I don't believe a person selling automobiles is qualified or necessarily has the skills to sell passenger jets.
Why not? I could absolutely sell you or anyone else a $100M jet / boat / home / whatever, as could any true sales professional.
Just because someone works in the auto industry doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified to speak on sales since the process is the same, just a different product knowledge suite.
You meet and greet, needs assessment, demonstration, and trial close. Sure, that’s oversimplified, but next time you interact with a sales consultant, I encourage you to if you can identify these steps in action while they’re happening. Like I said, doesn’t matter what the product is.
BUT, this is EXACTLY why almost all people can’t make it in sales. The perception of what we do, who we are, and how we make a living. It’s hard having people tell you “no” - most people can’t deal with the “constant rejection”. People don’t like the idea that your income is directly tied to how much they spend. But that service is INTEGRAL, and you deserve to make a fair living off being a subject matter expert in your field.
Understand, I’m not talking about these scrubs who live paycheck to paycheck, barely covering draw. Some people last 30 days, others maybe 2-3 years in a real sales job where you “live and die by the sword”. But those people never have staying power. All they do is dream about getting out of their sales job, onto some other job where they get paid an hourly or salary rate.
And that’s why sales is such a hard job; the world runs on sales - businesses can’t generate revenue without it, which means no money for employees, facilities, equipment, etc.
The majority of “clients” don’t care about the technical jargon, they just want to know why they should have it, why it’s “cool”, and how it fulfills their needs. They may pretend interested, but a client will tell you EXACTLY what it would take to “sell them” on your product, if you know how to ask.
The ones who do “care” aren’t generally the decision-makers anyhow - they’re just getting the information to pass onto the actual decision maker who’s stroking the check to make sure that whatever you’re offering “checks the boxes”.
Hats off to anyone out there in the real sales world - ain’t no such thing as a “guarantee” or a fixed hourly rate. And I’m not talking about those brochure jockeys, dropping off pamphlets and swag” like pens and Post-It notes.
Get paid what you’re worth, not what someone else tells you your worth. You don’t work, you don’t eat. You don’t grind, you don’t shine.