Sales Job?!?!

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I've applied for a sales job, but I am not sure whether or not this will work out with my HFA. Here's the catch - I would be selling in one of my focused areas of interest - string instruments. So, I don't know if I will come accross as strange to people since they would be expecting me to be knowledgable about the topic. Like most people don't give a sh*t when I start to talk about the benefits of using a gold E-String on a violin or regional differences in how luthiers shape the bodies of violins.

The thing is, I know that there is money to be made in sales. However, I don't think that I could sell most things - like I'd never be able to convince someone that they need to commute 50 miles each way in a Hummer. I'd never be able to convince a doctor to prescribe a drug that I sell preferentially over another, even though I may be qualified to have such a discussion. However, I do think that I could tell a parent that their child's life would improve if he/she were to start playing the violin, and I'd really mean it.

I actually dated another person who is a pharmacist who I strongly suspect is autistic. His focused areas of interest include yoga and skiing. He hated pharmacy and ended up quitting work and living off his savings for a while. He's actually managed to start making a living by opening up his own studio, and has a really strong following in the yoga community. I was thinking the other day about how nice it would be to get to a point of making a living off one of my areas of interest, and this job suddenly appeared on monster.com.

So, I don't know if this is an extremely bad idea or good idea to be applying for such a job. I'm not looking for the hackneyed "any autistic can do anything they want with their lives" response - I want a frank discussion of all the different types of problems an autistic person can face in a sales job, and whether or not I really want to deal with it.

I would go for it! You don't know until you try, it sounds like a really good match for you, allowing you to make a living doing something it sounds like you will love.

I have had several sales jobs, and everytime, I became "obsessed" with product knowledge, tends to be a "problem" I have ! Initaily I would do really well, my knowledge of products and stock levels being much higher then the average new employee. I would be very pationate with customers, and able to be "truely helpful". Although I think I creeped some out! Most though, really did seem to appreciate me and I got tons of positive feedback to my managers.

The problem came in, with the politics with staff. I think my managers would feel threatened in some ways by me, because I just cared "too much", I was "too eager". I also was just no good at the casual banter and conversations that someone has. One lady, she got a new dog. I found out that her old dog died due to bloat, a condition where a large dog eats and drinks too much too fast (usually crap food) and the stomach twists. I overheared her tell someone that they "could not" pay for the surgery, it was too much, so they put the dog down. Sad. But they turn around, buy a puppy from a breeder, have to pay for shots, pay for neutering, pay for puppy classes, this is not Cheap! I just found the whole thing disgusted me so much, I just was speechless when she would pull out her newest "puppy pictures" and want to banter on about how great "rocket" was! Not that I was very good with it to begin with!

Anyway, I would try it, but if it does not work out, try another shop. It may be that since you share a passion with other staff, you will have a better shot of fitting in. Hopefully, the store will just be busy, you won't have time for idle "chit chat"!

I was too honest ,empathetic and I guess gullible for sales. The job I had I was in large control of what prices were charged and I was too nice to the customers.

A good sales man/women has to be ruthless. To the point you would let people die who
could not afford to pay. My guess pedantic aspies with low empathy with fixed rules on pricing could do well in sales.

In my opinion how well you do would probably be based on whether the sales are unsolicited or not.

If the customers come to you I think youd do very well but if your hunting for them it wouldnt go so well.

I know when someone is trying to sell me something I dont want it only irritates me more if they babble on in detail about it.

However if its something Im interested in then I expect for the sales staff to know as much or more about it than me anything less is a shop I wont go back to.

Have you considered opening your own store? Selling those instruments your so interested in yourself? I even hear that restoring antique string instruments is in big demand these days and pays very well.

Since I have an aspie double bassist and an aspie violinist, I think you would be perfect.

If your selling something that you have a keen interest in then you must already have some of the knowledge that your customes will expect. I can't think of a better direction for you to take.

As an Aspie who spent two years of his life selling bread to the masses, you will often find that issues such as eye contact have little consequence to many customers. They want to know what is the best product for their needs, and usually, what's cheapest. Thus they are highly unlikely to bother worrying themselves over the person that you are. Customers will appreciate the efforts you put in, though as was said below, it may be worth keeping half an eye on the other staff, just in case any stormclouds appear to be brewing.

Perhaps most importantly, from my time in the 'selling' business both as an employee and as a freelance, I learnt that word and reputation spreads fast in this trade, so if you're doing well then you'll know about it pretty quickly. One happy customer can (and does) snowball into many.

Good luck whichever way you go.

I thought about this some more, and I had a friend who could not hold a job to save her life... She'd get burned out, get pissed at her coworkers, disagree with management, etc. She wasn't autistic, but she definitely had some "issues" when it came to holding a job. Anyway, she got a job selling educational products - something that she believed in very strongly. I honestly did not believe that she could be even remotely effective in sales. However, she was knowledgable on the subject and very interested in it, and she really did quite well for a long time with that company. She actually stayed their until her health got so bad that she couldn't work (she passed away a few years ago of cancer).

I don't think your customer base will be typical NTs and they will appreciate your knowledge. Buying a violin is not an impulse purchase and you won't have to hard sell anyone. You could build a reputation of being extremely knowledgable and then people will seek you out.

It's not an impulse purchase, but there are a number of possibilities if a kid wants a violin

- purchase one
- rent one
- see if the school will provide one.

The job description on Monster had a number of different things involved in it. I'd work in the store selling, renting, and merchandising (that's sort of obvious), but then I have to go to schools and community events to help recruit children to school music programs. I can see myself doing that. BUT, what I'm wondering is how the pay is structured, since the job is not 100% direct selling. I guess I'll find that out today.