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A Day in the Life of a Service Sales Representative

A service sales representative sells the services her company offers, reaching her customers over the telephone, in person, and through letter-writing efforts. A service sales rep can work for nearly anyone: A communications company, an upholsterer, a computer engineering firm, or a caterer, to name only a few who has a service (as opposed to a good) to sell. Service Sales Representatives have to be good communicators, persuasive talkers, and excellent listeners. The most important quality of a service sales rep, however, is the ability to sell. Indeed, her paycheck depends on it-many service sales reps work from a low base salary plus either commissions on sales or a potentially large bonus. This means a high-pressure environment, but pressure, as one rep told us, 鈥渋s what turns coal into diamonds.鈥� Sales representatives must first and foremost be confident with their knowledge of their product lines. 鈥淢ost of your job as a sales rep is answering questions,鈥� wrote one respondent, 鈥渁nd if you don鈥檛 have answers for your clients, how can you expect them to trust you?鈥� The issue of trust is central to any purchaser/vendor relationship. For the sales rep, having information at his disposal is the only way he can demonstrate to the potential client that he understands the product鈥檚 uses and limitations. To maintain these high levels of credibility, many companies require that sales reps engage in internal education programs that keep them up to date on changing product lines and improved product features. Sales reps not only have to adjust themselves to their product lines, but also to the needs and sensibilities of their clients. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 sell to a mom and pop store the way you鈥檇 try to sell to IBM,鈥� said one telephone service sales rep. The best way to learn that skill? 鈥淓xperience is incredibly valuable in sales,鈥� wrote a ten-year veteran. Two aspects of the job were recorded as most frustrating on our surveys. First, simply by virtue of what she does, a service sales rep often encounters rejection and puts effort into many deals that do not close. It鈥檚 important to be able to see that a failed deal is not necessarily a personal failure. Second, the job breeds a certain amount of isolation. 鈥淣o one is a salesman鈥檚 friend,鈥� wrote one manager of service sales reps, adding 鈥渋t can be a very lonely job.鈥� Many reps spend a lot of time on the road, in meetings, and at client dinners, and many of these hours are clocked on the weekends. The price they pay is returned in the form of bonuses, commission, and control over their schedule if not the number of hours they work.

Paying Your Dues

No professional certification is required for service sales representatives and there are no formal educational requirements, but it鈥檚 becoming more and more common for them to have a college education. Coursework that sales representatives found helpful to them in their profession included marketing, business, economics, finance, public speaking, sociology, and psychology. Most large employers run established training programs for newly hired service sales reps that last between three weeks and three months. These training programs educate newcomers about product lines, the techniques of successful sales representatives, and accounting procedures, and generally include interactive exercises to give future representatives some sales experience. Smaller places may not have training programs but will instead pair a newcomer with an experienced sales rep. Employers look for prior experience that demonstrates a self-motivating personality and strong interpersonal along with organizational skills.

Present and Future

Service sales representatives are a product of urbanization. As greater numbers of people needed more services, competition began to increase between shops, and expanding the sales base became critical. Service sales representatives should be positioned well for the twenty-first century. Service industries are expected to grow faster than all other industries in the U.S., and each company is expected to spend significant capital attempting to expand its customer base. Creative and motivated people should find opportunities available that reward their hard work and selling skills.

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Quality of Life

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