Are there any kiwis working in sales?

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CoolFool

CoolFool

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I'm sick of my job. I want to work less hours and I want more money (Don't we all). I keep reading that sales is a good way to earn money and that you have more flexibility in your schedule.

Are there any kiwis in this field? What are the pros and cons? Are you actually making decent money? What's the best field to break into for someone with zero experience? Etc.
 
It can really depend on what kind of sales. I actually have worked in the kind of sales that got people six figure salaries. I was in subprime home lending, an industry which they constantly threaten to bring back in spite of what it contributed to last time it existed. No experience is needed (it helps) but it is about who you know, more true there than any other industry I've worked in. You're not getting a job without a friend already working there. Your weekends are totally free, but you will work your ass between Monday and Friday. In addition to making sales to get a commission, you have to do a lot of work doing stuff that doesn't immediately make money, like building relationships with brokers. Also, you can do a lot of work for nothing because you only get your commission if the loan you sold closes, and in this multi-stage process, a number of things can happen, usually some underwriter finding something they don't like.
 
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Magicicada_septendecula said:
It can really depend on what kind of sales. I actually have worked in the kind of sales that got people six figure salaries. I was in subprime home lending, an industry which they constantly threaten to bring back in spite of what it contributed to last time it existed. No experience is needed (it helps) but it is about who you know, more true there than any other industry I've worked in. You're not getting a job without a friend already working there. Your weekends are totally free, but you will work your ass between Monday and Friday. In addition to making sales to get a commission, you have to do a lot of work doing stuff that doesn't immediately make money, like building relationships with brokers. Also, you can do a lot of work for nothing because you only get your commission if the loan you sold closes, and in this multi-stage process, a number of things can happen, usually some underwriter finding something they don't like.
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Thanks for the information. Questions: Were you getting a base pay salary or strictly commission? And did you have to lie or do unethical stuff to get sales? I refuse to do anything that's scammy or lying.
 
CoolFool said:
Thanks for the information. Questions: Were you getting a base pay salary or strictly commission? And did you have to lie or do unethical stuff to get sales? I refuse to do anything that's scammy or lying.
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We did get base pay if you did not make sales, barely above minimum wage. Even if you think you could, don't try living on it, this was at a small mortgage processing firm (a common thing back then, we did all the processing, underwriting, and closing before selling them in bulk to the big names like Fannie-Mae and Freddie Mac) and if you were dead weight for more than a month, you'd get fired. I never did anything scammy and never lied. Some guys in my department tried to, since the people you could do the lying to were the underwriters (who decide if the person borrowing is creditworthy) and the brokers (the people actually dealing with the borrower) but because you're dealing in information held by credit bureaus, courts, appraisers, etc., it's all going to be found out anyway.
 
sweater_supremacy said:
yes i am cashier. i hate old ladies with half a dozen coupons that argue with me about how they should still be able to use them even after they're expired.
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Was behind one of these recently. Can't you just give her the fuckin coupon, or does the system not allow it?
 
it was a coupon that had been printed in the local newspaper a few weeks prior that needed to be used by the end of the week it was printed or it wasnt any good, i couldnt be njice and change prices for the person with eyesight to poor to read the expiration date out of pity either only managers can. IMO that could be easily remedied if the people designing coupons didnt make the expiration date in smaller print than the rest of the text.
Providence said:
Was behind one of these recently. Can't you just give her the fuckin coupon, or does the system not allow it?
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I did but quit some time ago and never want a job like that again. It was a real, non scammy company that sold heavy machinery, which is a more realistic entry point for the majority of people than the extremely high commission kind of jobs.

Pros: Potential to make more money, if you're good at it.

Cons: Commission encourages backstabbing and deception between coworkers, one of the people I started with quit in tears after a couple of months due to the toxic working environment. Your own morals regarding consooming may eat at you if you have to spend every day convincing people they need things, even if it's a legit business and you're not outright scamming people. The base pay tends to be low and depending on your lifestyle may not be sustainable if you have trouble racking up commission. Dickhead managers may set unrealistic targets and then hassle you for not reaching them (not a problem I had personally, but apparently very common).

Overall it's not a field I'd recommend unless you already know you have an affinity for it. There was one guy in particular I worked with who was excellent at it and was perfectly happy despite everything else, though personally if I was confident in my ability to talk people into handing me money I wouldn't do it for someone else. I was only okay at it, mostly because I hate upselling. I made enough to comfortably live off but it wasn't worth the culture that came with it.
 
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Do you have giant framed picture of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman above your bed? Do you think Gordon Gecko is a aspirational character?
Because that's the mindnset you'll need to have success in sales and what 90% of your long-term "colleagures" are going to be like. Those quotation marks are deliberate btw, 'cause they're are going to their damnedest to dick you over when it comes to snatching up that juicy commission and even if you work with a company that offers things like area protection, people in sales quickly develop strategies to nullify those.

It's a highly predatory field, modestly bad in B2B and bordering on and outright devolving into criminality in B2C. I'm not exaggerating that again most of your colleagues would be selling fent-laced XTC and pimping out 14 year olds if they were slightly more criminally inclined. Oh and btw, if you land a job in B2B be prepared to end up in strip clubs, brotherls or sleazy bars to close deals. Was much more common a few years ago tho.
 
Its said that in order to make it as a salesman you have to be a narc to take the rejection and unable to experience guilt over what you do. I was hired for a solar company over a year ago and I sucked so hard because of being nice so they send me to CS where I got to interact with the follies of my colleagues, basically I got the people that were sick of them.
Best paycheck I ever had but I quit because it was killing me, I literally oversaw families that destroyed their houses, a wheelchair bound guy in NC that had his roof collapse, how the company lost Nebraska, got a lady twice reporting a reckless company truck in KCMO and I still shake over the Floridian calls I got after Ian hit. My only pleasant interactions were failed contracts once I learned a lot of people in Wichita live in golf courses and a lady in Reno, OK talked to me about the Time Tunnel. It was like living Death of a Salesman.
 
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