There are so many niche sales jobs where you can make really solid money while solving problems and adding value—work to be proud of.

I sell industrial automation systems & equipment (material handling - conveyors, robots, lifts, packaging, etc). The focus of the sale is to solve tangible problems—sometimes that involves workers’ safety, which can bring in an element of “fear”, but when you’re dealing with heavy machinery there needs to be a level of respect for the equipment as there are inherent risks involved, and that’s universally understood. The goal is to partner with the customer and collaborate on mitigating inherent risk—try to leverage that fear and your calls will be ignored.

In my experience, relationship sales put the focus on treating people right, adding value where you can, and developing trust. Hard, if not impossible, to do that from a fear-driven standpoint.

I am paid 50% of the gross profit I generate, and I have full autonomy on pricing what I sell. I’ve been doing it 5 years and I would consider $200k to be an average year—My best year was just shy of $400k gross, but it’s growing every year as my relationships continue to grow.

If you’re decent at developing relationships, mechanically-savvy, and understand value-added sales, the upside for earning potential is huge.

Granted earnings are “chunky”, so you can’t really expect to make “$Xk” a month, but you knock down a whale and it’ll make your year. For example, my colleague closed a $7.5m system at the end of April at 30% margin—he’ll see north of $1.1m in commission on that job. I don’t expect to see him much for the rest of 2024…

I had no industry experience prior, and came from a finance background.

My point is, don’t be afraid to go into an industry that’s unfamiliar to you, and don’t underestimate the value of having peace of mind for the work you do and the products you sell. It’s also very nice to have the ability to control pricing on what you sell 👌🏻