How To Build Sales Cred and Land Your First Sales Job

There is a Catch-22 when it comes to finding your first job or switching to a new career path, especially if you are a stay at home mom. You need a job to get experience — but every company requires experience before they will hire you.

This familiar situation is incredibly frustrating. It makes you think the only way to get a foot in the door is to know the right person or stumble into dumb luck. The job market becomes overwhelming and this hopeless feeling keeps many people trapped doing work they hate.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Especially in sales, employers look for results over everything. “Money talks” and this is one area where people will be a bit more willing to give someone a shot — even if he or she lacks the requisite resume bullet points — if they believe the person really has what it takes.

How do you prove yourself? Even without a lot of experience, there are ways to be seen. Before you give up hope, you need to focus on learning the ropes, building your cred, and — with enough grit and perseverance — landing that sales job you’ve been dreaming about.

Exploit Every Opportunity

Even if you feel like you have no connections and no opportunities, chances are there is something out there. Perhaps you have a relative or close friend who operates a business. Mine your network and turn over every stone. At the very least, there should be some firm out there that could use an ambitious go-getter willing to work on commission — or purely in a temporary volunteer position. 

This obviously isn’t a long-term solution. But it will help you get that initial experience. Maybe it’s something of a job shadow situation. Or perhaps you can find an over-the-phone cold-calling role for a few hours on nights or weekend. Telemarketing likely isn’t your dream, but it is a way to start small and build your ability to pitch customers in a real-world setting. And if there is a local non-profit in the area that you believe in, helping them sign up some new donors or procure needed services will mean both you and the organization are getting a ton of out the arrangement.

Become an Independent Business Owner

So you have tried everything you can think of and still aren’t getting any callbacks? Don’t get depressed. Get motivated. Maybe, in reality, this isn’t even a problem for you. This could be the start of a future where all the companies ignoring your resume will become the ones that are missing out. Because now you have a great opportunity to work for yourself.

Outside of the workforce, one fantastic path to take is to embrace direct sales. It is a well-established business model, and companies like Amway empower you to become an independent business owner and start making real-world sales immediately. The company and its network of partners quickly teach you how to sell Amway products and it won’t be long before you’re seeing real income. Particularly if you have an industry you’re passionate about — beauty products, health, vitamins, or some other relevant area — this could be a long-term chance to thrive on your own.

Side Hustle Options

The best part about getting experience to build your sales cred is that it opens up a whole world of possibilities. You may find that this “stepping stone” move actually turns out to be both lucrative and rewarding, especially if it allows you to build something of your own that you can turn into a full-time business, like selling Arbonne products. Maybe you won’t ever need a “real” sales job after all and instead, you will start working for yourself as a true entrepreneur. 

A second route is to keep your solo startup venture in addition to a full-time job in another field. You can continue developing this “side hustle” over time and either use it as secondary income or view it as something that you will grow slowly into a career. This increasingly popular route to career freedom is something that allows you to retain the financial security of a “day job” while letting you pursue your passion in a less-stressful way.

Not Longer Faking It

If your long-term goal remains landing a specific sales job in a specific sector, the experience you get through any of these routes can prove invaluable. First off, you will you have great fodder for your resume. But even more importantly you will be able to enter any office for any interview with the confidence that you actually understand how to sell.

That’s something you cannot fake. And, more than anything else, this is what will shine through when you sit down and talk face to face with someone who can spot the difference between wanna-be and someone who has developed their sales muscles in the real world. That way, when the right opportunity does come along, you won’t have to fake it. You really will be the right person for the job.