Inside Sales

Inside sales is simply any job where you sell to a customer that comes or calls into your place of work to buy. It's important in manufacturing because obviously a person who's buying anything from a hot dog to a lawn mower isn't going to go to Oscar Mayer or the Lawn-boy factory to buy the product.

Inside sales is considered to be a job with less pressure than an outside sales job because an outside salesperson often has to find his or her own customers and also has to travel to locations that can be unfamiliar. Inside sales also is generally a non-commission job, though good ones can offer full time pay, benefits and commission or sales incentives. Consequently the pay checks are regular and for a specific amount.

The disadvantage is an inside salesperson not on commission that's really good at his or her job will make less than a person in a comparable position in outside sales because in outside sales, the sky's usually the limit on what can be made. Also you may work with the general public which can be demanding, especially with unreasonable customers or shoplifters.

Inside sales positions vary from working as a cashier to selling cars. Often the jobs offer no benefits, at least in the beginning, especially if the employer can limit your hours to just under full time. The bright side is it can be a good entry level job if you have no experience with, again, benefits offered later.

However, the best reason for a person to take an inside sales job is the opportunity for advancement. If you get into a good company, or a company that gives you experience so that you can later move up the ladder laterally by going to a better company, it can be very rewarding. I can testify to this because that's what I used for my employment strategy, and it paid off for me.

My personal keys for success consequently for an inside sales person are:

* Show up to work always, show up on time, and make sure that you have gotten a good night's sleep. Often stores promote from within, and the person who's your boss was promoted this way.

* Learn your job and everyone else's you can. Your employer will have manuals from which you can learn. Put in the extra effort. For instance, if you have a job where people ask directions, learn the area.

* Don't jump jobs if you don't have a better offer that's long term. You'll lose benefits, and be put at the bottom of the promotion ladder. Even if you're in a non-benefit position, say with a company you worked with 6 months only gives benefits after 1 year. This means you'll now need an extra 6 months with the new company for benefits to be acquired if you're hired to the same position in a new company because many benefit packages are standard depending on the industry. So you lose seniority along with losing benefits.

* Attitude, attire, haircut, politeness are all common-sense things which are lost on some employees.

* Knowing how to answer a phone is vital!

Of course, this list isn't exhaustive. I could write more on this, and I will next week.

By

Jeffrey Ruzicka

Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive with a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania. He is a contributing writer to ManufacturingWorkers, ManufacturingWorkersBlog, Nexxt.