Outside Sales Representative

An Outside Sales Representative travels to customers to deliver product pitches, explain a product’s use, or resolve problems. This involves a good bit of traveling and a lot of self-discipline: As an Outside Sales Representative, you are your own Manager. And because you are your own Manager, you need to be organized and knowledgeable about your product or service.

For you, the world is your office—not some closed set of walls and windows. You travel around, scheduling appointments with potential or current customers and then go to them, briefcase in hand, to make your pitch.

If meeting with a potential customer, you provide a presentation about your company, its product or service, and why that product or service could benefit a business. If meeting with a current customer you may help resolve problems with a product, install a product or make a pitch for additional products or services that could benefit the customer’s business.

The variety of job tasks of an Outside Sales Representative, and the fact that you set your schedule, means that each day could be completely different from the previous one. Monday’s workday could have a coffee shop as a setting; on Tuesday you could set sail to a different town to visit a new customer; and you could make Wednesday’s “Take-Your-Customer-Out-to-Lunch-Day”. And, well…half day Fridays, anyone?