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High School Diploma Good Enough for a Sales Job?

SCENARIO: A Sales Machine reader writes: I have been successful in two very different B2B sales groups, but I have is a high school diploma. Am I limited by my education? Part of me thinks I'm not since I was able to land this job and I feel I can do better, but on the other hand I wonder whether perhaps I am being too picky. Or are there other opportunities for a talented sales rep like myself?
How about it, folks? Vote in the poll below, then click here to get my opinion.


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Oh, my lordy be. Sales is the only professional job on the planet where you can succeed without a college degree. The reason is simple: it requires more emotional smarts than intellectual smarts.

This is not to say that every B2B sales job will be open to you. For example, if you're selling chip design services to semiconductor firms, you may need an EE degree just to hold an intelligent conversation. And there are some high stakes selling situations -- like cutting big merger deals -- where it helps to have a MBA.

But beyond that, it's really more a matter of whether or not you can have a command of the subject matter required to understand the problems that you're going to be solving. That's a way of thinking that doesn't require a college degree.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have, only that there's no reason on God's good earth that you can't be successful in B2B sales with just a diploma. Heck, you've already proved that... by being successful in two sales jobs.

So, tell me again... why are you asking?

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