If you are struggling to decide whether sales and marketing are career choices for you?
or if you are a parent and if your son/daughter is struggling to decide whether sales and marketing are career choices for them, then you must read this article.
Sales and Marketing are undoubtedly two of the best careers choices. And yet, many people hesitate to pursue a career in Sales & Marketing.
To find reasons behind their hesitation, I did small research where I asked students (Who have at least cleared the Metric examination) about their views on “Sales & Marketing as Careers opportunities’ ‘.
Through this research, I managed to collect reasons for their hesitation. These reasons were nothing but Myths, that are not even true if you ask me.
So, let us try to understand the whole matter through 2 perspectives.
Perspective: 1: Myths
Sales is all about meeting targets?
According to them, when you join a firm as a salesperson you get huge targets? Here is my question for them, tell me a single job profile where you wouldn’t receive targets?
Targets are EVERYWHERE. From professional roles like HR to labor who does the construction work, all of them receive Targets. Organizations run on targets.
Sales too are no exceptions. In sales, you get targets, which is 100% True, but sales are not all about meeting targets. There are so many things that you will do as a sales rep/sales manager.
Sales Reps either do door-to-door selling or do cold calling.
According to them, when you become a salesperson, you either go door to door to sell the products or you do cold callings to get the leads.
This is how selling was done back in the 1980s. Gone are those days, when sales jobs required door-to-door selling or cold calling.
Sales as a job have totally changed. In fact, this pandemic has brought even further changes to it. This covid has proved that one can sell any product to any corner of the world from one place, without having the need of going anywhere.
If I talk about my organization, my sales team has been giving online demos to clients for the last few years. And not just my team, many organization is now doing sales in this fashion.
There is no pride in doing a sales job.
If you look closely, all the activities that are performed by different departments other than sales have something to do where it takes away the money from the organization.
Whereas, sales are the only job or sales Reps are the only people who bring money into the organization.
So all those among you readers, who believe that there is no pride in doing a sales job. Ask the same question to yourself again, I am sure you will have a different answer now.
You don’t get a good pay scale in Sales & Marketing
In fact, out of all the professions out there, sales is one such field where the reward to time ratio is very high.
the reward to time ratio is very high.
There is so much stress in Sales & Marketing
When teams collectively work on goals, they get individual targets, and when individuals fail to meet their respective deadlines, that is when stress develops.
If you understand your job, if you know your responsibilities and if you finish your respective tasks on time then you are less likely to get affected by stress.
The reason why I said “LESS likely” in my above statement is that no matter what job profile you are working in, stress is going to affect you. Stress is part of the job.
I don’t know why people take stress as a negative thing. To me a little bit of stress is necessary. It keeps you moving and it helps you achieve your targets.
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Some of these myths were 100% false whereas some of the myths are actually universal facts that basically apply to all job profiles be it be HR or Finance or production.
Now that I have covered the first perspective, let us try to understand Why sales and Marketing are good Career Choices through the second perspective.
Perspective: 2: Demand & Supply
To understand this perspective, let us consider one example. Suppose there is one organization where 50 employees are working. Let’s Say this organization is into trading or say it is into providing services to its clients.
And let’s exclude organizations that are into manufacturing.
Now you tell me, how many HRs are required to handle these 50 employees? Hardly one I would say. Because now most of the HR tasks can be easily managed through software/tools.
Now tell me, how many finance people will be needed in this organization? Hardly one or two. (Junior and Senior Accountant).
Now tell me, how many Sales Reps will be there in such organization. Minimum 10. Do I even need to explain my point any further here?
With this example of mine, just try to do some basic analysis. What will be more beneficial for you?
Do you want to prepare yourself for a position where there is demand for one or two people or do you want to prepare yourself for a position where there is a demand for 10 People?.
