Sales Manager: Job description

As a sales manager, you'll be organising and leading a team of sales representatives. Your role may vary according to the company and industry sector you're operating in. You might be responsible for a particular type of product or customer, or you could be the area manager in charge of a particular geographical area.

Whatever the particular circumstances, however, you're likely to be doing many of the following:

- Setting sales targets for individual reps and your team as a whole, according to company guidelines.

- Recruiting and training sales staff.

- Allocating areas to sales representatives.

- Developing sales strategies and setting targets.

- Monitoring your team's performance and motivating them to reach targets.

- Compiling and analysing sales figures.

- Dealing with some major customer accounts yourself.

- Collecting customer feedback and market research.

- Reporting back to senior managers.

- Keeping up to date with products and competitors.

- In some jobs you may also be involved with marketing.

Hours and Environment

Normally, you'll work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. However, you may have to work longer when necessary.

You'll be office-based, but also spending some of your time visiting customers, head office, and your sales team in the field. You may also need to attend conferences, trade fairs and exhibitions. Depending on the size of the area you cover, your job may involve some overnight stays away from home. If your company sells products overseas, you may be travelling abroad.

Skills and Interests

To be a sales manager you'll need to have:

• Excellent sales and negotiation skills

• Good business sense

• The ability to motivate and lead a team

• Initiative and enthusiasm

• Excellent communication and 'people skills'

• Good planning and organisational skills

• The ability to work under pressure

• Good IT, budget and report writing skills

• A full driving licence

• Foreign language skills are increasingly useful.

Opportunities

With experience and a good track record, you could become an area manager, and take on a large sales area, or be promoted to even higher-paid and more responsible jobs like regional or national sales manager.

Office manager: Job description

As an office manager you are the glue that sticks all the different departments of a business together. It is your job to make sure the business runs smoothly.

The nature of an office manager's work depends on the type and size of business, but your typical 'to do' list will probably include:

- Control of office budgets

- Arranging travel, meetings and appointments

- Ordering stationery, office equipment and furniture

- Organising office maintenance and repair

- Supervising and monitoring the work of clerical and secretarial staff

- Completing payroll paperwork and timesheets

- Discussing problems with staff

- Reporting to management to review office performance

- Reviewing and updating the company's health and safety policy, and arranging checks

- Organising and leading induction programmes for new joiners.

Hours and environment

You'll basically work 9am to 5pm, unless it's a particularly busy time in the office. It's an office based role, so it is rare that you will be asked to travel overseas or overnight. It's a full-time, busy job, so unfortunately there aren't too many flexible working opportunities out there.

Skills and interests

The role involves working with everyone in the business and balancing lots of different needs and tasks so, apart from being tireless, the most important skills you can demonstrate are a good way with people and great organisational abilities.

An efficient office manager must be good at the following:

• Good written skills

• Good at problem-solving

• Confident project management

• Good at multi-tasking

• Are reliable

• Confident with IT and the basic office software packages (Word,

• Excel, PowerPoint etc.)

• Show good initiative

Entry

Work experience is really important no matter what your background. Even graduates will need a couple of years' office experience before being considered for the role.

Not all degrees or qualifications are equal. It may increase your chances if your qualification is in a business, computing or management type subject.

Training

When you first walk in the door you'll be given some in-house training. This usually covers office systems and procedures and will get you familiar with the office layout.

Once you've settled in your employer should arrange some appropriate training to help you develop and take on more responsibility. This might include courses in:

• Health and safety

• Project management

• IT courses

• Supervision/management

You may be asked to take a diploma in subjects like finances, personnel or office management. A larger company should fund these courses for you but a smaller company's training budgets probably won't stretch that far.

Opportunities

You'll get lots of opportunities to take on more responsibilities, particularly in the first five years or so. From managing more people to organising and leading more training and taking a more senior role in decision-making.

Promotion usually involves becoming a member of the management team or head of a department. It is also quite common to combine two roles. For example taking on the role of finance or personnel manager as well as your existing office manager duties.