Sales Jobs and Their Many Names

By: John Bult
Submitted: 2008-06-11 15:48:48
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Here's some of the most common titles you will find with a brief explanation of why they might be different.

Field sales account rep

If you see the word 'field' in the title, this usually refers to a sales job out on the road, out seeing customers across an area, or as is usually referred to as a territory. In field sales jobs you will likely have an expensed company car, and these days be furnished with a laptop and mobile phone to perform your job. If it's a national company, the chances are you will be based from home and be expected to run a home office for your job.

Account manager (AM)

When you see this title, it will normally mean either two scenarios. The true sense of this title is a role where the business accounts are already established, and the company stands to loose if accounts are not maintained. Hence he emphasis of the account manager's job is look after existing customers to maintain their business. There is, of course, usually an element built in to encourage these characters to expand these accounts, but the essence is that this can be a much 'softer' sales job. The second instance where this title is used is an employer who, himself, isn't that familiar with terminology and simply chooses it to label his vacant sales positions!

Business Development Exec

In comparison to the above, the emphasis of this job is in finding new customers. In practice there will always be a degree of account management within this job, indeed maintaining one account may open the door to another. However, the primary emphasis of the role is to find new customers and develop more business. In recruitment terms these sales jobs require a totally different type of animal to account managers. People looking to fill business development manager vacancies usually look for highly competitive people who are driven and ambitious.

Telesales/office sales rep

As the name suggests, telesales/office sales are sales jobs which are office and telephone based. These roles normal involve smaller value but high volume products, where it simply wouldn't be cost effective to drive around and visit clients, indeed it may nor be practically possible. Telesales jobs are an excellent introduction to the sales role and can often be the catalyst for someone's career in sales, progressing on to bigger and better field based sales roles.

Territory sales rep/Area business manager

Unlike the titles above, rather than an emphasis on either the business development or the account management, the emphasis of this sales job is on the 'territory' or the 'area'. In these sales jobs you will be in charge of all aspects of business on your territory presenting you with both business development and account management challenges. Indeed the challenge is often striking the right balance between the two.

Area sales manager (or just ASM)

Now we are starting to get caught up in semantics. For example in the pharmaceutical industry, any title with 'sales manager' in the label is reserved for positions which involve the management of sales people. In the Healthcare industry next door, area sales manager is, in fact, usually a sales job. In many cases the phrases 'sales manager' is often used to describe a sales job to try and make it sound more senior.

Field Sales exec

Again this is essentially playing on words, by using of the word executive aims to add a little shine on what will basically be a sales job.

You are likely to see all sorts of variations and combinations of this, but if you follow the above descriptions you should be able to find out whether each sales job really is different and if there is an emphasis what that might be.

Article source: Expert Articles