Life is riddled with competition and the job market is no different. There are always the selected few who are resilient and those who struggle hard to overcome all odds to get to the top. In a handful of job positions, not only is there competition from your fellow candidates, but there is competition from technological advancements and online businesses reducing a role’s growth potential.
In particular, the business sector has been greatly influenced by the growth of internet commerce. According to Adzuna’s latest update in March, there has been a significant 10% decrease in the number of sales jobs advertised online in South Africa. In comparison to the previous year, total sales vacancies have also decreased.
Online jobs and certain niche job markets like finance and IT were given more importance than sales jobs. In fact, the period between September 2016 and March 2017 witnessed a 20% and 30% increase in the relative wages paid to workers in the IT and finance industries respectively.
But sales professionals shouldn’t throw in the towel yet. According to Adzuna, recorded results are not a true reflection of what happens in the real world for sales professionals. Many of these workers are in fact earning high salaries because they also get extra pay from bonuses and commission. Adzuna also postulates that some firms are likely to be holding back from hiring additional sales staff in a bid to save some pennies during this tough economic time but rather increasing the performance incentives for their current sales employees.
Digital vs. Manual Sales
It’s no secret that the shift to a digital market is largely to blame for the low employment rates of sales professionals. Since most customers are online today, business entrepreneurs are concentrating more on generating leads through showcasing their products on the social media platforms. Good marketing on the social media has proved to make high profits, thus necessitating the need to seek digital marketing professionals as opposed to manual sales people.
The use of newspapers and flyers has not been completely shoved under the shelves. However, more businesses are now shifting to online marketing due to the realization that buyers find it more convenient to evaluate and purchase products online as opposed to when these are manually presented to them.
Is there a future for sales personnel?
The fear of a reduction in the demand for sales people is not anything new. A book written by E.B Weiss and published in 1962 gave a premonition of the internet replacing a lot of jobs in the future. However, all hopes are not lost seeing that humans are still accustomed to the traditional “real life” exchanges and there is still mistrust over internet exchanges businesswise.
Here at Adzuna HQ we recognise that more innovative entrepreneurs are incorporating modern technology to build and grow their businesses, the need for sales personnel has not yet completely vanished. As 2017 advances, Adzuna anticipates growth in the niche for sales jobs. But this can only be proven when Adzuna will release its update for the job market in June.