47 Comments
jaydip
very well explained sir
some points like
1)demand and supply ratio
2)not physical limitations were really good
👏👏
would love to see a video on
how to train freshers effectively for sales
or like how to clear fundamentals of sales for freshers
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot, for the kind words Jaydip ji.
We have already started the work on the second video Sir, the Second video will come soon. Please consider sharing this article and video with your friends.
Anurag jain
great video and the main thing is that we didn’t see the main difference between accounting or hr department and sales and marketing
Limesh Parekh
Thanks for the comments, Anurag Jain.
I did not focus on writing about Accounting or HR because the core focus was to address the myth about Sales and Marketing as a career.
Naredra shete
Video content is very to the point..
Nicely explained
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot, Narendra Shete Sir.
Dharmesh Patel
Simply superb ….Way to understand & explain … fantastic ..
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot, Dharmesh Bhai. Please do share this with your friends for whom this might be useful.
Shailendra
What ever you said I use to tell to my students who learn Tally from me. But even then not a single person is interested in doing sales job.
I am facing staff crunch in sales field and not able to figure out how to even appoint relevant sales staff.
More over if anyone joins then he is performing up to the potential and then after three months salary he quits.
Limesh Parekh
Thank you very much for the comment. Do one thing Sir, Show this video to 1000 students and see what happens.
Farooqali
Easy to explain the sales peope worth and value they deliver..Good One sir !
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot for the comments.
Navneet Kumar
Hi Lomesh
I belive sales is art of conveince someone from your word and marketing is art of influencing someone from your word.
I Navneet Btech engineer but from day 1 started my journey from sales i enjoy alot in my 8 year of sales journey . Grow 8X in 8 Year and feel like day zero in system.
Limesh Parekh
Superb Navneet Ji. People like you are big examples and inspirations for the youth. If you can share more about your journey how you landed up in the Sales field and how your growth has shaped up, I am sure it will benefit lots of youngsters.
Dr. Jayasri Benkal
Hi
Very simple and straight words to the point .
Look forward for more informative videos.
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a Lot, for the comments, Dr Jayasri Benkal.
Yes, the next videos are in the pipeline.
Asif Khan
Limesh Bhai well explained. Our today’s youth are very misguided or they have wrong prospective regarding Sales and Marketing Department. But I have my own research through that I have changed many youth’s prospective regarding Sales and now they are doing well in sales department.
Limesh Parekh
Wonderful Asif Khan. I would request you to share some case studies, As those will be very inspiring and motivating for all of our team members.
Mahesh Hasarmani
I highly appreciate your initiative Limesh Bhai.
Because of your awareness, people will consider sales and marketing as career options.
🙏🏽
Limesh Parekh
thanks a lot, Sir, for your comments. I also request you to please share your experience if you have any. That will help many other young kids.
Karunakar C
Very well said sir about sales and marketing field.
Definitely i will share this video to my friends and colleagues.
And waiting for your next video.
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot, A bigger thanks for sharing this video with your friends.
yes, next video is expected in 2nd week of April.
Ranveer singh Rana
Excellent video
I m doing business for 27 years.
It’s loving video.
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot for your kind words and motivation.
Rajiv K Poddar
Fully agree
Rajiv Sharaf
Very well explained. I think Sales & Marketing and Finance are two areas which ultimately leads to Board position . One takes care of top line and another bottom line. However, opportunities are more in sales and marketing . With Digital technologies the industry barrier is also slowly disappearing. If you don’t sale product company will not get business and no one in organization will prosper. Balance all are support functions to manage resources of business be it men, machinery money or technology.
Limesh Parekh
You are right on the dot, Sir. Appreciate your contribution to the thought. Also, please share this with your friends on WA and Social media.
Krishnamurthy Setty
Once a friend came to see me from the. US, he was with me for some days and he allowed me to do my usual business of IT. Before going he asked me what do you consider yourself to be good at? I replied I am a technical guy! He said you think like that, but you are selling technology, Tecnical is 10% you are basically using 90% skills selling it. You are right when you say marketing is a good choice.
