Job Responsibilities
Manage 10 sales representatives and 2 installation specialists
covering a $20MM region in the Northeast US. Responsibilities
included: growing sales (40%), managing personnel (20%),
coaching/developing personnel (35%), dealing with difficult
customers (5%), and hiring & training new personnel (as needed).
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Job Requirements
I started as a Technical Representative (TR). The hiring
requirements were a BS in Medical Technology or related science
and 3 years experience working in a hospital or reference
laboratory. I was a TR for 2 years, then a Technical Specialist
for 2 years, Market Development Manager for 2 years, Product
Support Manager (in R&D on a new product development project) for
2.5 years, Product/Program Manager for 3.5 years, and a Sales
Manager for 6 years.
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Uppers
Working with people -- both customers and employees.
Big sales successes.
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Downers
Constant traveling.
Primarily relying on others for your own success (in sales, the
numbers are the only thing that matters).
At the beginning of each month, your past month's accomplishments
no longer matter.
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Lifestyle
Working 60+ hours per week, 80% travel, interruptions to vacations and holidays,
"on-call" all the time, significant disruption to your personal life.
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Compensation
Roughly $95K (1996)+ bonus. Stock options were given to all
employees, full benefits (health, dental, 401(k), and others)
were provided. Bonuses were paid, but not on sales performance --
this particular company paid managers a bonus based on the
company's performance and the manager's ranking amongst their
peers.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Sales people are always necessary. Great sales people are in
great demand. Sales is a wonderful way to fully understand the
customer needs and to utilize a wide variety of communication and
interaction skills. Personally, it was not my favorite vocation -
- I prefer the Marketing function, which requires even stronger
selling skills for "internal selling" as well as a full
understanding of customers and customer needs.
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