The Pros & Cons of a Career in Sales
Every year, millions of students take on debt, work jobs they hate and spend years studying for a career that might not even want them at the end of it.
Meanwhile, plenty of people with no degree at all walk into sales jobs, get paid from day one and pick up skills that can take them anywhere in the world.
I was one of them. And it changed my life.
So, is sales a good career? For the right person, it’s one of the best there is.
But it isn’t for everyone, and nobody tells you about the hard parts until you’re already sitting at the desk with a phone and a target.
In this article, I’ll share how I fell into a career in sales, the benefits most people never consider, the downsides nobody warns you about, and how to work out whether sales is the right career for you.
Jump to a section:
- My Journey into Sales
- The Benefits
- The Downsides
- Is a Career in Sales For You?
- Frequently Asked Questions
How I Fell Into a Career in Sales
Apart from a couple of part-time evening classes, I never pursued further education as I didn’t have a clear picture of what I wanted to be and thus had no idea what to study.
The fact I was already earning before I left school also impacted my decision.
I’d worked part-time on weekends as a post-room clerk for several months, and the lure of the full-time job and pay packet waiting for me was hard to resist.
When I was younger, I never quite understood the concept of further education.
I couldn’t figure out why people would put in so much extra time, work, and money into something that offered no guarantee of employment or financial benefits.
As a 16-year-old, I was living the dream.
I was earning money, living at home with my parents, had no commitments, and spent my weekends shopping in Manchester with friends, buying new clothes, DVDs, and computer games.
By the time I started working in sales, I was earning even more, had a car, and was out on the town three to four days per week enjoying the good life.
Aside from the rough learning curve that followed, I can honestly say that sales has been an amazingly rewarding career.
A career in sales has and still does open many doors for me and essentially acted as a catapult to get me to where I am today.
Many people underestimate the critical business experience you gain when working in business-to-business (B2B) sales.
Learning how to sell yourself and your ideas is arguably the most crucial skill in today’s business world, especially if you have ambitions to be an entrepreneur.
10 Benefits of a Career in Sales
If you want to be good at what you do, one of the fundamental rules of success is you have to love what you do.
I love selling.
I am deeply passionate about my profession, which is why I love teaching people about it.
What you don’t know about me, though, is that I actually worked in sales for almost three years before I even realised it was a profession, and only then did the love affair begin.
Before this, I just looked at all of my jobs as a job.
Something to put money in my pocket until I finally found a profession I wanted to do.
Nobody ever mentioned selling when the career counsellors came to my high school, so how was I supposed to know it was an option?
After a few years, I was lucky enough to receive valuable sales training from someone with a strong passion for sales.
This not only changed my career but, ultimately, my entire life.
Through my career in sales, I have come to realise and appreciate many of the commonly untold benefits of working in the sales profession, and I would like to share my top 10 with you now.
Some you may know, some you may have forgotten, and others you may have never considered.
1. You Don’t Need a Degree to Get Started
You can get a job in the selling profession without any prior training, experience, or education.
That’s amazing, isn’t it?
With no initial investment of time or money, you can get a job in a profession where you can earn more money than a Doctor.
I was once out of work for a week or so when I was younger, and my mother started giving me the 3rd degree.
I bet her £10 I could go out, get the local paper, and get an interview for a sales job before she got home from work.
Within an hour, I had three interviews booked for the following day.
2. You Earn While You Learn
With luck, the company you work for will provide some form of basic sales training. If not, you can always educate yourself with sales books, podcasts or sales videos.
If you wanted to study to be a doctor, lawyer, or even a builder, you’d have to consider a part-time job doing something else on the side or an apprenticeship.
Either way, you will spend years working for peanuts before earning a decent salary.
In the sales profession, it does not work this way.
If you’re dedicated enough to learn sales skills and techniques in your spare time while working a sales job, within six months, you can earn serious money.
3. Unlimited Earning Potential
When you work in the profession of selling, you have unlimited earning potential.
Waaw!
Do you know of any other profession where that is possible?
Sure, people who work in hard labour jobs like plumbers or builders can do double the amount of work and make lots more money, but they’re still limited by time.
There are only so many hours in a day and days in the week, right?
When you master how to sell, you can and will multiply your earnings.
Not only will your company be throwing pay rises and other additional incentives to keep you on board, but your sales results will snowball too.
The more sales you make, the more happy clients you will serve, and the more happy clients you serve, the more referrals you will get.
And this is just the beginning of the snowball effect.
I used to pride myself in offering my clients the best service possible throughout the sale, and I would try to serve my employers the same way.
Today, I run my own sales training company that runs almost solely on my past clients and contacts and on the referrals they give to others.
4. Good Salespeople Are Always in Demand
If you’re good at selling, you will never be out of a job.
Think about it, when the economy is booming, who do companies want most?
And when the economy is dying, who do companies need most to survive?
Salespeople, right?
No economy could ever survive without salespeople, it’s just not possible.
You just need to look in any job section in a newspaper or website to see the number of sales jobs available compared to the other professions.
Sales jobs are always available, and good salespeople are always in demand.
If you can master sales, you will essentially make yourself recession-proof and guarantee yourself work for life.
5. The Learning Never Stops
One of the things I’ve come to love about the selling profession is that you never stop learning.
