My friend worked for a while in a shoe store as a salesman. It was one of the more expensive stores, the kind that sells Gucci and Versace on a regular basis. He lasted there a while too because he took the things he had learned in his previous job as a sales manager in at a software company , and applied them to his job at the shoe store. It was an odd switch for him, but he like so many other people in this economic downturn, lost his job and took what he could get. He actually likes his new job. His wife however, probably loves it even more because it affords her the opportunity for better shoes and at better prices. Though some of them are still pretty steep, at two-hundred dollars.
Although sales managers in smaller companies cannot afford the pricey sales management training most top companies employ to help maintain great managers in their sales division, there are still things from those programs that are applicable to the smallest companies, from shoe stores to scrapbooking stores, from family owned businesses to small chains of restaurants. One of the things he took from his training in sales and other kinds of corporate team building sessions was the ability to adapt to change. That is the single most important quality to have in business, or so he says. He must be right, because he’s already had two promotions at his current job. You also cannot get more changeable than a software salesman to a shoe salesman.
Perhaps the other most important quality a salesman must have is the ability to inspire trust in people. This quality has become even more important due to his current job. He’s touching women’s feet all day, and there might not be anything more intimate than that. He has to earn their trust and keep it. He had to learn to act a little differently (at his last job, he could be more abrupt), but that was all a part of transforming to fit the job. So far, he has enjoyed the challenge, and appreciates the training his last job afforded him, as it is something he can take with him to any job he applies for now.
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