Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment Blog

Monday 2 June 2014

Employment - Sales Survey 2014

Aaron Wallis has recently undertaken the largest sales survey of its type which explores changing trends within the industry as well as a powerful insight into the minds of sales professionals.

With 62 questions answered by 726 completely anonymous sales professionals we have captured some impressive results helping us promote professional sales, raise awareness and gain a firmer understanding on how to succeed in sales teams.

To receive a full free copy of the 2014 UK Sales Survey please follow this link – 2014 UK Sales Survey Report

There were various questions answered on employment which have shown the interesting results.

The 726 participants who took the survey were asked what ‘broad’ industry sector they were working within. The 2014 study showed:

Business to Business Services seemed to be the most popular working sector with a high quantity of 232 employees. Of course though as a largely ‘service centric' nation and the entry qualifications needed to enter business services are not as lofty as say, Science, this is perhaps not surprising.

For the majority of people who work in sales, the study discovered that a considerable amount worked as a Sales Manager (24%), whereas fewer people (1%) worked in Telesales.

This could perhaps be argued by the fact that the type of respondents from surveys, such as these, are likely to be further on in their careers. The respondents fell into the following ‘broad’ Job Titles and ‘Job Types':

7% worked in strategic/corporate sales.
14% worked as a sales director.
5% worked in marketing.
13% were managing directors.
3% worked in internal sales.
17% were under field sales.
13% were account managers.
3% of respondents were non-sales employees.

Working sectors are like Russian dolls; they have sectors within sectors, and similarly, companies have various departments, which make up the whole, such as human resources (HR) and marketing. But, which is the most influential department within organisations?

54% felt sales was the most important department within their employer.
14% felt marketing was the most significant and prominent division.
24% thought accounts and finance was by far the most imperative category.
Only 3% felt HR was the highest-ranking and most important.
5% thought that the most influential department within their existing employer was the managing director’s personal assistant!

So, who should promote sales skills – is it government, education or the commercial world? Business has the prime responsibility of promoting sales skills according to 78% of the sales workers, followed by 11% who feel it’s further and higher education centres. Additionally 7% believe schools are solely responsible and a small proportion (3%) feels it’s the government’s job.

Although more people decided the most dominant and leading department in a business was sales, they believed that it hadn’t become more influential in the last three years and that it had stayed about the same.

However, others had contrasting views but 283 people agree that sales have been somewhat influential within the last three years whereas 123 people feel it hasn’t been influential. 312 people remain decided that the sales haven’t really changed its importance.

Written by Liam Oakes

Liam is the Office Manager at Aaron Wallis and has been with the company for 3 years after having a career with the RAF; Liam has helped hundreds of Sales Professionals secure a new Sales role and ensures that Aaron Wallis runs smoothly.

Liam.oakes@aaronwallis.co.uk

www.aaronwallis.co.uk

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Friday 30 May 2014

Gender Differences and Equality at Work – Sales Survey 2014

Aaron Wallis has recently undertaken the largest sales survey of its type which explores changing trends within the industry as well as a powerful insight into the minds of sales professionals.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks I will be extracting information from the survey and posting them on the Aaron Wallis blog.

To receive a full free copy of the 2014 UK Sales Survey please follow this link – 2014 UK Sales Survey Report

Out of the 726 participants for the 2014 Sales Survey, a quite surprising amount, 595 people (82%) were male, 123 people (17%) were female and only seven people (1%) didn’t wish to disclose their gender.

Gender is often a controversial subject with women stereotyped as terrible drivers and men being generalized as incapable of paying attention to the tiniest of details. The truth is: males and females are as dreadful as each other and, equally, just as good as one another!

In the modern workplace, both women and men should be considered and respected equally for job opportunities but sadly that isn't the case. Even though women’s rights became more prominent during the 50s, the hourly pay rate was, and still is, considerably different. Men are awarded more than their female colleagues, even if they aren't pulling as much weight at their job, but it seems that the Y chromosome is still the bread-winner. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel as it is speculated that a female’s full-time salary will soon be equivalent to male’s earnings. However, it is projected that this won’t be until 2040!

Some employees feel there is quite a lot of unfairness and prejudice against their gender, age or ethnicity, and it wasn't until 2010 that full equality legislation was introduced in the 2010 Equality Act, allowing the workplace to be less discriminatory. While, of course, the occasional sexist comment is still made, most employees are pleased with the 2010 act, and it gives women and men equal prospects to undertake the roles of jobs that were once considered male or female dominated. After all, the Vicar of Dibley managed to work exceedingly well in a male orientated role! Unfortunately, for some who have experienced a form of direct or indirect discrimination, this gives a large disadvantage to those who are currently working in the job or who are job seeking and often feel that they are not appreciated for their hard efforts.

· 29% of the participants experienced some form of discrimination, whilst they were searching for a job.

· Almost half of the employees (49%) felt that they didn’t receive the pay that fairly reflected their work.

· 32% of workers feel that their work goes unrewarded or they don’t receive the recognition, or respect, they feel they should have done.

· 11% have waved good-bye to their old jobs in order to get the respect they think they truly deserve. ‘Out with the old and in with the new’ to a more appreciative employer!

Gender discrimination is a big issue but how about the age? When is the best age to start in sales? Would a young adult be too inexperienced and create annoyance in the workplace by asking thousands of questions to their senior peers or will an older person be ‘too set in their old ways’ and wonder what these social networking sites are? There are many questions, but it seems that the phrase ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ applies to, well, dogs as sales employees can start at any time; it’s all about the know-how and expertise and not the age.

Most people agree that age doesn’t matter, and that you can start at any time. In fact, more than half (54%) agreed on this where 21% believed it was better to start at the age of 21; 12% think older, 7% think 18 and 6% feel that 16 is the best age to start.