What does a Sales Consultant do?
Sales Consultants excel in selling products and solutions – matching a client’s needs to what the company has to offer. Sales Consultants work in almost any field imaginable and plays an important part in a company’s sustainability and efforts of staying profitable and competitive.
Sales Consultant Duties
Typically, a Sales Consultant will:
- Sell the services and solutions that the company/manufacturer offers.
- Maintain and grow a strong client base.
- Find new business opportunities and maintain a healthy pipeline for future deals.
- Respond to new and current client base regarding complaints and service enquiries.
- Be a “brand ambassador” that represents the company’s brand and values.
Sales Consultant Skills
Sales Consultants need a unique combination of skills to drive sales and achieve targets. Some key skills include:
- Strong negotiating and selling skills.
- Be well-groomed and presentable.
- Have excellent people skills and intuitive to client’s needs.
- Be fully bilingual (with a third African language being beneficial).
- Giving professional presentations.
- Not buckling under pressure and be very target driven.
- Being computer literate in software such as Microsoft Word/Excel.
- Being calm when dealing with customer complaints and issues.
- Working well as part of a bigger sales team but also be able to deliver and work independently.
Sales Consultant CV Must-Haves
Be seen by Recruiters and give examples of:
- Your sales achievements and skills attained within the industry.
- Your skills of achieving targets and generating new leads.
- Focus on your performance, not just responsibilities.
- Your key strengths per job under your career history.
Sales Consultant Interview Questions
The questions you will be asked will depend on the job, industry and company. Here are some examples to get you started:
- Share with us an example of how you generate new leads and business?
- Have you missed sales targets in the past? What happened and how can you avoid it?
- Do you have a retention strategy? Tell us about it.
- What are you short and long-term goals in your Sales career?
- What did you sell at your previous company and how did you go about selling it?
- How do you manage negative client feedback on functionality and price of products?
Sales Consultant Qualifications
The job criteria will depend on the position. In general, you will need to have passed Matric with reasonably good grades in languages, math and/or computer sciences. Any post-matric qualifications in sales will be an added advantage. Your proven track record of successful sales will be more important than a qualification… but, do stay ahead of other Sales Consultants and keep studying to stay relevant in this very competitive environment.
Sales Consultant Salaries
Your salary as a Sales Consultant will range from company to company. Below are current salary levels based on actual salary offerings on the CareerJunction website:
- Intermediate: R15,373 – R24,192
- Senior: R22,292 – R29,524
Sales Consultant Resources
Written by CareerJunction
