How To Become A Marketing and Sales Business Analyst

Part 8 of 13 in the Series: Careers or Domains for Business Analysts

marketing and sales business analyst

Granted, changing careers is challenging but you must learn how to believe in yourself before expecting employers to believe in and hire you!

Eleanor Roosevelt words; “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” rings true for career changers.

Begin your career transition by first discovering yourself. Look for the gold in your career, put yourself in an employers shoes and transition from a position of strength. Finally, get your foot in the door at any cost

This post addresses the challenges facing marketing and sales professionals “changing careers or transitioning to the business analyst profession”!

How Do I Change My Career From Marketing And Sales To Business Analysis?

I am transitioning from a career dominated by sales/marketing in insurance industry to IT Business Analysis.

I don’t know where to start. I think with the change in Business Analysis being so dynamic, I should be able to learn the newest technology/demand and grow from there.

Any advise as to where to start?

Transitioning From Marketing and Sales To A Business Analyst Career

Yes, you can change careers and become a business analyst coming from a Marketing and Sales background.

Begin by learning how the business analyst job market works and then discover what business analyst employers are hiring for!

Can You Become A Specialist (Domain Business Analyst)?

Employers are hiring specialized business analysts with strong domain knowledge, expertise and background gained by working in an industry.

Industries that employ domain business analysts include Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales, Marketing, Pharma, Telco, Healthcare, Finance, Banking, Insurance, Logistics, Procurement, Supply Chain Management and more.

The job market for domain business analysts is driven by employers who need practical business skills or solutions based on a working knowledge of how specific industries operate.

The Accidental Business Analyst: Some employees with a deep business knowledge and a basic understanding of requirements elicitation or modeling are sometimes promoted into the domain business analyst role.
Can You Become A Generalist (IT Business Analyst)?

Employers are also hiring for Information Technology (IT) business analysts with skills or background in “gathering and analyzing requirements for information systems and software development projects“.

Employers looking to hire IT business analysts plan to utilize their analysis and requirements modeling skills in a wide number of generic business or technology functions such as marketing, sales, customer relationship management (CRM) finance, information technology (IT), software development, etc.

The Accidental Business Analyst: Some system analysts or software developers with good communication skills, inter-personal skills and hands-on business knowledge are promoted to the IT Business Analyst role.
Put Yourself in The Employers Shoes

Employers are hiring for business analysts with backgrounds in information systems and software development or working business knowledge of a specific domains and industries.

The question for you is; “what types of business analyst jobs are you more likely to get hired for, based on your marketing and sales background?“

Don’t be looking at your career transition from the perspective of “what’s in it for you” or “what’s hot” or “what pays the most” because you won’t stand out or distinguish yourself that way!

Put yourself in the employers shoes and approach your career transition from the point of view of “what’s in it for the employer”!

Employers hire workers who prove that they’re capable of solving the problems or challenges facing them.
Get Your Foot In The Door First!

My first career transition as a college graduate was from Chemical Engineering career to Information Technology (IT) Consulting.

However, my first challenge and yours, if you’re changing careers was; “how to get my foot in the door”.

I got my foot in the door by first working in IT Sales and then transitioning to IT Consulting after I gained enough exposure and experience!

The lesson to be learned is that patience and planning are need for career transitions. Don’t give up on your goals because of a lack of skills and experience. First get your foot in the door (at any reasonable cost) and then get the job you want!
Transition From A Position Of Strength!

Don’t be obsessing on your weaknesses and don’t lose focus of your strengths because everyone has something to offer and so do you!

An appreciation of what makes you unique, what distinguishes you or what you excel at will help you stand out, get noticed and get hired!

That’s what SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis uncovers (your competitive strengths) and personal branding improves (what makes you unique)!

Ask yourself this question; “why would anyone believe in me … if I neglect to believe in myself”?

