Sales start when the customer says no... I heard this great catchphrase from one of my Swedish customers several years ago. After several job positions in sales, mainly in 'hard selling', where I acquired many skills that are necessary to become a good salesman, I acquired a good position in sales where I could take these skills to a next level and where I received more and more responsabilities over the years in terms of sales targets and the positive stress that comes with it. I got to enjoy the experience of more intense and long-term relationships (and friendships) with customers and learnt a lot about different foreign business cultures. I was given the responsability to manage a team of like-minded colleagues. I could also suggest and defend strategical sales approaches and was held responsible for the decisions I made. And very important: I also learnt that sales is a "team performance" and go hand in hand with a good marketing team, a dedicated technical support, a good purchasing strategy, a correct pricing, and so on. I enjoy working with my colleagues from other business departments in our company as the good performance of these teams contributes to our general sales success. I enjoy the full process of sales from exploring/identifying a business opportunity (e.g. new geographical market, new product development, ...), over debating pricing and business conditions and discussing why I believe my product is a better option for this potential customer, witnessing the first joint achievements and first orders, until I can follow-up from a distance - but always available for immediate technical or commercial support - the day-to-day cooperation with this new customer. Of course, your sales success depends highly on external factors as well, many of which are fully out of your control. And in the end you are required to meet your sales targets. So it can definitely be hard at times and it might take a while before you can see the results of your hard work. But to me, a sales job is a position that involves so many different aspects and it makes a perfect combination of both responsability and joy.