can help improve customer loyalty.
New and Used Vehicle Sales
If you like meeting new people and have an understanding of vehicles, a car salesperson job might be the perfect fit for you. If you’re proactive, you can keep customers in mind and let them know when a vehicle they might be interested in enters your lot.
Typically, a college degree isn’t required to become a salesperson. But one downside is that you’ll need to be available to work weekends and holidays. If you think about it, most people shopping for cars do it on their days off, so you must be at work when most people are off work.
Real Estate
The real estate market has a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes it’s easy to sell houses, and sometimes it’s not. But if you’re good at making sales, you’ll succeed in a competitive market.
You’ll need to know your market, understand the laws, guide clients, and read the market to enable your clients to win while giving up as little as possible.
Real estate agents can choose to become Realtors. Realtors must adhere to high ethical standards. Any real estate agent can abide by those same standards, but some clients prefer working with a Realtor because of the extra assurance that they’ll be treated ethically.
Unconventional Jobs in Sales
Many jobs require strong sales skills, even though those skills may not be the first to come to mind when considering the job responsibilities. Often, a person will start with a traditional sales job and then transfer to a position that uses those skills but isn’t strictly related to sales.
Marketing
It probably makes sense to you that someone good at sales would be good at marketing since marketing is about increasing sales. So instead of working one-on-one with clients, a marketing director would lead a department to increase sales.
If you’ve worked in sales for a long time, you probably have an excellent foundational understanding of techniques that work and how different groups of people respond to various strategies. Those skills can give you an edge in a competitive marketing environment.
Consulting
As a consultant, you don’t need to sell products but rather strategies and techniques. The more you know about sales and the better your natural intuition, the better advice and consulting success you’ll have with others.
Entrepreneurship
Starting a business requires sales skills because you have to sell your products and services to make money and be successful. Before becoming an entrepreneur, you’ll need to develop a solid business plan, but there are no limits to the potential for success.
Salaries for Jobs in Sales
Most of the time, how much money you make depends on how good you are at closing a sale. So, while the incomes listed below may be average, you could make more or less depending on where you live and how successful you are.
The following are the average annual incomes for sales-related professionals:
- Insurance agent – $60,000
- Vehicle salesperson – $50,000
- Real estate agent – $50,000
- Marketing professional – $90,000
- Consultant – $80,000
- Business owner – $75,000
Take these figures with a grain of salt. For example, real estate agents working in communities with high home costs will make several times more money annually than average. In contrast, those in low-cost communities will make far less.
Similarly, a small business owner may make far less than an entrepreneur who has built a franchise.
Your success will hinge on your ability to find a job that fits best with your skills and knowledge, but if you’re a natural salesperson, it would be a shame not to take advantage of your gifts by working in a related field.
