Entry level Sales jobs can be a great foundation for a career in sales, in order to progress, structured self development is key.

If you are fortunate enough to begin your sales career working in a large blue chip industry such as pharmaceuticals, then it is more than likely that you will receive extensive initial training and ongoing training in formal sales techniques.

However it is more likely that you will begin your career in a smaller organisation, where the training is likely to consist of advice from the sales manager. The sessions are likely to be brief, without too much in terms of support.

In these organisations, the sales manager may only have around five or six years sales experience, or you may be hired as a "sales person" by somebody without any sales experience at all. You will of course be expected to deliver results, or you could be looking for employment elsewhere.

Throughout my career I have interviewed thousands of people for sales positions over the years and it really amazes me at the number of applicants who are not formally trained. What's even more surprising is the amount of candidates that I have interviewed who think that a good sales person only needs to have the "gift of the gab" and that formal sales skills and techniques are simply text book nonsense! I have had a long career in sales and sales management and in my well informed opinion, formal sales skills does make a huge difference in an individuals ability to deliver consistent results.

In reality, sales jobs are not only about persuading somebody to buy something that they either don't really want, or don't need. They are about finding somebody who has made a decision to buy a product and then convince them that your product (or service) is the right one for them. Within this is the additional skills required to find enough people who have made the decision to make a purchase and to approach them at the correct time to meet your volume quotas.

For the purposes of providing you all with an example, today I interviewed somebody for a sales job in our company. I asked her to give an example of an initiative she had used which had helped the company profit. The response was a program of cold calling in an attempt to expand the customer base, yes a sensible suggestion. However, the approach of the cold calls demonstrated a lack of any formal skills, with the approach asking "are you happy with the current service?"

There are a few immediate issues with this approach, the first is who chose their current service? It's more than likely they did, so they are very unlikely to admit that they may have made a bad choice, even if the correct answer is "no, I am unhappy". As well as this, the opening line gives very little to be interested in, cold calling requires you to grab the receivers attention, otherwise they will become uninterested.

Imagine your in a television shop, your browsing the latest widescreen TV's and then somebody approaches you to ask if you "are okay?" Your immediate answer is "yes, or I'm just looking", as you wish to avoid asking for help!

There is no 100% technique for a cold call, but the opening should begin with an open ended question to invite a conversation instead of a closed question which will lead to a prompt yes or no answer, complete with an abrupt end to the call. To put this into context with the first example, "if you could, what would you improve with your current service?" would invite a conversation. Even if the current service is good, you will begin to learn of the potential strengths and weaknesses that you are competing against.

Yes, this is just one example of a sales call, but the use of this method on a consistent basis would greatly increase your success rate of your calls. The cumulative effects of formal skills throughout the sales process can be dramatic.

A sales person who invests time and effort into their understanding of sales processes and techniques will deliver success on a much higher basis. In truth, Sales processes and techniques is a widely document subject with an abundance of books and now websites covering all aspects of the field. If you want to improve and progress in your sales career, take the time to study the art of it as well as the performance and you will see the results!