Interview of a Sales position. Looking for advice.

[nerdbotbot]

Hi,

I'm a fresher with a degree in automation.

I had applied for job at an MNC. Today, I got a response saying that a sales position is available. They are starting an office in a foreign market (Malaysia). The job will involve sales of Siemens products.

Here is my dilemma: I'm an introvert and a lab geek, so a sales position would not be a right match. However, as a fresher, I can't be picky.

I'm waiting for more information about the position. Till then, I have a couple questions:

1. Is it a good idea to take up the sales position for experience?

2. Will I get to learn any practical/ comissioning skills related to the Siemens products?

3. With sales experience, would it be possible to shift to a more technical position, either in the same company or at smaller system integrators?

Thanks

 

[jstolaruk]

I would expect you would get some technical training so that you could at least fake the fact that you know what you were talking about when placed in front of a customer.

 

[gclshortt]

We are all sales people in one way or another. I would look at this opportunity as a way to learn new skills to enhance what you already have.
We never stop learning.
I was technical support before going into sales. Sales manager came next before breaking out on my own. Now I have the best of both worlds.
You will have to ask about the job and area of responsibility. Siemens has many divisions and products.
Selling yourself is a big part of being able to sell other people. You must be able to understand their situation, know your product and sell the solution.

Regards,

 

[mk42]

2) You probably won't get much hands on experience. Likely just some sales training. You may learn technical info ABOUT the products, but it won't be programming or commissioning.

1&3) Generally, experience in the industry is good experience. If you want to shift into a commissioning role later, you'd still be realistically starting at the ground level, but my guess is that you'd come up to speed quicker than average. You'll still learn a fair bit about how the products fit together.

The time spent in sales will probably help some of the "soft" skills that are usually ignored in technical guy. An engineer can have lots of technical skills and be known as a guy who gets stuff done, but he usually can't be a KEY guy unless he also has good presence in front of customers.

 

[RussB]

If you try hard enough a sales position just may help you to break out of the introvert shell which will benefit you in all areas of life for the remainder of it. You will be able to learn as much as you want in a sales position with a company who supports their people's learning, plus you just may make some very important contacts for future job positions. Of course this all depends on what you put into the job.
It has always been my job philosophy to give my employer a little more than they expect and I have nearly always been rewarded for this.

 

[sparkie]

I wouldn't interview for it myself. I would be looking around for a position to apply my knowledge. You can pick up the soft skills, customer relations and learn how to deal with people and work under pressure while working in a tough environment as well.

 

[Tom Jenkins]

When I started my business the thing I though I would hate was sales. I'm not an introvert, but still ...... On top of that, I felt salesmen were just peddlers, fast talkers without much technical ability.

Wrong.

I found out I enjoy sales. I like people, and it isn't hard to get used to talking to them. I figured out that sales, like engineering, is essentially problem solving. Find out the customer's problem, figure out if and how you can solve it, and make things better. And, as it turns out, sales can be quite lucrative - which should be a secondary concern, perhaps, but a concern nonetheless.

You can make a sales engineering job what you want it to be. If you want to be a wheeler dealer and sell based on relationships, you can. If you want to become technically proficient and sell on the basis of bringing engineering merit to solving problems, you can. If you want to do both, you can. If you want to be there helping with commissioning, you can. I always found my technical skills more challenged standing in front of a customer than sitting at my computer in a nice calm office.

Of course, my company was small, and mine, so I could do sales, and design, and commissioning, and manage staff. You probably won't have that level of independence. But, if you produce results, you can tailor you methods to your skill set quite a lot.

Don't take the job just as a temporary stop gap. You won't do well if you think the work isn't worthwhile and important.

It is uncommon for an engineer to go from sales to strictly technical inside work. I'm not sure if it's because sales is so much fun, or because of the money, or because some engineering managers are prejudiced against sales. Probably all of the above.

 

[RussB]

I wouldn't interview for it myself. I would be looking around for a position to apply my knowledge. You can pick up the soft skills, customer relations and learn how to deal with people and work under pressure while working in a tough environment as well.

I have worked in supervision, engineering, servicd and sales over my nearly 50 year industrial career and sales was no less chalenging, interesting and tough than the others.