Career Viewpoint: Analysis of Skills, Trends for Area Sales Manager

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a career as an Area Sales Manager (ASM) in the marketing industry. It identifies general trends impacting graduate employment in marketing, such as increasing complexity in consumer purchasing decisions, the importance of transparency in brand-customer relationships, the integration of digital marketing teams, and the rise of personalized data-driven marketing. Essential skills for success in this role are highlighted, including communication, analytical thinking, negotiation, technology proficiency, and stress management. The report also emphasizes the importance of knowledge in sales and marketing principles, customer service, and relevant technologies. It concludes by referencing a job advertisement for a Sales Manager position, underscoring the practical application of the discussed skills and knowledge. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: CAREER VIEW POINT
Career View Point
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................2
2.1. Analysis and Application................................................................................................2
General trends which will impact on your chosen profession or industry.........................2
The skills/knowledge and experience required..................................................................4
2.2. Evaluation.......................................................................................................................6
3. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................6
4. References:.............................................................................................................................7
5. Appendices.............................................................................................................................8
Appendix 1: Job Advertisement.............................................................................................8

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1. Introduction
In contemporary world, employers all around the world are looking for graduates who
genuinely want to work for them over their competitors. They recruit the ones who are
capable enough of doing the job and will stay in the business for long enough in order to
justify the investment in them (Jackson and Collings 2018). Although this has not changed
over the passage of years, but, what is different now is that the employers are actively seeking
the candidates who display a good range of behaviours, softer skills and personal qualities
like self-confidence, emotional intelligence and motivation. In this report, I shall elaborate on
discussing the general trends that would impact in the area of graduate employment that I
would consider for when I leave the university. It is to note that my chosen profession is
being the Area Sales Manager (ASM) in the marketing industry. Furthermore, I shall
highlight the skills, knowledge and experiences that are required in order to survive in the
marketing industry. Lastly, I shall be identifying an appropriate vacancy in my chosen
industry.
2. Discussion
Marketing is a very demanding career now-a-days and it requires a great range of
skills, knowledge and ample of experiences in order to succeed in the industry (Soni and
Sharma 2016). This section of the report shall discuss about the general trends which will
impact in the marketing industry in the near future which will influence the jobs that would
apply for and the knowledge and skills that will be needing.
2.1. Analysis and Application
General trends which will impact on your chosen profession or industry
Marketers today are constantly looking into the coming future in order to predict the
next big upcoming trend for their clients and their own brands. People never remain constant

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and neither do their demands. According to Anderl, Schumann and Kunz (2016), it is
predicted that there would be an increasing complexity in the field of consumer purchasing
decisions. Today, consumers make use of several kinds of media like Facebook and YouTube
in order to make their shopping decisions and it is becoming increasingly difficult to put the
people who buy certain products into a segment today. The categories of customers like the
high and low end, the mainstream etc. are disappearing today (King et al. 2016). With the
same, segmentation is becoming more and more complicated with each passing day. The
same customer can buy both the high end and low end product at the same time. Today, one
can easily see people taking American Airlines from America to Milan in order to purchase a
Gucci bag. Moreover, people also buy products with an unbalanced mixture of rationale and
emotions. For example, when they have no emotional link with the aviation, they opt for the
cheapest product but when it comes to the question of buying luxury bags, they are likely to
select craftsmanship and tradition.
Secondly, it is predicted that transparency would dictate the relationships in between
the brand and the customer in coming days. One of the best example to consider in this
context is that of the fact that right from Wells Fargo to Volkswagen, the long list of the
disgraced brands or companies are getting longer gradually. Businesses today are realising
that they cannot escape the transparency that are offered by the social media to the customers
today. Hence, most of the firms today are learning lesson that if they are not truthful, they
need to pay the price. This will be more prevalent in the future years. Thirdly, according to
Quinton and Simkin (2017), within four to five years from now, the marketing industries and
organisations would increasingly more to the integrated teams from digital silos. Until just
few years ago, we could see two different teams of digital department and marketing
department. But, it will not the same in the coming years. Digital needs to be a significant
part of each and everything and also, both the departments need to be completely integrated.

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Fourthly, the personalised data-driven marketing technology is likely to become
friendlier. Due to the emergence of big data, today’s companies are learning many things
about their customers. It is likely that they would be getting better at this and in this way,
would also successfully target their customers and would be communicating with them in the
most effective manner on the basis of who the customers are and what are their habits
(Spanakis et al. 2016). Moreover, globalisation have influenced the marketing industry to a
great extent and is also changing its meaning of “growth” in order to include the
multicultural, multilingual and international consumer base (Crane, Kawashima and
Kawasaki 2016). It is giving a great opportunities to the markets for propelling their brand
awareness and increasing their sales rate. It is also helping in establishing new markets in the
new economies as well. All these, trends and changes are likely to bring both positive and
negative changes in my chosen profession to a significant extent.
The skills/knowledge and experience required
At this stage in my career, in order to excel in my chosen career, I shall be needing
many skills in order to get into the stage first. They include communication, creativity, skills
of negotiation, stress management skills, public speaking skills, motivation, analytical
thinking and technology related knowledge etc. It is to note that marketing is a form of
professional communication as it largely comprise of communicating with several different
types of customers and people on a daily basis about why they should buy the product etc.
(Finne and Gronroos 2017). Often, this take the form of writing too. Right from crafting
advertisement copy to creating scripts for the TV advertisements and phone conversations. At
the same time, it also involves creating different multimedia campaigns and having a good
understanding of the designs. Furthermore, Verbal communication is also important in this
field. As marketing is more or less a team effort, therefore, it is very important for the

