My experience in some senses is BETTER than Outside Sales experience

I do a lot of the same thing on the phone that outside salespeople do in person - BUT I don't have the advantages an outside salesperson does - All I have is my voice, e-mail, fax and regular mail - Yet I still manage to build strong business-to-business relationships!  When this is done properly, closing should just be an extension of this, not a whole new project!

Let me ask you this:  If you were a hiring manager for a messenger service and someone came in for a job driving a car as a messenger, but the person's resume only showed big rig truck driving experience, would you say, "Sorry - You don't have experience driving a car - only a big rig truck"?

I don't think you would - I think you would much more likely say, "Wow!  You have tremendous driving experience - With all your trucking experience, I hope this job isn't beneath you!"









We tend to think of big rig truck driving as being "above" driving a car, and rightly so - It's much harder!  But I think the real reason we tend to think of it this way is that it tends to pay more.

In several ways, inside sales is actually harder than outside sales, and a good inside salesperson can easily adapt to outside sales - Yet because inside salespeople tend to be paid less money and hold a "lower" position, such experience is looked down upon compared to outsides sales experience when trying for an outside sales position.  This should not be the case, and if you really want the best candidates for your outside sales position, I sincerely hope you will think about this.

I personally have been turned away from a number of otherwise good outside sales positions simply because of this fact - Particularly in this economy when there is an abundant number of applicants for most good positions, hiring managers and HR recruiters tend to do the easy thing by going by what's on paper about the applicants and ruling out anyone who doesn't have a certain type of experience - this ruling out may happen without even an interview, or even AFTER A GOOD INTERVIEW this may well still happen when the hiring manager goes over his or her options among all the interviewees - I had this happen too.