What to Expect When You’re New in Sales

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It can be very frightening to start a career in sales. Nobody is just born into sales, and it’s not always the most natural career choice when someone asks what you want to do as a kid. 

But, even the best salespeople in the world had to start where you are, so there’s no reason you can’t one day be where they are now! 

I remember being new in sales, and thinking I knew what to expect. I was sadly mistaken. Sales was not as “easy” as I thought it would be. I always had the “gift of gab”, and that’s what I always saw salespeople doing, and I knew I could do that. 

My speaking skills definitely help me in sales, but they alone didn’t just carry me into a full-fledged career one day. There was a lot about sales that I wasn’t ready for, and this article will go through some of the basic things you can expect to experience! 

You Will Make Mistakes - And That’s Okay

Regardless of how prepared you are, and no matter how many sales books you read, you are still going to make mistakes, and misspeak on the phone, or forget to send an email. 

That’s just the natural way of starting something new. 

I saw a graphic on LinkedIn that really resonated with me the other day. It simply said, “be brave enough to suck at something new” and that just really spoke to me. That’s now the exact advice I’d give anyone starting out in sales. 

Since mistakes are unavoidable, the one thing you can control is how you handle those mistakes, and what you learn from them. 

When you make a mistake, rather than getting upset and down on yourself, you can just think about it from a different perspective. Think about a mistake as the perfect opportunity to learn something new. 

Think about it! If you make a mistake, and you try analyzing what you did to find a way to fix what went wrong, then you will be better prepared the next time you have to do whatever it was.

When you’re new in sales, your primary responsibility is to learn as much as possible. In fact, I’d even go as far to say your main responsibility is making mistakes. Rather, making intelligent mistakes. 

Meaning, don’t make mistakes on purpose, or be malicious about it. 

What I do mean is, don’t be so afraid of making a mistake that you don’t try something new, or try approaching a problem from a different perspective. Trying new things and “experimenting” when you’re new in sales is invaluable! 

Not All Customers Will Be Friendly

When I first started out in sales, my primary job was answering phones and logging the notes into the CRM. In my very first days, I would answer the phone and transfer them to the correct person, and even then customers weren’t always pleasant. 

I’m sure you’ve heard of angry customers, especially when something is going wrong. That’s just a given! 

The problem is, customers are just people too. And some people are just miserable or grumpy in general. That’s just their personality. You can probably think of at least one person you know who would fit that description, yeah? 

Sometimes, you get customers who are repeat buyers. They are just always a jerk, and they always seem to be yelling or raising their voice. Maybe not necessarily at you, but their tone says otherwise. 

There are a handful of customers I can list whose phone numbers give me goose flesh when their phone number pops up on my screen. 

Hey Scott!

My point is, these people are out there, and it’s unfortunate. The very best thing you can do is treat them with nothing but kindness and empathy, regardless of how terribly they act. Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but it will also piss them off like you wouldn’t believe. 

You Won’t Know Every Answer - Right Away 

Again, when I started out in sales, I was responsible for taking incoming calls. After I graduated from transferring people, it was my job to provide some pricing information, lead times, and answer any questions the customer may have about the product. 

Depending on to whom I was speaking, they may ask technical questions, or maybe a tax question, to which I wouldn’t know the answer. Personally, I’ve always been the first person to admit I don’t know something, because there’s no reason to lie about it, in my opinion. 

That said, I would suggest you do the same exact thing. You may feel as though a customer would think poorly of you for not knowing the answers, but that’s not necessarily true. 

Rather, think of how they would feel if you tried to provide an answer, gave them the wrong one, and then they bought the wrong product. Well, generally speaking, customers don’t enjoy spending their money on the wrong item, and that would ultimately fall on the salesperson - you!

So, since honesty is always the best policy, if you don’t know how to answer a question that a customer asks, just be honest with them! Tell them you don’t know the answer. 

In fact, since you’re new, you can actually just let them know that! You can say something as simple as, “that’s a great question, and I’m interested in knowing the answer too because I just started here. Would you mind holding while I get you an answer?”

Unless the customer is in a real rush for an answer, they usually respond well to something like that. They appreciate the fact that you’re honest and admit you don’t know. I have actually earned business by simply admitting to not knowing an answer and getting it for the customer immediately. 

Again, you won’t know the answer to every question your customer asks, but you CAN do something even better and more empathetic. You can learn the answer to the question together with the customer!

You Will Hear “ No ” A LOT!

I’ll be honest with you, even experienced salespeople hear “no” a lot. It’s just the nature of sales! Regardless of what anyone says, not EVERYBODY can be sold. Sure, if you came to them with different products you could make a sale, but what I mean is that you cannot just create demand for a product that somebody simply doesn’t want. 

The difference between an experienced salesperson and a new salesperson is the thickness of their skin. An experienced salesperson has weathered rejection for their entire career, and they’ve learned how to tolerate it. 

When you’re new in sales, you may tend to take things personally. Maybe not right away! Maybe not even for a while. But a lot of new folks in sales take rejection personally and it affects their future performance. 

Generally speaking, when you have a great call with a prospect or a customer, you are more likely to have a good call the next time. It’s called being on a hot streak. 

Well, unfortunately, for every positive there must be a negative, yeah?

If you get rejected by three or four people in a row, and you start taking it personally and letting it get you down, there’s a solid chance your fifth call won’t go so well either. 

There are several reasons why a customer may reject you, and it could have nothing to do with lack of interest. To be clear, a lot of the time it will be because of lack of interest, but it isn’t the only reason for the rejection. 

Customers may reject you for the following reasons: 

• Caught them at the wrong time - they’re busy

• Your pitch was just too “salesy” 

• They have a problem with your company/brand 

• They aren’t in the market - but would be interested 

• You called the wrong person 

The point is, there are a lot of reasons why you may be rejected, but you should handle every rejection just the same. With grace, understanding, and a positive attitude! 

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of new experiences and challenges you’ll have when you enter a career in sales, but it can be really fun too! If you can get over the fear of being wrong, and embrace the mistakes you make and learn from them, you will have fun with it! It allows you to experiment! 

Some of the exciting parts of sales, especially B2B sales, are the potential relationships you will develop! I have a handful of really great customers who I now consider friends. We will call each other just to catch up if we haven’t talked in a while. If I have a favor, they will drop what they’re doing for me, and vice versa. 

Or, watching yourself grow as a professional and learn new skills while you keep getting better and better at selling your products. Sales is a great experience if you’re looking for personal growth. I’m not saying you will be guaranteed a promotion, but personal growth is just as important as professional  growth. 

Sales can be extremely frustrating when you first start out because a lot will be new to you, and there will be a rather steep learning curve. But, if you stick to it, and you put in 110% effort, you’ll start succeeding before you know it! 

Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list of the new experiences and challenges you will face when starting out in sales, but they are the most common struggles and fears I’ve heard others express over the years!