Signs You Are in a Bad Sales Jobs

Selling a Product or Service That You Dislike

There has been plenty written about how important it is that you love or at least enjoy what you do. An old adage states that if you love what you do, you will never work another day in your life.

The worst sales jobs usually involve a sales professional having to sell something that they simply dislike. It could be the professional dislikes the actual product or service, sees little value in their offerings or has a moral issue marketing the product or service.

While it is certainly not impossible to sell something that you dislike, you will most likely find little fulfillment in your career and will certainly not give your job your best effort.

No Work-Life Balance

Unless you truly love what you do for a living, you will eventually need to get away from your work. Whether your "break" needs require a long weekend or a two-week vacation in Maui, if your position makes getting away from the daily grind very difficult or even impossible, you will soon find yourself either burned out or hating your position.

Not being able to have a healthy work-life​ balance is not only damaging to your mental and physical health, but it also weakens your sales skills. Sales skills need to be consistently improved and added to or they, like an unused muscle, will weaken and become nonfunctional.

Overbearing Management

A good sales manager and management team can and often does determine the overall satisfaction of their employees. When a bad, ineffective, overbearing micro-manager is in charge, morale is low, and turnover is high.

Most bad managers are unaware of the negative effects they have on their team and are often very unwilling to change. And when the entire management team is "less than perfect," the entire company will struggle for success.

Often there is no effective way to deal with a bad sales manager other than turning in your notice and finding another job. Deciding to quit, however, should be weighed against all other options if you feel that the only reason for your position dissatisfaction is your manager.

Good sales jobs can be hard to come by and leaving one that pays well, has good benefits, and allows you to do something you enjoy is a decision that demands careful thought. But if your sales manager is someone you cannot stand, you may be left with no other choice.

Negative Sales Team

Probably the most prevalent factor found in the worst sales jobs is negative sales teams. Unless you work alone or spend the vast majority of your time alone, you will be around and with your fellow teammates quite often. And if the sales team is negative, non-supportive, untrustworthy, petty, and back-stabbing, you will struggle to enjoy going to work.

As empowering as a good sales team can be, a negative team can be the complete opposite. Not only will you not make friends at work, but it is also very hard to go to work every day (and deliver your best effort) when you don't like the people you work with. And when you don't even want to go to the office in the morning, your entire day will be a challenge.

Like dealing with a bad manager or overbearing management team, there isn't a lot that can be done to overcome the negative effects of a bad sales team and moving on is usually your best bet. While you could raise your concerns with management and "wait it out" until management "weeds out" the negative employees, you probably will experience even more negative work conditions if your coworkers learn that you have complained about them to management.