What Are the Different Types of Sales Career Opportunities?

Sales career opportunities can be found in a myriad of areas, both inside and outside. Items from automobiles, homes and shoes to appliances all rely on the expertise of an individual to sell them. Some of the earliest sales career opportunities are seen in children's roadside lemonade-stands, and this experience often prepares individuals to seek out other sales-driven opportunities. Many modern sales career opportunities involve the use of the telephone — insurance for life, home and automobile are routinely handled by a telecommunication specialist. Other sales opportunities focus on selling everything from time shares to television and radio advertising.

Some of the most rewarding and most difficult means of earning a paycheck can center around sales career opportunities. While some sales people have a guaranteed base salary, many sales people are paid only if and when a sale has been made and the item has been paid for by the customer. Commission sales career opportunities can be found in nearly every mall, car lot or real estate magazine. These types of careers are routinely easy to step into, however, difficult to maintain due in part to the common poor salary offered to the beginner. This is also typical with sales career opportunities for many vehicles, such as motorcycles, boats and all-terrain vehicles.

Sales career opportunities such as clothing sales, shoe sales and other store-front positions often offer the employee a base wage with a commission bonus. These types of sales jobs are a bit easier to maintain since the employee is able to pay for her room and board as well as transportation as the job progresses. Appliance sales are also a common commission-only career. The commission-only type of sales is a self-defeating system for many as the need to close a sale and earn a paycheck to feed a family often shows as desperation and rudeness to the customer, who will elect to purchase the item from another sales representative.

New-age sales career opportunities are seen in the telephone marketing industry, Internet sales and advertising industry. These sales jobs are usually not face-to-face with the customer and the sales person reads from a pre-developed script in order to make a sale. In most of these sales jobs, deviation from the script is grounds for termination even if the sale was made. From baby beds to caskets, the average person usually deals with individuals involved in sales career opportunities for an entire lifetime.