sales consultant.

Some of the duties and responsibilities of sales consultants include:

• identifying customers: as a sales consultant, you look out for potential customers in various marketing channels. You can find customers from the company's phone directory, social media pages and other sales and marketing sources.

• contacting prospective and existing customers: when you have a list of prospects, you can initiate contact and create mutually beneficial relationships. You also maintain contact with existing clients to ensure they are happy with your services.

• scheduling appointments with potential customers: after initial contact with prospects, you schedule a meeting to explain the company products and their benefits to the potential client. You follow up with the customers until they make a purchase.

• emphasising product features: as a sales consultant, you improve product knowledge and understanding of the market among sales teams. You find the best ways to emphasise the product features through sales strategies.

• negotiating service agreements: when a customer agrees to purchase a product, you close the deal and negotiate service agreements. This involves discussing the prices and terms of sale and any service agreements. You can open a customer account for the new buyer when the deal is closed.

• improving brand awareness: as a sales consultant, you find creative ways to keep the company's products attractive to customers by improving brand awareness and online presence. You also develop new marketing strategies to enhance sales efforts.

• training sales representatives: as a sales consultant, you train sales representatives in closing deals and attracting more customers with unique sales techniques.

A sales consultant typically works in an office environment. You can work for any industry or employer with a sales department, including mining companies. For instance, building suppliers need sales consultants to work with estate agents to close deals. High-end department stores and IT companies also need sales consultants to identify the best ways to sell a product.

Depending on your employer and industry, your colleagues might include sales representatives, marketing executives and customer account managers. You might also be working close to sales executives, sales consultants and sales managers, as well as other specialists that could include, but not be limited to, product managers, sales directors, marketing coordinators and marketing managers.

The typical work schedule of a sales consultant is 40 hours a week. Overtime work is occasionally necessary to work with clients' schedules or meet deadlines. You meet your clients during office hours if you work in business-to-business (B2B) sales. However, selling directly to consumers often involves working weekends and evenings.

Since your job relies on networking, you attend events to meet new sales leads or nurture existing client relationships. Sales consultants' roles have flexible work hours as long as you meet targets. You can work full-time or part-time schedules. Working from home or remotely is viable, but sometimes you meet clients for product demonstrations.

As a sales consultant, you have multiple opportunities for growth since you can transfer into various industries or move upwards in one company. For instance, you can aim for sales or marketing director positions as the first step into management roles before progressing gradually to executive levels. Some sales consultants move to other industries like insurance, medical, mining or property and specialise in specific niche marketing.

Finding your sales consultant job through Randstad provides essential advantages such as the following:

• a wide variety of training and development opportunities

• an experienced contact person to provide help if needed

• a range of opportunities in your area

• get paid weekly or monthly, depending on the job

• temporary and permanent contracts

Want a permanent contract? A temporary job as a sales consultant is often a stepping stone to an attractive permanent job. Thousands of people earn a permanent contract with great employers every year thanks to a temporary job found through Randstad. What's more, many companies recruit their permanent employees through Randstad too.

Sales consultants in Australia take home an average remuneration of $68,000 per year. When you have extensive experience and qualifications, your earnings increase to over $75,000 annually. The remuneration packages depend on your company size and your selling products. Working for big companies often guarantees a higher remuneration package.

As a sales consultant, you promote a company's products and services. You consult with customers to help them make purchase decisions. You offer product information and technical demonstrations. You also find opportunities to upsell products to your customers and generate more sales.

You don't require formal education to become a sales consultant. However, having a degree in a relevant business course improves your career prospects. You also require additional experience in sales roles to boost sales.

A salesperson is focused on selling products to customers and usually represents the company in stores and shopping outlets. As a sales consultant, you educate customers on various services or products and advise them on the items that suit their needs. You focus on satisfying a customer's needs instead of meeting a sales quota.

As a sales consultant, you require exceptional interpersonal skills, including communication and relationship-building skills. Your persistence and persuasiveness help you land clients and devise creative ways to generate new leads.

Applying for a sales consultant job is straightforward: create a Randstad profile and search our job offers for vacancies in your area. Then send us your CV and cover letter. Need help with your application? Check out all our job search tips here.