Notes from a former technical salesperson

@jfreebo Tweets: "I would love to see a series of posts on career paths available to those of us w Bach deg." While Eric F. Brown of The Rheol World has a Ph.D., I believe his career as a technical salesperson is certainly accessible to bachelor's degree holders. He writes in on his former life on the road:

Following a postdoc, I accepted a job in technical sales for the (now-defunct) Paar Physica USA [1].  I sold rheometers and viscometers.  Low-end systems ran were $20,000, mid-range systems were around $50,000, and high-end systems could be purchased for $100,000.  (All prices are in 2000 dollars.)  The job description in the original post matches some of what I did during the day, but there is a little more involved in technical sales other than just calling someone and updating a database.  Here are a few things that anyone should consider when thinking about a technical sales position.

Travel: While one may be able to work out of home a few days a week, constant travel is a fact of life in sales.  In order to be considered for that project, it's better to get in front of customers.  Substantial travel (up to 90% of your time) may be necessary, especially if you're building your territory.  On the days without travel, it is possible to work out of the house.  While I didn't mind the travel all that much, the isolation eventually got to me, and I transferred to applications support [2].

Salary: The salesperson is judged on concrete results, specifically, how much you sell.  If you sell, you'll keep your job, and if you don't, you won't.  Companies are willing to give untested candidates a shot at sales because compensation is a mixture of straight salary and commission.  Find out how long the typical project takes and when you'll be expected to start bringing in regular sales.

Nature Vs. Nurture: The guy who hired me often told me that salespeople could be made.  If you believe otherwise, then sales is not for you.  Before accepting a sales job, inquire about training, whether internal or external.

[1]     Paar Physica has been replaced by Anton Paar.

[2]     Even though I'm an introvert, I needed to see a variety of people in an office every day.  This amuses me to no end.

People who are interested in talking more are encouraged to go over to The Rheol World to talk to Eric.