As I was reading an Article on “Sales Drive LLC” about athletes making good sales people this post just fell together so well.
Do you ever wonder why employers think highly of student athletes sometimes over other candidates? I am not 100% sure that this is the only reason, but I do know that employers see determination, grit, and perseverance in student athletes. College is already hard enough, but to add a daily time commitment of up to 4-6 hours, makes it even harder. On top of having a rigorous time commitment, student athletes have the same amount of work that regular kids do. It really does take motivation to do well in school and in your respected sport, and employers see that.
But how does this lead into athletes being a salespeople?
Well, as I said earlier being a student athlete takes a ton of determination but that is something that also drives salespeople. Salespeople that are based solely on commission or even a mix of commission and salary need to be motivated and have the personal initiative to push themselves in order to close sales and make money. No one is pushing them or forcing them to do anything, so they need to take assertiveness and do it themselves. That same drive is seen in athletes, especially in individual sports like track and swimming. People who run track or swim are constantly pushing themselves to get their PR or beat a certain record. They aren’t being forced to do so, they just have the drive to. So, when an athlete is pushing his/herself to do better, they are showing the same characteristics that a salesperson exhibits.
There are many more qualities that salespeople and athletes share, but I will finish those thoughts on future posts!
Alyssa Mapes 
Robby Randolph 
Grant Baierl
Interesting perspective! I like how you mentioned the determination of athletes can help them in their future career as sales people. Showing determination in sales and getting hired can be helpful in the process. Determination in any field will do you well, which furthers your point that athletes can often times be proficient in a sales role.
Sports take a lot of time and hard work. It really is hard to be a lazy athlete, especially at the collegiate level.I think also athletes have a better skill at time management and not “wasting time”. Where in a sales conversation the athlete will ask questions to get to the problem and not do circles. Which I think most salespeople do not think of; learning about the customer but also being time efficient.