Sales staff and sales skills are in greater demand than ever, as firms look to gain a competitive advantage.

“Sales roles are big right now because companies are fighting to steal each other’s [clients],” Steve Wyeth, director at shipping recruiter SDW Recruitment, told Recruiter.

And the shipping industry requires a special type of sales person, according to Wyeth. “Sales staff would be servicing specialist services of air freight and sea freight. They would need to know how rates work and how the whole procedure works from the initial booking of space on a liner to arranging goods packing and clearance procedures and what they are quoting for.

“You would need to know terms like FOB [free on board] and CIF [cost, insurance and freight] which means cost insurance has been pre-paid, and the services and how the industry works. You could not blag that.”

The hospitality sector is increasingly sacrificing industry knowledge in favour of candidates with the right sales skillset, claims Nina Johnson-Bennett, managing director at Management Search Executive. Driven by hotel expansion in locations such as the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, South-East Asia, Eastern Europe and resorts in Southern Europe, companies now require a different skillset within sales. Johnson-Bennett says: “Industry knowledge is helpful but the more senior you go up the sales side, the more they are bringing people from outside the industry.

“Gone is the day when a standard sales and marketing person would suffice. They need people who are experienced technologically, experienced in terms of viral marketing, guerrilla marketing, web marketing, and in sales and revenue management. It is quite a complex set of skills to get in any one person.”

In retail, it is not so much sales professionals but sales skills that are required. Louise Wright, director at Oyster Retail Recruitment, says that her clients now seek store managers who are more sales focused.

“It is all about driving sales through your team. Now it is largely about finding managers who are sales drivers and people who are strong on their KPIs. We are finding that this is the key buzzword in driving sales to succeed in store. It is about understanding the commercial stance of that business, of where it is based, its location, its geography, its footfall.”

Whether the client requires industry knowledge, sound sales skills or both in a candidate to gain that competitive advantage in this recession, they must demonstrate a consultative approach, according to Dr William Pedley, director of education at ISMM (Institute of Sales and Marketing Management).

“Professional sales people need to be able to advise financial directors, managing directors, accountants and act as business consultants to help them through and advise on the best strategies for whichever company they represent. These type of people are the leading sales staff these days,” he says.