The reality is that a job in sales can be as professional and as rewarding as any other career. There is a science to sales that is often belied by the image of the brash, pushy rep, foisting his or her wares on an unwilling yet gullible audience.

Sales are the engine room of practically any business, and provide a much needed conduit between a product or service and a market which needs it. There is even an Institute (the Sales Institute of Ireland, or SII) which is aimed at ensuring higher standards throughout sales in this country.

"In a very competitive market, what we are trying to do at the Institute is raise the bar for sales, " said Michael Rogers, CEO of the SII. "We are doing this through guidance, training, information and education, including working with the Smurfit Business School to create a Masters programme in Sales Management and Strategies."

Such qualifications should be welcomed by the thousands of people working in sales across Ireland . . . particularly given the fact that many of these people may be working in sales almost by accident.

"A lot of people drift into sales, " said Rogers. "In fact, there are very few people who, at Leaving Cert level, will say that they want a career in sales. But sales is actually a very disciplined position.

As with any job, only some people can be trained . . . others may find that they should be looking for a different career. Salespeople have to like dealing with others. They need to be outgoing, enthusiastic and confident. But they also need to be committed, and they need to understand their product very well . . . and, most importantly, they need to understand their customer's problems so that they can be in a position to be able to offer a solution to those problems.

"Presentation, of both yourself and your products, is very important, " said Rogers. "This is true of both written proposals and verbal presentation. There are people who are brilliant at the proposals, but who are not so good at the other side of things, so they might have to fall back into sales support roles - although we can work with people to improve their presentation, because people can get nervous, or suffer from stage fright."

There are, however, certain other skills that a salesperson needs . . . some will be innate, while others need to be taught. And some will be commonsense, such as knowing when to listen instead of when to talk. For example, salespeople need to know when to close, to avoid overselling. Customer relationships are very important, so the salesperson needs to understand their customer's businesses . . . because to sell too much could cause bigger problems further down the line.

"It's about trust, " explained Rogers. "Your customers trust you to find the correct solution to their problems. At the Institute, we are trying to get away from the Del Boys, because sales is a serious business . . .

the words "Professionalism", "Ethics" and "Excellence" are all part of our logo, and we need to educate people in these standards. When selling, good people are respected for their knowledge, ability, courtesy and professionalism, and you need to set a high standard for yourself, because you are representing your company, which has given you the authority to be let loose in the marketplace.

"But the most important thing about selling is that you should enjoy what you are doing, " he continued. "If you ever find it boring, you shouldn't be in the career."

There is also the notion that sales careers burn brightly but burn for a short time . . . and, again, this can be wide of the mark. Sales, as much as many other career, comes with a career path than can be followed to the top of an organisation.

It tends to begin with telesales, which usually involves cold calling (between 80 and 100 calls per day) . . . and this part of the career will probably last between six months and 1.5 years. Following this will probably come a career in field sales . . . either as an account manager (servicing existing clients) or a business development executive (sourcing new business). In smaller companies, the roles may blur, as salespeople manage the accounts that they have sourced, but larger companies tend to keep the roles separate.

Because you will be part of a sales team, the career path is fairly obvious. The next step is to manage a team (there could be typically five people as part of a field sales team), working your way up to regional sales manager for Ireland, and eventually sales director. In a larger company, there is also the capacity to move sideways into other areas such as marketing and business development.

"Sales is a competitive business from a recruitment point of view, " said Joyce Kellett, sales and marketing consultant at Sigmar Recruitment. "A lot of companies are looking for more salespeople, which is creating a lot of opportunities.

Indeed, according to Kellett, telesales people can now be paid between 20,000 and 27,000 as a basic salary, with commissions usually between 12,000 and 20,000. Field salespeople, depending on the market, can expect between 34,000 and 45,000 basic (plus usually at least 20,000 in commission), while an on-target sales director will probably be pulling in between 120,000 and 140,000.

"There is currently a boom in financial services, telecoms, construction and IT, while FMCG sales is fairly constant, " said Kellett. "But a difference is that, rather than salespeople being tied to one sector, many sectors, excluding IT, are looking outside their own boxes for good salespeople."