Sales Jobs After 40? (401k, average, reputation, companies)

[grmi66]

I've been picking up bits and pieces around the forum about people over the age of 40 having a hard time getting sales jobs. The last sales job that I had with a Fortune 500 company and before that with a Fortune 1000 company, people in their 40's were the prime candidates. Just old enough to have experience and good work habits, young enough that the grind of travel doesn't wear on them at all.

What is the current reality for experienced sales reps in their 40's? Right now I am working for a good small company and have a stable but low paying marketing position. If I stick my head out the door next year to look for good sales jobs, do they still exist? Do big national or regional companies still hire people with experience or do they go cheap and hire recent college grads?

[grmi66]

As a supplement to my last question, does anyone know if these types of jobs still exist? In previous positions I used to bump into sales people in account management jobs based out of the midwest. The positions used to have a base salary of $25-$40,000, car allowance and with commissions the average sales rep could make $60-$90,000 a year. Usually the jobs were in business to business sales, selling some sort of industrial supply and the territory would cover a couple of states.

You wouldn't get rich off of these jobs, but for someone living in Iowa you could be comfortable. Have these jobs made it through the recession? Almost ready to suck it up and move to the midwest again if I can land a stable account management job.

[WildKarrde]

What about those experienced sales reps under 30? I haven't had a decent job in 2 years. I get hounded to death by insurance companies, realtors, and a assortment of other outside sales companies that offer no base pay, no benefits, and little support to their sales force.

I've had two of those account management jobs with a base pay plus car allowance, benefits and commission. They worked out really well for me, but don't seem to exist anymore. I can't remember the last time I applied for a sales position with a base pay above minimum wage... and those are pretty darned rare as well. I've been looking all over the country as well... let me know if you find any.

[grmi66]

When I was looking actively 18 months ago most companies with sales reps were cutting their sales force down to the bones. My old company eliminated over 50% of their sales force and only kept reps in the top 20 metro areas, the rest of the country is serviced by inside sales reps over the phone.

My first sales job was with a national company that had about 90 million in annual sales and there was a clear cut path for advancing. They had 65 field offices, so you could stay as a senior sales rep or if you wanted to become a manager there were usually 4-5 management positions a year that would open up. The company had a good reputation for training people, so if you stuck around for 3 years the head hunters would find you and help you advance in the sales field. Now 13 years later, this company has been bought and sold a few times, every office has been closed and they have no outside sales reps. What attracted me is that this was a professional sales company and they had sales reps making as much as a lot of lawyers, CPA's, MBA's and you did not have to go to grad school to make it. Just commit yourself to working hard every day and you could be successful.

The game has been changed, I think what will happen is that most professional sales reps will become manufacturers reps and work for 3-5 companies at the same time. If you can squeeze through 6 months with little to no money I found a couple of commission only jobs that were really good opportunities. Even the last Fortune 500 company that I worked for was starting to do that, eliminate company sales reps and test the market with independent reps who sell other product lines.

[annerk]

I'm the director of sales and marketing at my job. I just hired another sales manager (same type of package as grmi66 describes), the person I hired is just under 30. I didn't look at ages (except I didn't want an under 25 due to insurance on car rental issues) but did look at how much ridiculous jargon they spewed. The older they were, the more they tended to use BS Bingo terminology. Those resumes went straight to the circular file.

What on earth does this really tell me:

"My seasoned overall business experience will be an asset to any organization looking for to increase their overall brand awareness and generate actionable leads." Blah, blah, blah--and poor grammar on top of it.

The other people I didn't consider were those who had retired and were coming out of retirement for financial reasons. Why? Because my feeling is that they would coast along until they could retire again and then be gone--or be gone as soon as their 401K gained in value again. Some of them were only in their mid-50's, it wasn't an age thing but a motivation thing.
I also ignored resumes from people who spelled my name wrong, tried to circumvent me by sending their resume to the president of the company (who got pissed because he didn't want to be bothered by them--it's my job, not his), and who couldn't form a coherent sentence, had poor grammar, or typos and spelling errors.