Sales is one of those careers where, says Monster, academic achievements and credentials have increasingly become less important than other personal qualities that recruiters look for, like savvy or persuasion for example.
Personal qualities and motivation often help you out more in a sales job - because they aid in increasing a product's competitiveness or develop a company's business, which is at the heart of a sales job.
Many recruiters recruiting people in sales now look for these qualities. Academics and degrees have mostly taken a backseat to them nowadays.
A hiring manager will even expect someone with a technical skill to be able to translate that skill, and to translate it well, into something saleable and persuasive, or something in layman language. Sales requires salesmen and women to make a connection with potential buyers, and networking and an easy confidence is a must.
Someone who works for a publisher and is selling advertisement, for example, will need creativity and innovation. They should also be able to draw up quick, rough sketches for clients and monitor the response.
The higher up the food chain you are in sales, the more interpersonal skills you will need to acquire, develop and perfect.
Other skills that are extremely important to your career in sales are an attractive and charming personality. Part of selling whatever it is you are selling is selling your company, and by extension selling yourself, because you are what the client is seeing. You also need confidence and authority. You have to talk a good game, because there is no other way to convince people.
You also have to be highly motivated. Selling things is exhausting, even when you believe in those things, let alone when you do not. Doing it only for the money will not get you very far in the sales industry. Do not underestimate the power of passion in sales.