Limesh Parekh
Very True, Sir. Thanks for your kind words.
Rajesh Bhutra
Very well articulated and defined the intrinsic importance of Sales and marketing functions and why they are so relevant even today. The ease of explanation is beyond doubt is your great Forte which makes this even for relevant and breaks all the myths and hesitation about the domain. We wish to see many more important writeups coming out from your tumbles.
Limesh Parekh
Rajesh bhai, thanks for the kind words. Also, request you to share this with your friends, on WA or on Social Media.
Mansi Lal Sawant
Well worded!
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot, Mansi ji. Request you to share this link with your friends. We all need to make effort to change the scenario.
Vinod Kumar
Well written , Limesh . Sales is one of the oldest job profile irrespective of industry , size of organisation , geography . A one man organisation need to be a sales guy, It is the last mile of any business and crucial for economy and trade. Also considering the theme of your topic that very few go to sales on their own accord , there is less competition and more benefits for a sales person today as you have rightly covered in the demand and supply section
Limesh Parekh
Very true, Sir. Thanks a lot for your contribution.
Sunil Gera
Content is king and that’s how businesses perceive data points today… Data mining and data science courses are most sought after today after AI and Coding
Our job landscape is changing and rapidly at that professionals with limited or no understanding of social media handles and its impact on businesses are generally avoided…
Limesh Parekh
Thanks, Sir, But also, every person cannot be a Data Scientist or AI specialist. I understand that these fields have huge demand, but . . . .
Dhaval Lotia
Yes 10 vs 1 or 2 Is a Good Ratio and that is where freshers should try out.
The fastest growth is in Sales. And Once you learn the skill of selling then there is no door closed for you
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot Dhaval Bhai for your comments.
Ganesh Kumar
I think you have covered all the points. The main issue is fear of targets. One of the main reasons is the employees are not trained properly. They are given product training for a week and sent to the market with the ‘Command’ “go out and sell”. Onboarding, and training in Business Acumen and showing them the complete picture of the business is most important….
Limesh Parekh
Yes, that is the problem with companies, especially SMEs, where they don’t understand how to hire a new Sales Person and train them.
I will address this problem in my upcoming posts.
Thanks a lot for your comment.
Jitendra Sangle
Dear Limesh Sir,
Excellently worded and sharpest possible insight about the age-old fight between Sales and Marketing.
I maybe a case study for the topic, as i changed my field from Field Sales to Campaign & promotion (mainly marketing).
The sales field for me was not evolved. Top down approach, no guidance, surrounded by very narrow minded team mates, it was more of scapegoating if the team targets are not reached.
Marketing opened a big field for me. The leadership were quite involved, leaders had ears to my thoughts and most importantly i was constantly surrounded by well-read people.
I evolved!
Limesh Parekh
wonderful Story, Jitendra Sangle. I think if you share your educational background, it will be helpful for lots of other students also.
Abhijit Jorvekar
Very useful for young people , who stay away from sales due to fear of targets , or have misconceptions about sales.
Limesh Parekh
Thanks a lot, Abhijit Jorvekar, Sir. Your feedback means a lot to us.
Devashish Bharti
Great Article sir 👍
I just have a question…Like for me, I neither like to promote repeatedly (marketing) on Social Media nor I feel good when I’ve to call/email a prospective client again and again to sell a product or provide any service.
Though I understand it’s importance, but how to manage those feelings and is there any innovative/interesting ways to do this job (Sales/Marketing)??
Limesh Parekh
In fact, I also used to get similar feelings.
In that case, I used to ask myself, “am I cheating the other person? am I the only person to benefit from this sale? Will the client also benefit if they buy my product? Is it a win-win for both the parties?”
Once I started to realise that I am not doing things just for the sake of my benefit, but I am actually helping others, the Sales became easy and natural for me.
I hope this helps?