9 Weird Reasons Your Hate For Sales Jobs Is Justified

Some people love their jobs as salespeople. A salesman sometimes even go around talking about his products with so much enthusiasm that the dentist operating on him have to ask him to shut up.

And then there are those who absolutely hate doing sales. A person can literally freeze on the spot feeling petrified in an interview the moment the remote possibility that a job description has a certain selling element to it.

Welcome to the world of sales and non-sales.

So loathed is the profession of selling by so many that it’s not that far-fetched to simply categorize jobs into 2 simple categories across all industries. Sales, and non-sales.

And you can stop that wise-guy remark about everything we do is selling. Keep that wordplay for another day.

For those that hate sales, the latter category is the only pool of job vacancies that they will consider. Thinking about jobs that require selling is not even up for negotiation.

I know why.

1) Feels like begging for money

Your income is dependent on getting strangers to open up their wallets or write checks to buy the things you sell. And they might not need what you are selling at all.

Often times, especially when you are selling crappy products, you have to go for the hard sell in order to close a sale.

Now that could be fine if you are selling an air-tight suit during a chemical attack. At least you are sure that you are helping someone.

But it can really haywire your morals if you have to “force” someone to buy something which even you don’t believe he needs.

It feels like BEGGING.

And few people like to put themselves into a position where they have to beg for their income.

2) The action-consequence effect

For some reason, most people believe that they should be rewarded for their efforts even if the results don’t justify rewards. I think this is some kind of conditioning programmed into our heads from watching dramas and movies.

The average chap would fully expect to be remunerated for 8 hours of work if he had spent that amount of time working for his employer. And you cannot fault someone for that way of thinking.

In sales, you can possibly work the whole day and not get paid for your efforts. Real estate agents are great examples of this in play.

Now why would you take on an uncertain career when…

3) The alternative is to get paid for your time

Most jobs are structured for employees to be paid for their time.

As long as you reported to work for the month and do your non-sales job, you are going to see a hefty salary disbursed into your personal account at the end of the month. There is little room for error on the part of the employer. Or the union, in which case the government might get involved and give your employer a good spanking.

The same cannot be said of sales people whose salaries depends on commissions.

I was in sales for a period of time. And some of the things I’ve learned from that experience really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Since the commission structure was very attractive, the theory was that salespeople will be well remunerated for the work they do. And this was the reason why we do not get any bonuses at the end of financial years.

I was young and accepted that arrangement with a gullible mind.

But I realized a couple of years later that even though I was drawing a salary 2 to 3 times that of the administrative support staff, they literally made more money than me every year when their yearly hefty bonuses are added up.

If this is the case, I’d rather be an administrator instead of doing sales. At least I can leave the office everyday the moment the clock strikes 6pm.

Which leads me to the next point…

4) You don’t need to work like a dog

What are the benefits of having a 9 to 5 job?

Hmmm… I don’t know… maybe:

• you can plan your after work social activities however you like without needing to fear the burden of work commitments
• you can go on your night time dates fully knowing that you won’t have to cancel at the last minute
• you can relax and enjoy the weekends with your pets and family without a care in the world
• you can have a healthy sleeping routine that doesn’t require you to burn the midnight oil
• you can have the peace of mind that every work day, no matter how bad it might be, will end at 5

I’ll just stop at 5 points. I’m sure you know as well as anybody that there are many more benefits.

5) You might be marginalized when dating

Whether you are male or female, I’m sure that you will agree that if given a choice, you would prefer that your partner is not in a sales job where his/her working hours are grossly unpredictable.

For men, most would prefer women who do not need to spend weekends meeting clients across town or spend week nights entertaining prospects. Why have a girlfriend who is never around anyway?

And then there’s the elephant in the room.

Knowing that there is a good chance that 1% of the top salespeople make up 90% of total generated sales, there is a pretty good chance that the salesperson you are dating belongs to the 99% instead of the 1%.

This is a factor that can be critical to women who are dating salesmen, especially those who are seeking a man to settle down with. How is a man going to support the family when he does not have a stable income?

Odd reasoning, I agree. But they are legitimate concerns.

6) You won’t embarrassed yourself by getting into beast selling mode at social events

For the hardworking salesperson, the one constant thing that is in his mind every minute is how to get more sales. That doesn’t mean that he has no mental space to think about anything else.

And it can get so tempting at social gatherings to get into your selling mode the moment a friend talks about the type of insurance he buys.

I don’t know why insurance agents still do this actively today. Maybe trainers should coach agents to stop making social gatherings a place for them to infiltrate and conduct their sales seminar.

Once you trigger a salesperson to start selling, the whole social event starts to take a turn towards an unhealthy atmosphere.

I truly hate it. And I’m glad I won’t be doing it.

7) You won’t get stuck in a sales career

I don’t know how this is so. But as soon as you have a selling record in your resume, the hirer on your next interview will inevitably want to place you into one of the vacancies in sales.

Suddenly the job that you actually want gets further and further away from you.

You know… that job that only requires you to work 8 hours a day… where you spend 1 of that 8 hours at the pantry gossiping about office politics everyday… that pays you more than a salesperson each year… and actually give you time to cash in on your employment benefits…

Yes that’s the one.

I could be exaggerating there. But it seems that the only way you can get away from a sales job after being in one is to remove the record completely from your resume. But then, people will question what you have been doing during that period which you have erased from your work history.

What a bad spot to put yourself into.

8) You are less likely to get culled during bad times

Want to make a guess on who gets chopped from the headcount the moment a company starts doing “corporate restructuring”?

Right. The salesman.

I’m not saying that non-sales employees will not be let go or told to “resign”. But you have a better chance of surviving the corporate culling compared to someone who is doing average in the sales department.

The irony is that salespeople are the ones bringing in the money to pay for everyone.

You might have to forgo that fat bonus. But at least you get to keep your job.

You will live to fight another day.

9) You wont get bullied by just about everybody anymore

I don’t think that it’s a stretch to suggest that salespeople (except the superstars) are the most mistreated people in any organization.

Remember. I was there before.

• administrators make you redo paperwork so that they don’t have to do it for you
• office managers give you a scolding when you arrange couriers for documents
• human resource constantly makes “mistakes” in your pay stubs
• even housekeeping can complain to your boss when you have too much rubbish in the bin

And this is just scratching the surface.

Salespeople are often the only people in an organization who tries to make the jobs of other easier. While non-sales always seem to make it a commitment to make the jobs of others more difficult.

Well if you are not into a sales career, you can nutmeg this problem once and for all.

You can now get sales staff from the other department to do what you want… even for your own entertainment. What’s weirder is that you’d probably agree that I’m not kidding.