If you have just entered the fiercely competed sales field with a wish to make it big and higher than anyone else, you ought to be serious about it right from the very start. Have a plan, set long term goals and make changes to your daily routine before expecting any result.  

What differentiates the high-flyers from ordinary people? There are a dozen traits and more. However, in professional world, the biggest factor that matters is the person’s goals, the road map or plan to achieve them and his ability to stick to those goals. This holds true for any profession and any personality type. A sale is no exception.

As a matter of fact, not everyone who enters the sales profession looks to become a CEO or General Manager or any other leadership position. Some do not desire to move anywhere but just jump organizations in order to give a hike to their salary. But there are many who seek nothing but higher positions and therefore wish to advance their careers in sales. If you belong to the latter group, here are some ways you can advance your career:

Be vocal

Having a voice is vital for ensuring your visibility in the office. Actively participating in office discussions, sales meetings and giving your inputs demonstrates your interest and enthusiasm in the company. To ensure that you have something to speak about in the meetings, review the agenda and prepare points of interest. However, only speak if it improves upon the existing discussion or adds some value to it. Being vocal just for the sake of it makes you look even worse than being silent does.

Be clear about your goals   & perfect the art of decision making

Some people cannot pin point where do they want to go or what exactly do they want from their careers, which is the biggest hurdle in their career. Once you know what you want, decision making will automatically follow. Making a decision signifies that the individual is ready to remove all potential outcomes except the one that would serve their purpose. Those who are able to overcome the fear of decision making are the ones who succeed. While most decisions should be final, one should have the flexibility to modify them as per the demand of situation. However, too much flexibility can be viewed as the inability to withstand challenges. So, there ought to be a balance.

Practice your bragging rights

If a promotion to a higher position is what you are looking for you need to be known. The phrase, “ It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” . In office surrounding, it often boils down to who knows you. If the management mentions you in a meeting while discussing important points such as targets, and profits, than you surely have left a mark and it speaks for your increased possibility of being promoted. For the same, you have to do some self-promotion. E-mailing a weekly status report to your boss with the major goals achieved and the milestones completed by your team are an easy way to enhance your visibility.

Make extra efforts

Another way to advance your career is putting in extra efforts by assisting your colleagues or team members, reducing their work load and completing tasks that are not your KRAs. For example, you can put in an extra hour of effort in making an informative presentation, or recording the profits and sales numbers or volunteer to train the new hires so as to show your willingness to go beyond the call of duty. Such instances always end up making up good impression on the management and can get you better hikes as well as promotions.

Look out for opportunities

The truth of a corporate career is that one has to switch organizations at some point or other for better growth opportunities or salary hikes. Therefore, if you want to advance your sales career, applying to GM sales jobs or other positions like VP sales is of utmost importance. Always keep your eyes and ears open for a better opportunity that might come along the way and do not hesitate to make the switch.

Does advanced degree help your career?

While continuing education is a necessary ingredient for every successful profession, in sales the question that deserves a second glance is whether higher education will really serve the purpose? Is it worth going back to school and spending thousands of dollars in a degree like MBA, not to forget the precious time?

The answer is very subjective and can have different tones. However, as a matter of fact most sales professionals who have gone to make it big didn’t make it on the basis of their education. It was their skills, experience, aptitude, alertness and extraordinary common sense that helped them throughout.