Last week, we put together an event, in association with the Graduate Training Institute (GTI) to help young graduates get to grips with the job market, by focusing our attention on the world of business development & sales.
The sales sector has earned itself a bit of a bad reputation over the past few years, as many graduates are turned off by the prospect of dealing with clients over the phone and misconception that it’s all about cold calling. However, Emma Vites, sales manager and successful businesswoman, has a lot to say about the matter. “Sales skills are vital to succeed in any field as every role requires an ability to sell. It is vital in any role for graduates to hold an understanding of people and what influences them in their field of work,” she asserts.
Understanding how people work and being able to negotiate deals are skills that are applicable to a variety of roles, not necessarily all typically sales-based. If you’re looking for a pay rise, if you’re keen to get in touch with a journalist about an upcoming product your company is about to launch, if you’re looking to project manage a particular task; all of these activities require you to hold the power to influence and persuade. These skills are necessary in a variety of fields, hence the importance of gaining sales experience in order to progress in your career at a faster pace. Thanks to psychological tests and practical exercises, the GTI is able to highlight roles and career paths that graduates had not foreseen.
“Many graduates who come to us don’t actually know about the untapped jobs market, seeing roles by sector as opposed to skill set,” adds Cary Curtis, founder of Give A Grad A Go. “We speak to all our candidates to find out a bit more about them, as well as advise them on what they could be really good at, if they’re feeling a little lost.” So much so that Give A Grad A Go has placed many of its candidates in roles they would never have dreamt of, to find that these graduates excel at their work because of specific profiling undertaken at the GTI’s assessment centre.
If you’re a confident communicator, get a thrill out of persuading your audience and know how to mediate, you should think about taking up a role which makes use of these attributes. And what’s more, depending on how much work you put in, you really get to see a result in your pay package.
To find out more about the GTI and its assessment centres, speak to a member of our team on 0207 150 1170.