Would good Teachers make good Salespeople?

It’s not such a stupid question, is it?  Our local schools are very keen on their pupils undertaking work experience as part of their education.  For the last two weeks I’ve been responsible for a 14 year old girl who, I was told, ‘wanted to work in sales and marketing’.

I’ve tried to make it as realistic and meaningful as possible because I see little point in doing otherwise.  Towards the end of the fortnight, one of my colleagues said to me that he thought I would make a good teacher.

Once I had stopped laughing, we talked around the whole subject of teaching (he thought about becoming a teacher a few years ago and I actually did a little when I first finished college.)

It struck me that there are actually a lot of similarities between the two professions (if I’m allowed to call ‘Sales’ a profession!)

• We often stand at the front of the room, imparting knowledge
• To succeed, we need people to ‘buy in’ to what we are saying
• We need the ability to think on our feet to deal with the unexpected when it occurs
• We need the ability to ask meaningful questions and to listen intently to the answers – to tease out information that may be hidden
• We need good people skills to allow us to deal with a wide range of different personalities
• We need rhino skin to help us deflect some of those personalities!
• We both do jobs that are largely misunderstood by the general public

Clearly, there are different skills required for the different jobs but are the differences outweighed by the similarities?

Are you a salesperson who was once a teacher?  Are you a teacher who was once a salesperson?  What do you think, what would you add to the list?