I am Noreen from Pakistan. I have majored in Marketing (and minors in Sales). I have one year experience in Market Research and Brand Management.

While I was looking for better opportunities (better company, more challenging job) in my area of interest (I have been a marketing enthusiast since God knows how long) that I got offered a job as Territory Sales Manager at Unilever (for the city of Karachi where I live)!

Bingo! That is one amazing company to work for (MNC, FMCG) good pay, more challenging work. But i will be diverting from my life long passion for marketing.

I need to know is it safe to wander outside the bounds of marketing like this? As I understand marketing & sales are codependent so it ain't THAT drastic a shift but the thought is still haunting me?.

Will I be able to switch back to marketing after say 5 years (that is the minimum time I am planning to stay with the consumer goods giant).

Please reply soon,
I have to join in 20 days.

Reply by Peter Fisher your-career-change.com

As a Territory Sales Manager you will be certainly responsible to achieve annual sales and/or profit goals through efficient management and satisfaction of customer needs within the assigned area. You cannot do that in isolation from marketing.

You will need to exhibit leadership qualities and assist with training responsibilities in all likelihood.

The essential Duties and Responsibilities in switching from Marketing to Sales will probably cover:

1) Provide quality service to internal and external customers in all assigned tasks, while upholding Corporate Values at all times.
2) Achievement of assigned sales quotas by maximizing promotion and sales activity.
3) Responsible for sales and promotion of Unliever products within customer segments in assigned territory.

This means you will have to:

• Develop and maintain territory coverage plan with designated territory team
• Routine coverage of key assigned accounts
• Proper presentation of key products as directed
• Communicate regularly with all members of assigned territory team
• Engage in product line presentations.

You will also have responsibility for market development activities:

• Focus on development and maintenance of key accounts
• Perform product in-service training to ensure customer satisfaction, as needed
• Frequent market feedback on products, competition and market conditions to Product Marketing
• Develop and maintain territory specific information relative to competitors and distributors in the market mix.
• Develop, maintain and deliver accurate information on lost business
• Assist in the planning and implementation of user group meetings or other customer forums held in assigned territory
• Actively probe for all Unilever products and refer leads to the appropriate sales representative via CRM system.
• Generate ideas that contribute to territory, business unit, company mission and profitability.
• Timely and accurate fulfillment of Sales Administration duties:
• Sales Call Reporting
• Reporting on conferences, trade shows and/or workshops


The job will be very much what you make of it and the marketing input is an important element, which will help you to succeed in the sales activities. So long as you don't get totally tied into sales activities at the expense of your professional marketing side, you should be able to switch back again when you're ready.

In switching from Marketing to Sales, it may be a good professional development activity in itself to deepen your knowledge of the sales side of business.

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