FCYD

Archive for November, 2011

I applied for a front office job at a Hilton Hotel and made enough money to pay the rent. Within the first week I took an on-line sales course from aprinda.com It was fast and affordable and gave me enough information to prepare me for a hotel sales manager job. Aprinda.com taught me more about hotel sales than I learned in college in the past 3 years.

I applied at the Wyndham hotel across the street. I was already in the hotel business at the front desk so that impressed them and they knew I had a general idea of how a hotel runs. The front desk is where they say you learn about every department because you have to interact with all of them.

Hotel Sales is where the money was…and that is where I wanted to be. At the interview, I explained the things I learned from the sales course (demand generators, where to land the groups, SMERFE, REVPAR…) all good things to talk about. I must have impressed them, because I got the job as the corporate manager at 48K.

Of course, I was dressed for success on the interview. I must say I looked professional and let’s just say “good.”

After 4 months I was networking with some upper corporate managers and they must have liked me because the put me in a fast track program. Three years later, I am running a hotel sales department and earning 80 thousand and bonus. I enjoy the hotel sales business and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys working with people and working hard and having fun.

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It is not very easy to make a living when you earn only through the commissions. While this might be great for very good salespeople, it does more bad than good for the rookies because they start becoming extremely pushy. However what exactly would happen if customers who were ready to buy the cars knocked on your doors regularly? You would be making much more sales wouldn’t you? And you wouldn’t have to be pushy, right? All that you would need to do is just help these people, right?

The fact is that it is much easier to sell to crowds that are already willing to buy. I mean how good a salesman would you have to be to sell a gallon of water in deserts (with no source of water for miles)?

So, the question is how exactly can you find such people? Well, first of all I must tell you that the idea that I am about to unveil is not the only one that will work. In fact, there are tons of ideas like this and all that you need to do is implement them. Without implementing the idea, no matter how good it is you would not be making any money at all.

There is one trend that is pretty much evident in almost all the car purchases. People tend to prefer buying cars that are available in their own backyard; they do not wish to travel a long distance to get their car. But, how can you take advantage of this? Simple, people would be typing these types of keywords in the search engines and while these would get you more sales they would even have less competition!

There are many keywords like these which would also get you many sales and they are not exactly hard to find. In fact, you can benefit by taking into account another habit of people. Often, people come and search online to see if they could actually get the cars cheaper online. They use terms such as ‘buy car A cheapest’. If you really offer them the best deals they would definitely buy. There are many such type of keywords and the great part is that the number of cars out there are really too many to list.

While you now have people coming to you, you must find a way to be available to them. The best way according to me is a blog. A blog is like your online diary. Now, that you do really know which words you should target, all you need to do is simply write one post on the blog per keyword and write 1 article and submit it to an article directory. Initially, you wouldn’t earn much but once you build momentum, sales would come easily!

There are many more ideas like these that you can implement easily and get your income boosted. Get yourself a PLAN by downloading our FREE copy of 7 secrets to online income at http://www.wealthyaffiliatehub.com

Starting from a teenager, I worked primarily in the Restaurant Business as a Waitress. I’ve worked at Bingo Halls, Ice Cream Shops, Fast Food, Catering Halls and Fine Dining. For two years I worked as a Bartender.

I have always been around people and have been very successful making connections. Up selling, refilling their drinks and getting extra napkins before they ask I found was very satisfying to me and job satisfaction is important.

I was in my late 20′s and I was at a point where I didn’t want to count on “tips” to make my rent payments. While at a flea market, I found a typewriter for $5.00 and I bought it. Taking typing in High School, I thought I would remember what I learned but all I could do is chicken pluck and I had to look at every letter.

Not knowing where this would lead me, I spent many hours learning and teaching myself how to type. I took a couple of courses on Saturday’s for additional education that I thought might make me worthy of something …but I didn’t know worthy for what?

Soon I upgraded and invested in a word processor. Remember them? To teach myself I put on my favorite music and tried to keep up with the words that I heard by typing them. Of course Metallica wasn’t a good choice, I found that I got better and better and soon I had whole songs typed out. Spelling has always been a challenge for me and when “Spell Check” came out, I was extremely pleased and relieved.

For two years I was working at a Red Lobster in Maryland and making pretty good money as a Waitress. Sometimes I was given good tips, sometimes I was left nothing. I won the “top revenue producer” almost every week and I enjoyed expediting and training new staff.

A friend of mine told me that a Holiday Inn was desperate for a Sales Administrator. I interviewed in fear as I wondered if I could really do what she wants. I couldn’t imagine answering the phone. I had no idea about proper letter writing or anything about the hotel business. My starting pay would be $7.50 an hour. I made much more being a Waitress at Red Lobster.

I came to a point in my life where I wanted more. I knew that I would have to sacrifice. All of these years I had never had insurance, sick pay or other benefits that I heard existed. I passed her “typing and other qualifications” and I decided to take the job.

My fall back would be to simply go back to Red Lobster or find another waitress position. During my last two weeks at Red Lobster, I worked like a dog to get all of the extra income before I started at Holiday Inn.

Now I needed proper attire. Thank goodness I had some help. I was used to slip free sneakers, socks, pants, shirt and apron. To save on my expenditure, I shopped at the local thrift shops and bought business clothes. The high heals terrified me and I could barely walk in them. So I practiced at home on the hard wood floors. And the nylons, I hated them.

On my first day, I hobbled in looking professional and feeling pretty good. I had a desk, phone and a typewriter. Wow, I felt like a Queen. When the phone rang, I answered it. I had no idea what I was saying or what to say. I thought just be friendly and write everything down. It was important that I learn as fast as possible.