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marketing to be able to effectively communicate within their own team as well as their
company.
Secondly, I shall also be required to have the skill of analytical thinking because
marketing needs a lot of research based analysis for determining what the audience needs and
wants and at the same time, also need many careful strategy that are crafted around that
analysis. Hence, having the skills of analytical thinking would help me doing better analysis
of the consumer survey data, demographics, principle of segmentation and differentiation to
the marketing plans etc. Thirdly, the skill of negation is a significant of all in the field of
marketing. Right from negotiating with the clients about budgets, expectations and timelines,
for working with the vendors and designers as well as the potential of driving hard bargain is
a key part of success in the marketing industry.
Fourthly, technology skills is very important for the overall success of the individual
in the marketing industry as well as the company where he or she works as a whole. Right
from using the project management software for tracking the progress and improvement of
the campaigns to making use of the analytic programs in order to measure the success of the
social media campaigns, technological skills are very important for a marketer to possess,
especially in this contemporary business world. Fifthly, the skill of stress management is
something that I should possess. Marketing is one of the most stressful career options that I
have chosen. Meeting deadlines, meeting customer demands and many other things can go
wrong in the last minute(Cetin, Demirciftci and Bilgihan 2016). In order to be a good
marketer, I need to be able to handle the stress that I would take without panicking.
Furthermore, the knowledge that I need for proving myself in my desired career are
that of the knowledge of proper English language, sales and marketing, customer and
personal service, computers and electronics and that of administration and management. Two

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of the most significant to me are that of Sales and marketing knowledge and the customer
and personal service. It is to note that the knowledge of Sales and marketing requires the
knowledge of all the principles and methods right from selling the products and service to
showing and promoting them. It comprise of all the marketing tactics and strategy, sales
control systems, sales techniques and product demonstration that the marketing managers use
to play their job role in effective way (Nagle and Muller 2017). Furthermore, the knowledge
of different processes and principles for providing appropriate customers and the personal
services It comprise of the principles and process of assessing the customer needs, meeting
the expected quality standards for the services and evaluating the customer satisfaction.
2.2. Evaluation
Very recently, I have come across a job advertisement for the job role of Sales
Manager at Recycled Compounds in United Kingdom. It is a specialist recycler company that
is based in Cambrigeshire. The company is looking for candidate who is educated to degree
level and have the potential of relationship building, is self-motivated and has the required
technological skills. With the same, they are searching for a person who is self-motivated
enough to work on his own initiative in the department.
3. Conclusion
Hence, it is to conclude that career in the field of marketing requires ample of
knowledge regarding the consumer behaviour, market research, sales and general marketing.
Also, the experience of being a sales person or byer in the public relations and in advertising
is a plus point. There are several skills required for a person in order to excel in the field of
marketing and they range from analytical thinking skills, motivation skill, communication,
negotiation skills to technological skills.

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4. References:
Anderl, E., Schumann, J.H. and Kunz, W., 2016. Helping firms reduce complexity in
multichannel online data: a new taxonomy-based approach for customer journeys. Journal of
Retailing, 92(2), pp.185-203.
Cetin, G., Demirçiftçi, T. and Bilgihan, A., 2016. Meeting revenue management challenges:
Knowledge, skills and abilities. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 57,
pp.132-142.
Crane, D., Kawashima, N. and Kawasaki, K.I., 2016. Culture and globalization theoretical
models and emerging trends. In Global culture (pp. 11-36). Routledge.
Finne, Å. and Grönroos, C., 2017. Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing
communication. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), pp.445-463.
Jackson, D. and Collings, D., 2018. The influence of Work-Integrated Learning and paid
work during studies on graduate employment and underemployment. Higher
Education, 76(3), pp.403-425.
King, R.C., Schilhavy, R.A., Chowa, C. and Chin, W.W., 2016. Do customers identify with
our website? The effects of website identification on repeat purchase intention. International
Journal of Electronic Commerce, 20(3), pp.319-354.
Nagle, T.T. and Müller, G., 2017. The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing
more profitably. Routledge.
Quinton, S. and Simkin, L., 2017. The digital journey: Reflected learnings and emerging
challenges. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(4), pp.455-472.

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Soni, P. and Sharma, D., 2016. A Study on Problems and Prospects of Industry Oriented
Training Programs to provide employable professionals. Sankalpa, 6(1), p.1.
Spanakis, E.G., Santana, S., Tsiknakis, M., Marias, K., Sakkalis, V., Teixeira, A., Janssen,
J.H., de Jong, H. and Tziraki, C., 2016. Technology-based innovations to foster personalized
healthy lifestyles and well-being: a targeted review. Journal of medical Internet
research, 18(6).

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5. Appendices
Appendix 1: Job Advertisement