Last week I wrote a post talking about how candidates need to help themselves FIRST before they solicit advice from a recruiter.  You can read that article here: http://bit.ly/17j1FST  This post is focused on what you do next after you narrow down “What do you want to do for a living”.

So you have done some soul searching.  You realize that you want to be in sales.  Okay.  Great.  Good start.  Now, lets dive into this further.  What do you want to sell?  Your response most likely is “I don’t know”.  Okay, let me help you even further.  What are you passionate about?   Again, I am going to ask you to do some further soul searching. 

I want to share with you a personal story of how I landed at KB Home in the late 90’s.  I, too, realized I wanted to be in sales.  I looked into every sales job out there from selling telecommunications products, selling insurance, to selling software.  What I realized is that I was tired of the grind of cold calling, but I enjoyed the chase and the close.  So I started asking some questions.  I went on lunch meeting after lunch meeting.  It was at this time when someone suggested New Home Sales.  I had never sold houses, but it made complete sense.  Here is why it made sense.

I understood TANGIBLE products.  I could see them, touch them, explain them and put a value on the product.  Software was intangible and I couldn’t put a dollar amount on the product.  It seemed telecommunication products were a commodity that everyone was selling.  After reading, researching and soul searching I found an industry that would work best for ME.  I wouldn’t have to cold call, I was selling a tangible product, and I could make a great living doing it.

New Home Sales seemed like a good profession.  Now, I wanted to be associated with the best.  There were so many to choose from.  I looked at least 20 homebuilders.  After reaching out to some of the sales reps and doing MY research, I then reached out to the recruiting departments of about 10.  I was relentless.  No, I didn’t have the experience, but I had the drive.  Recruiters were more able to help me because they understood what I was looking ``

I did home sales for 10 years.  I did extremely well.  It didn’t end up being my dream job, but it did end up being the right choice for me at the time.  The economy was awful and the real estate market was hot at the time.  The dot com bust had happened and the housing market crash hadn’t happened. 

Next week, we will look at part 3 of this series.  Why we need to continually network & how to do it successfully.  Why each job should be viewed as a contract and how to never get caught off guard again!