My Director of Catering was awesome. There was no Room Sales Person and I didn’t even know about the position or what it consisted of. My Director taught me everything. She gave me examples of how to write a letter and took the time to teach me. What was a fax machine? I am still to this day very grateful to her. Soon she introduced me to her clients, still I did not understand what was going on or any hotel lingo.

Although my pay was terrible, I somehow made it through as I wanted to be something more. To assist in my wage, I worked in banquets, worked in the Restaurant as a Hostess and I was trained in Accounting and the Front Desk. I did not understand the importance of what was happening and even why it was happening. I knew I got lucky and I believed that someone above was paying me back for being a good person.

As the inquires came in, I started dropping off menus at people’s houses after work. Then my Director trained me to cover for her the Catering Events if she was busy. I loved every minute of it.

I felt important, professional and worthy. This is just what I had wanted. And after a couple of months I finally could walk better in those high heals!

One day my General Manager brought me into his office. I was scared and did not know what to expect. Was I being fired?

The Management Company was interviewing for a Sales Manager position to sell the sleeping rooms. He felt that I was a “diamond in the rough” and offered his assistance to help prepare me for the interview with the Vice President of Sales.

For a week he taught me everything he could “ADR, REVPAR, Occupancy, Budgets, Cold Calling, Qualifying” everything. I was overwhelmed. He practiced with me and even made me cry a couple of times when I couldn’t give him the right answer.

Finally my interview. I had met with my General Manager for one last class then off I went to knock them dead. Feeling fresh out of school, somehow I “wowed” her enough that she actually hired me! My starting salary was $25,000 annually with bonus potential, vacation, insurance and paid sick days!

Although my Director was upset that I would no longer be her assistant, she was proud of me. When I received my business cards, I actually hid in the bathroom for 10 minutes and cried I was so happy.

My first week consisted of my General Manager driving around Corporate Parks with me. At every stop, he gave me advise and told me what to day. I went in and asked if they use any local hotels. What ever they said, I wrote down. He made a few sample calls in front of me to show me how to follow up. I paid close attention.

My second week consisted of my General Manager driving around with me again. This time if they had hotel needs I was to ask to speak to the person who could help me. This was pretty fun and people were receptive.

In my free time, I checked out the other hotels in the area. Not being told to do that, I believe that the natural Sales Person came out subconsciously. My first client I closed was Pitney Bowes. They qualified at 2,500 room nights a year. I found an addiction to this feeling of closing a big one. I was sent flowers and a congratulations letter from the VP of the Management Company.

After working this area for 6 months, I was asked to interview with another hotel that they needed a Sales Person for that was in the area. It was larger and had much more meeting space and it was a $5,000 raise if I got it. Yes, I did.

At this new hotel I succeed very well and made bonus every quarter. After one year, my name was #1 compared to over 40 hotels in our Region. The Management Company sent me to many training classes through out the year and I even was invited out for a trip to their Corporate Headquarters. I had never traveled by plane before this.

I did not have college education but I did graduate on Honor Roll in High School. I was lucky that people were willing to invest their time in me to succeed. All of this starting from that $5.00 typewriter. It all paid off.

Amber Lee is currently working as a Group or SMERFE Sales Manager at a big city airport hotel. See more of Ambers Hotel Sales Managers Tips and Helpful Hints on her website at The Hotel Sales Managers Elite Alliance Sign up for her Ezine to get even more tips and helpful hints delivered to your inbox. http://www.hotelsalesmanager.com

If you are a nurse making a career change into pharmaceutical sales or medical sales, there will be some transitions that you will have to go through before settling down in your new occupation. Fortunately, the medical science part of pharmaceutical sales will be quite easy for you since you already know the anatomy and physiology required. Any pharmacology and specific product knowledge will be covered in your company’s training program.

The actual selling skills will be new to you but assuming that you were hired because of your excellent communications skills in addition to your clinical knowledge, learning to sell shouldn’t be too much of a problem as your training program will also teach you how to effectively sell your new company’s pharmaceutical products.

The other changes that you will have to make in your career transition include wardrobe. Rather than wearing typical nursing attire, you will have to possibly upgrade your wardrobe to include a good supply of business attire. This may require an investment on your part.

You will have to adjust to driving around all day looking for addresses of doctor’s offices. Overnight travel may also be part of your territory. So rather than being in a single workplace indoors such as in a hospital all day, you will have to be on the road no matter what the weather conditions are in your area.
You will be working on your own for 95% of your time without any other company people around. You will also be setting up most of your own schedule from week to week. This is why there is so much independence involved in pharmaceutical sales but you must be able to motivate yourself to be productive on your own.

These days, much of the administrative work required in pharmaceutical sales will likely be done on a computer so you will have to get used to using more technology if you haven’t already been doing so on your own.
Finally, as any experienced medical sales representative will tell you, you have to be ready to take rejections from customers and their staff since not everybody out there will be receptive to your company’s products. That’s just reality in the world of sales. This is where your aptitude for sales comes in as you must be able to work with potentially difficult customers.

But once you are able to successfully make the transition from nursing to medical sales or pharmaceutical sales, you can finally say goodbye to lifting patients, cleaning bedpans and doing nightshifts.

Clint Cora is the author of the book “How To Get A Dream Job In Pharmaceutical Sales – Direct Inside Advice and Guidance from a Sales Manager”. He is a former pharmaceutical sales manager and executive. More information about pharmaceutical sales jobs can be found at http://www.GetPharmaceuticalSalesJob.com

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