Embedded Files
The Sales Profession
The Sales Profession
In 1988 I became a sales manager for Faultless Starch Company. Since then, I have managed sales brokerage companies, independent sales reps, and a direct (employed) sales team. I even had a short stint as a direct salesperson for XEROX (and did their wonderful sales training course). Here's what I've learned from that experience. There is no such thing as a "born salesman". While there are people to whom sales may come naturally, sales is a profession that requires training and skills, some innate, most learned. Everyone in business can and should learn sales, because in a business (and any kind of organization) everyone does it. The CEO must "sell" the Board of Directors on his plan, while a production person must sell his boss on an idea to improve efficiency or reduce cost. In the below sections I have outlined key considerations for finding, training and motivating a great sales organization.
Kinds of Sales People
Kinds of Sales People
Skill sets required for each type differ in some ways between each sales job. They share one thing in common: an urgent desire to help the customer. For example, insisting that a customer pay return shipping might be good for the company's daily profit but not if they lose the customer over it. Having a "back" pocket deal to help the customer gains loyalty and trust!
Order Getters
Order Getters
These people have the closest relationship with the customer, often traveling to meet in-person. Their primary job is to develop an intimate understanding of their customers needs, even to the extent they become involved in their customers' product planning. They educate the customer on the features, advantages and benefits ("FAB") of all items, and present new items, promotions and other deals to the customer. Normally they manage the primary customer relationship.
Order Takers
Order Takers
Sometimes called Inside Sales, order takers respond to immediate customer sales need, and also make outbound calls on new promotions, price changes and other deals. They may also make sales calls on new items, provided they do not require a lot of education or advanced sales presentation. In certain sales structures, inside sales people may coordinate their work with "Getters" to better serve the customers needs for repeat orders.
Order Support
Order Support
Order support, also known as sales administration, inputs order entry, ensures the product gets delivered to the customer, and handles customer problems and complaints. Smaller companies such as may combine inside Sales and Sales Admin to save overhead and give customers faster service. *Note: at XIKAR, we asked our inside sales / admin team to make payment collection calls - because they already had a relationship with the customer, and we had a policy that "it's not sold until the customer pays for it".
Selection and Training of Sales People
Selection and Training of Sales People
Extroverts don't make good salespeople, or bad ones either. It's not about extroversion or introversion. It's about compassion with a specific desire to serve customer needs via the company's products, policies and practices. Good salespeople are independent self-starters, detailed, multi-tasking and usually very smart. They require good training and good Management. Refer to our Advisor partner, Culture Index, for more information on assessing your team and your new hire's work personality traits.
Products, Policies & Practices
Products, Policies & Practices
Sales training begins with deep product knowledge - the salesperson must be able to understand the features of their product and the advantages those create in order to faithfully describe the benefit to the customer. Customer trust will not begin before that happens! Furthermore, the sales person must know the written policies and unwritten practices of the company to be able to properly communicate expectations the customer should have surrounding the product and it's delivery, warranty, etc. In order to achieve this, some weeks of in-house training shadowing with a well-established team member are necessary to develop full understanding required to deliver value to the customer. A poorly prepared salesperson can do more damage than good!
Approach: Discovery Method
Approach: Discovery Method
Sales Discovery vs. Sales Pitch
Repeat sales, where the company develops a relationship with a customer, has undergone a transformation from pitch (remember the old method of car sales?) to partnership. The partnership with the customer begins with the Discovery method, best illustrated in Neil Rackham's book, SPIN Selling. This method describes an approach of understanding the customer's Situation specific to the vendor's area of expertise, and what Problems arise in the current situation. Further discovery of the pain points reveal the Implications of those problems.
Sales people then develop a list of Needs that the they can solve with their product, and get agreement for purchase. You can see that this coincides perfectly with the customer need discovery discussed on the Marketing and Innovation pages, and how sales people are a first-in-line agent to communicate vital information to the organization. Thus sales managers must include this as part of the job description.
The sales pitch lives on in email and social media posts. A great sales pitch is an artform of mass selling, out of the range of this website. For more info, please see Amazon's list of best sellers on Direct Marketing
Tools of Persuasion
Tools of Persuasion
At some point, we must convince the customer, not just to buy, but to want to buy a solution. Understanding Tools of Persuasion is extremely helpful in orienting the customer toward an outcome that is favorable to the company and its own needs of timeline, quantity, etc. As noted on its full description page these tools must only be used with integrity as a natural outcome of wanting to serve the customer. Otherwise they will backfire once the customer begins to feel "played". How does that integrity come about in sales? Here are the ways XIKAR used each tool in sales to the benefit of the customer:
Commitment & Consistency: through the lifetime warranty, we guaranteed our resellers would not have a problem with returns. In fact, we offered an "over the counter exchange" policy, and also guaranteed the sale of all of our products (for a return credit)!
Reciprocity: Sales people were instructed to begin each sales call with service: straightening and cleaning the entire accessory area in order to be a good category manager. This also aided in suggesting re-orders.
Liking: sales people had an expense budget and were encouraged to entertain customers outside the store. XIKAR executives traveled extensively every year to visit all customer territories. In fact, one customer told me many years ago, "I buy from you because you come to my store!"
Authority: in our Interaction / Education / Reward marketing strategy, we educated our sales people on what features made our product unique, how they worked, why that was superior. When something went wrong, we immediately recognized the problem and announced our steps for solution.
Social Proof: XIKAR sales people shared local distribution data to their customers, as well as customer feedback and testimonials.
Scarcity: we utilized key account programs including special promotions, events, deals, in-store displays and unique or rare items offers to key accounts an exclusive level of XIKAR representation.
Many different kinds of people enter Sales as a profession, and there are different types of selling. Here's what they all have in common:
Helping to buy is good selling. A good sales person helps the customer buy what they want, and sometimes what they didn't know they wanted, but needed.
Understanding customer needs and goals is the key. This is why Sales is part of Marketing, as the sales-person's role is a part of the overall marketing effort. If your customer is a reseller, their goal is to make money or save money, while if they are a consumer, their goal is satisfaction.
Good sales people represent the whole company. They know they have customers both outside their company and also within it - to help get the customers what they need.
Good sales people are market research and strategy people too! They keep their finger on the pulse, and by understanding customer needs can communicate it back to the company for decision or development.
Google Sites
Report abuse