Sales Salary Guide

More than salary

Top three benefits that Sales respondents say are more important than salary:

Josh McCole

Account Executive Bullhorn

Take us back to the beginning. How did your career start?

I’ve been in sales for 12 years now. Growing up in the Hunter Valley, I started my sales career managing a small team at Mcdonald’s at the age of 21. At the same time, I had a friend that was working for a Tax Appreciation company in Newcastle who were on the hunt for a Business Development Representative. My first thought was ‘What is a Business Development Rep?’. How times have changed! I immediately googled what it was and thought ‘Yeah, I could do that’. My expectations were different from the reality of the role, but it was a great place to start my Business Development career.

What I love about my job now is that it’s really partnership and relationship driven. Sales can often be very transactional, but being able to forge real connections and long-term partnerships is incredibly fulfilling for me. I feel like I’m providing a solution to help alleviate pressures and pain points in a business, and I’m problem-solving a lot more than I used to.

Do you have any insight for aspiring salespeople wanting to kick-start their careers?

If I compare how I operated 12 years ago to now, I’m far more strategic in everything I do. I’ve built a personal brand on LinkedIn and people come to me now versus the other way around. It’s more strategic. People can tell when someone is not genuine, especially when it comes to sales so be true to yourself. I can say with confidence that I will not sell something I don’t believe in. Sales is so much more about trust and relationships than ever before, and the most successful people that I’ve seen in sales have been the humblest.

Sales felt like a natural fit for me. I spent a good six years at this company, moving up to a Business Development Lead from Business Development Specialist within a couple of years. That’s when the travel started to ramp up – I was on the road for more than half the year. As much as travelling for work sounds great, the reality was that I couldn’t keep doing it. It was affecting my relationships with my family and friends, and even affecting my ability to find a partner.

I needed a bit more stability in my job. I had an epiphany that I had to move, so I proposed a plan for my company to expand to Sydney and cut my travel hours down by half. The plan worked, and I opened the Sydney office in 2017 spending six months setting up the business.

I’d been a consistent top-biller at this company for a while and realised I had kind of hit a concrete ceiling. Another move had to be made, and I found my next role at a design & construction company as a Client Relationship Manager for Australia and New Zealand. I was here for about 12 months before the business underwent some functional changes that resulted in me being offered a redundancy. Another blessing in disguise, I took this opportunity to give recruiting a go! I was recruiting for about 18 months, and in that time worked on an integration using a software called Bullhorn. Bullhorn saw my potential and came knocking. Before I knew it I was on board, and the rest is history! I’ve been at Bullhorn for two years now. I love the recruitment industry, but I love being on the technology software side of it more.

I’m driven by value alignment in all areas of my life, so who I am and what I stand for are actually really important factors to consider when I look at what I want from my career. Be true to your values, bring your whole self to work and know what you stand for so you can be your best version of yourself every day.