So, don’t forget to build your own brand because employers hire those who believe in themselves!
Look For The Gold In Your Career

There is gold in your background, all you need to do is dig it up by using your current marketing and sales domain knowledge to your advantage!

Since you already have a practical working knowledge of marketing and sales, what stops you from using that to your advantage?

If you change careers or transition to a marketing, sales or crm business analyst job, you’ll be able to transfer, use or get credit for your background and experience.

On the other hand, if you’re competing for IT Business Analyst Jobs or Telco, Healthcare, Pharma, Automotive, Insurance, Finance Domain Jobs you’ll get no credit for the years you’ve worked!

So, though you may be looking to get away from your current profession, use it to get your foot in the door first, before leaving it completely!

Based on your 5 years in marketing and sales, I would say that you’re a stronger candidate for marketing and sales business analyst jobs than IT business analyst (ba) jobs or ba jobs in other domains like finance, telco, pharma, etc.

Begin by first discovering yourself, look for the gold in your career, put yourself in the employers shoes, transition from a position of strength and get your foot in the door as a first step towards changing your career.

What Did Eleanor Roosevelt Say?

Finally, I”ll leave you with the words of Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady and wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt – 32nd US president); “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams“

This post answers the question of how to change careers and become a business analyst, coming from a business analyst background.

If you have questions about your business analyst career, be sure to post it as a comment on this page and it will be answered.

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«How Important Is Domain Knowledge For A Business Analyst?

Do Business Analysts Need Computer Programmer Skills?»

Sagar

Hi,

I’d been selected through the campus in one of the reputed IT firm during my MBA placements.

My technical background (Bachelor in Computer Science) helped me to crack the interview.

Marketing was my major specialization during MBA.

This organization is highly technology focused & hardly it encourages any sort of marketing which happens in FMCG.

I wanted to get into IT so that I could leverage my technical knowledge.

Now, I see myself unfit for future sales role & thinking to explore BA area about which I’m totally neophyte.

Please advise me what can be suitable career option & if BA would be the right choice, then how should I go about it?

IT Career Coach

#marketing #businessanalyst You can become a marketing and sales business analysts … a business analyst thyat specializes in marketing and sales.

You first goal will be to learn or master business analysis. Click here to learn more about that process and the next part is to apply your MBA in Marketing skills and knowledge.

This all presumes that you are working for an employer that needs you in that role … if not, your best bet is to be an IT Business Analyst and leave your Marketing background aside for a while

Merlyn

Hi.. I am working as Test Engineer.. I want to become a business analyst. How to get strong knowledge about on domain? Is there any course?

IT Career Coach

#qa #qualityassurance #testing Domain Knowledge is not required to become a business analyst.

You need to get trained on the core business analysis skills including UML, Use Cases, Requirements Elicitation and Documentation.

You already have some familiarity with Use Cases as you are probably used to creating your Test Cases from Use Cases. And you may alrey have some familiarity with UML as you are used to working so closely with Software Engineers.

You just need to take this knowledge a step further and go from just having some knowledge of these skills or to become a consumer of these types of documents to the creator of the documents and an expert at creating them.

Your next step? Signup for Business Analyst Training here to get started

You are closer than you think …

Manas

“Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career Right Now”?

I am B.Tech+MBA and basically from product Marketing experience but as few months back i joined a software company as BDM to look after sales activities but its quite obvious that product marketing and software marketing having lots of difference so my toughest challenge is to sustain in software company in Business Development profile.

IT Career Coach

#marketing #programmanagement Learning new roles and growing our skills to meet new challenges is required for success.

In today’s mondern career, nothing stays the same for too long. Changes in the marketplace, new regulations and new technology drive changes in our workplace, job description, roles and responsibilities.

Most normal people don’t like changes in the workplace because it forces them to learn new habits or skills. But change is inevitable and only those remain flexible or adaptable will survive or succeed in the long-run.

MY advice is that you should list the skills required for success in your new role and then find a way to learn or master them through mentorship, personal study, training, etc.