Is there a demand for sales people in Australia?
The demand for sales people coexists with consumers’ demand for things to buy. As long as the economy is stable, the consumers’ demand for new things is usually on the rise, and therefore we are always on the lookout for new sales people. Our business is very dynamic and its growth is motivated by its ability to recruit new people. Basically we seldom deny new people, rather we grow our business and expand it to accommodate more people. Our positions can run from 100 to 400 or more in a year.
What kind of sales positions do you recruit for?
Our most popular position is sales representatives. We don’t require any previous experience for sales rep positions. We also have managerial positions like state managers, region managers and professional managers, but these positions usually require experience and a track record with the company.
What skills or experience are you looking for in a candidate?
No previous experience is required. The only qualities we look for in a candidate are willingness and enthusiasm, and with these two personal traits, anyone can do well in our company.
What advice would you give to travellers considering a sales job in Australia?
I think that any job in any field can be better or worse; it really depends on the environment you’re in and the people you work with. We always say that our most important asset is the people working with us. The company is based entirety on a group of young and dynamic people related by friendship, respect, motivation and willingness to work hard and help one another.
Are there opportunities to work and travel throughout Australia?
This year we operate in five major regions throughout Australia: Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, and Tasmania. Usually we place our sales reps in one region, but from time to time we may relocate them to a different region according to the company needs and their willingness to relocate.
Because we work Australia-wide, our staff can enjoy both working and travelling.
Are there any sponsorship opportunities in sales?
Our company has only a few sponsored personnel. These are people who grew with the company and have many years of experience and expertise in their field, and they all started as sales reps and advanced within our company. Positions vary from IT to marketing. At the moment all sponsorship vacancies are filled, but I cannot rule out new vacancies in the future.
What are the rates of pay, and what are the variables?
Our payment is commission-based. We guarantee $400 per week for a training period as well. Most of our sales reps do not require the full training period and perform exceptionally well in a short period. Payments are made every two weeks, via direct deposit to a local bank account. Monthly payments vary through the year, and of course increase before holidays. I can safely say that anyone can earn between $3000 and $8000 per month at any given time.
Do you have any advice when it comes to a CV?
As I said before, there is no previous experience required. We have had people who couldn’t even speak English but who still did really well with us. It’s all a matter of having the will to work hard and give it a real chance.
Do you offer any training?
We have a complete training program for each new sales person; we make every effort to bring each representative to his or her highest potential and success. The training period is paid for.
So what are the benefits of getting sales work experience here in Australia?
For those who seek to pursue a marketing or sales career when they return to their home country, it is obvious that international experience is better than just local experience. For people with little or no sales experience, overseas experience as such is diversified and may come in handy and compensate for the lack of experience in the future. As all new employees start as sales representatives, you have to work your way up and by doing so, you will gain a lot of valuable experiences. Workers from non-English speaking countries will also enjoy the benefits of an immense improvement in their English ability.
Thanks to Jonathan Gotlib at Zoco Management.
While trying to drive across the Simpson Desert, LIZZIE JOYCE and her partner were forced to hitch a ride with some dodgy truckers.
Early one January morning my boyfriend Dan and I set off on our trip across three states, covering 3,000 miles on what would turn out to be the best trip I have ever done, not to mention the most dangerous. We were attempting to cross the Simpson Desert on our way to Alice Springs from Sydney. We were fully prepared and set off in our 4WD loaded with equipment, including 60 litres of water, a double swag, a laser beam,
and an Epirb signal.
After 10 hours of driving, watching the landscape turn from highways and tall buildings to red earth and eternal horizons we glided past an old mining town called Cobar, stopped for a wee and drove on through, thankful that this ‘Hicksville’ town was not our destination. But while driving at an average speed of 120km per hour, the trusty car (which I was assured had “just had a full service and was made for driving across such terrain”) was disintegrating and the entire wheel was about to fall off.
Ugly mothertruckers
Suddenly, the brakes started to fail and smoke started pouring out the front passenger tyre. We were 120km from the last town and with at least 100km to the next, Dan decided we should drive on (without brakes) and see if we could make it to our destination. Luckily it didn’t last long anyway as the car stopped in defiance and we were forced to pull off the road in the middle of nowhere. Within minutes two semi-trailers driving in convoy by brothers, pulled up to offer us help and I’ve never been so glad to see two spectacularly ugly truckers before in my life. Freaky Brother One then began to undress me, with his eyes, almost frothing at the mouth at coming in such close proximity to someone of the opposite sex, while Freaky Brother Two was pretending to be a mechanic and baffling Dan with his bullshit. It was turning into Wolf Creek.
Nothing could be done with the car, and we had no choice but to accept a lift from Freaky Brother One to the nearest roadhouse 13km up the road. But then he said there wouldn’t be enough room in the cab so Dan should travel with his brother and I should hop into his cab by myself. By this point I was close to hysteria and there was no way I would be getting in that lorry by myself.
So we both hopped in with Brother Number Two. Dan settled in the middle of the very spacious cab which had enough room to house a small Albanian family! Relieved to be on our way to a phone box and in relative safety, (even if we were in being driven by an axe wielding maniac I had enough faith that Dan could knock him out if it came to it) I thought it would be plain sailing from here. After a couple of minutes on the road Brother Number One starts becoming agitated – he thinks he has lost his keys as he can’t use the radio to contact his brother. He pulls into the side of the road and asks me to hop out to see if he had left them in the door lock. This forced me into ungraceful acrobatic maneuvers in order to hang myself out the door and reach round to grab the keys, with freaky brother one more than enjoying the view of my ass in the air. The keys were there, so off we set again in stilted silence.
Roadhouse blues
Finally we caught sight of the roadhouse and saw our escape was only minutes away and we made a sharp exit from the freaky brothers. Good riddance!
The roadhouse turned out to be a petrol pump and a shop that was about to close. They had a phone though and we arranged for a tow truck to pick us up and take us back to the nearest town… Cobar (the Hicksville town we drove through scorning) where we would have to wait for the next three days for the car to be repaired. How ironic that the town we were laughing at turned out to be our refuge.
So we skipped the Simpson Desert and took another route to Alice Springs where we arrived two weeks later with the biggest smiles and the best memories!
Send us a travel tale (preferably about Oz) and if it’s published you’ll win a $300 travel voucher redeemable on Oz Experience Passes and ATA NT camping trips (www.adventuretours.com.au). Email your tales (700 words max), with a picture of yourself, to travel@tntdownunder.com
