Who here has (or has had) a Sales job?

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I did a door-to-door sales once, for an all-natural citrus-based all-purpose cleaner. Since it was purely commission-based (only our motel rooms were paid for) and I didn't do well at all, I was sent home within a month.

Now, at Walgreens I'm usually in the photo lab and loving it. I get to work with my hands. I hated the cosmetics department for 2 reasons: first, I have no interest in makeup or hair products (I just buy what I like, keep it simple); second, I'm not good at talking people into buying stuff. I still have to try and push the "suggestive" sells when I'm on a cash register, but I really have to make an effort and find different tactics. One time the item was Reese's caramel PB cups; I told one lady that I was gonna try 'em when I got my first paycheck -- she bought 2 and gave me 1!

I was a salesman for many years. I started with a coin and baseball card company and I was doing cold calling... calling strangers out of the blue to get them to buy the worthless crap we sold at ridiculous prices.

I was so good at it that I eventually became the head of the sales department for the company and had about a dozen people under me. I always hated the job because ultimately, we were ripping off the public. I learned all the dirty tricks too... enough to write a book. Maybe I should.

My first "real" job was in computer sales at Best Buy, before I was aware of AS. It was non-comissioned, but the pressure was still on to sell as many service plans and accessories as possible with every computer purchase. Service plans were hard, because most people were predisposed to declining them (I had one guy threaten to punch me in the nose if I even mentioned them). I only seemed to be able to get the sales if the customer already knew he/she wanted it. Accessories were easier, because they were more concrete, and most people hadn't thought about them yet.

I consistently received the worst performance reviews in my department. I only recall one instance of being brought to tears in by my manager, but it was in private, so it wasn't that embarassing. Eventually, I was assigned primarily to the printer aisle, where the focus was on accessories; service plans were rarely expected. I did reasonably well there, partially because I was easily able to keep up with the ever-changing cartridge names and the printers they went with.

I transfered stores when I went to college, and later quit when I wanted Thanksgiving vacation. I was never fired, nor was my job dangled for motivation. However, the experience was enough that I never tried a sales job again.

I worked in a sales environment on and off for 4 years. I mainly chose it for a job because it meant I wouldn't have to go through an interview process (because the store is owned by my family) All in all I found it quite challenging and a bit exhausting, but also enjoyable. And I picked up the method of processing sales really quickly.

If the social aspects got too hard for me I'd find a task that didn't involve people, like re-stocking the shelves. The thing I hated was approaching people and asking if they needed assistance, and giving them advice about what looks good on them.

I had a couple sales jobs, and didn't really do very well at any of them. I could communicate the information just fine, in fact better than most of the other sales people, but I couldn't very well persuade anyone to buy anything they didn't already want. It was generally difficult and awkward, and I really don't recommend going into sales unless you're already fairly good dealing with people on an emotional level.