Even after more than 25 years in the profession, I can honestly say I learn something new every day.
You’ll realise there are a vast number of skills, tactics, and techniques to learn, and you won’t be able to take them all in at once.
I used to schedule a calendar reminder to read my favourite sales book at least once every year.
You’d be amazed at how many new things you discover from reading the same book ten years later.
6. No Two Days Are the Same
You will also love a career in sales if you are the type of person who enjoys facing new challenges every day.
If you don’t enjoy constant challenges, a career in sales is not for you.
If you do, imagine how easy it is to get out of bed every morning, excited about what new challenges await you in the day ahead.
It’s genuinely motivational.
7. You Get the Competitive Buzz
You have to love selling for the competitive buzz you get every day.
Whether competing with your colleagues, other teams, or even yourself, you cannot beat the motivational feeling of a good competitive environment.
Many studies have been done about how working in a competitive environment can bring the best out of people.
Working in a competitive environment helps you stay on your toes, raise your game, and constantly work at improving yourself, which are all healthy for the mind.
8. You Can Fast-Track Your Career
Selling is one of the only professions where you can really fast-track your career.
In my first sales job, I went from working as a cashier to being one of the key sales reps within 12 weeks.
I can also remember my younger sister getting promoted to sales manager for a small company just a week after she started, with only six months prior sales experience.
I went from being a failed, bankrupt sales loser to becoming a highly respected sales trainer in less than ten years.
Anything is possible in this profession, you just have to work hard and believe in yourself.
9. Freedom to Be Yourself
I’m sure you will agree the freedom to be yourself in any career is a fantastic job perk.
In most jobs, you can be yourself when you speak to colleagues, but when communicating with clients, you often have to pretend to be someone else.
In the profession of selling, you do, of course, have to match your client’s personas, but people will also buy from you because they like you.
In fact, being yourself and getting your personality across will ultimately increase your earnings.
10. The Freedom to Work from Anywhere
I am writing this article and deliver quite a lot of my training and coaching from my home office in the countryside of Denmark.
I moved here in 2006 from the UK, where I was born and raised.
Since then, I have conducted business in over 70 countries and have trained thousands of students in over 128 countries.
Working in the profession of selling gives you the amazing opportunity and freedom to travel the world.
I could honestly pack up my suitcase right now and go and sit on a beach in the Maldives and work.
Whether you run your own company, work for a large enterprise, or maybe even a small start-up, you will come across some amazing career opportunities in sales that can take you anywhere.
The world really is your oyster with modern technology and your amazing selling skills.
The Downsides of a Career in Sales
It would be dishonest to stop there. Sales has a hard side, and plenty of good salespeople burn out because nobody warned them.
1. Your Number Resets Every Month
Hit your target and you get a pat on the back. Then the clock resets and you start again from zero.
That never changes, however senior you get.
2. Your Income Can Swing
Commission is brilliant in a good quarter and painful in a bad one. If you need exactly the same amount landing in your account every month, a heavily commission-based role will keep you up at night.
3. Rejection Is Part of the Job
You’ll hear “no” far more often than “yes”.
Prospects ghost you, deals die at the last minute and you won’t always know why. You have to learn not to take it personally, or it will eat you alive.
4. The Pressure Can Lead to Burnout
Targets, pipeline reviews and forecast calls add up. Without good habits and a decent manager, stress creeps in quietly and burnout follows.
I see it all the time in the salespeople and it’s the most common topic in sales leaders coaching sessions.
5. Bad Managers and Poor Training Can Ruin It
Plenty of salespeople quit because they were handed a phone, a list and no support.
Sales can be a tough career if your employer fails to offer you training, but you can fill some gaps by sourcing your own.
Poor leadership, however, is sadly something you cannot fix, and is hard to avoid. Choose your employer carefully.
Final Thoughts
Sales will probably suit you if you’re motivated by results, enjoy talking to people, can handle rejection and want your income to reflect your effort.
It probably won’t suit you if you need a predictable income, hate being measured or take rejection personally.
If you’re still on the fence, try it.
You can walk into a sales job without a degree, and within a few months you’ll know whether it’s for you.
Worst case, you’ll have learned how to sell yourself and your ideas, and every career needs that.
About the Author
I’m David Craig White, a British B2B sales trainer, coach and consultant with more than 20 years’ experience helping sales teams get results.
When I’m not writing B2B sales articles, I’m providing sales training, coaching and sales consulting to B2B sales teams, sales leaders and business owners.
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Frequently Asked Questions About a Career in Sales
Yes. Many of the best salespeople are introverts because they listen more than they talk, prepare thoroughly and ask better questions.
Modern B2B sales rewards curiosity and understanding over charm. The bigger challenge for introverts is managing energy, so building recovery time between calls and meetings really matters.
There is no single personality type that makes somebody good at sales. I’ve worked with successful salespeople who are naturally outgoing and others who are relatively quiet.
You can read my article on what makes a good salesperson to learn more.
Most sales roles don’t require a degree, and employers usually care more about attitude, resilience and communication skills than qualifications.
Some graduate schemes and technical B2B roles prefer one, but plenty of top salespeople and sales leaders started with no further education at all.
Most sales roles combine a base salary with commission, and many companies don’t cap commission.
That means top performers, especially in B2B and technology sales, can earn six-figure salaries.