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| How to do Sales Effectively |
Now, let’s come to the importance of sales in
organizational structure technically in any organization only department which
is generating revenue is sales department, all other departments are considered
to be cost centers for the company. Now, you get a sense how important to have
sales department for any organization. This is one of the factors on which
survival and success of an organization depends. I may contradict here with
others views that a sale is not only thing which is important, but yes it is
very -very important factor on which success and failure of the business depends.
So what motivates me to write this article is
to tell you how to do sales in an effective manner. But before I start with
that I want to remove misconception about what people think of sales i.e. “People
who did not gets any job will do sales job” People who are in sales
profession will relate with this sentence they have heard in their career. All
type of work which we feel like tough or not interesting where lots of money
involve yet pretty complex to understand like knowing Tax system, likewise, Sales
job is no doubt is one of the toughest job. Why I am saying this fact because
you are directly involved in dealing with people here and hence Consumer
Behavior, human physiology etc factors come into play. That’s why you find two schools
of thoughts who say sales in an art and science.
Hence if someone is looking
for opportunities to make their career in sales need to have some of the
prerequisites skills or qualities which are:
1. Love
what you do.
2. Personality
with structured knowledge.
3. Good
at people and good with numbers.
4. Anthropologist
approach.
5. Communication
skills.
6. Doctor’s
approach.
7. Value
people and commitments.
8. Job
of rejections.
9. Son
of soil.
I can spend whole day on explain
each one of the skills but I will limit my words in a precise manner which can
make you to understand this most important skill that one should have if you
want to make it as a profession or want to start your own venture.
1.
Love
what you do:
Fact of the
matter is doing what you love and love comes from respect, hence you need to
respect your profession in whatever you are in. It is a sentence pervasive in
nature and so do sales. You will not
succeed in doing sales until and unless you don’t believe in your profession. I
recommend you to do introspect, do you really want to do sales because if you
have doubt on this my suggestion is to not to opt sales as a career. A sale is
not easy going job or activity which you can do in official hours only. Repeating,
Sales is pervasive in nature yet hard to learn the skill set but once you know
the game you win all the times. So first and foremost love your profession as a
sales person.
2.
Personality
with structured knowledge:
Sales is not
only about presentation with your products but also it’s a presentation with
your appearance, so be smart keep yourself neat and tidy, always smell good
while visiting the customers place, always have your presentation kit clean,
have your own accessories like notepad, pen, stapler, pencil etc while making a
call, follow basic etiquette's while meeting to the person and there are many
more I assume that you will understand with this what exactly you need to do.
Now if I arrange the process of call in a chronological manner so it looks
like:
a.
Make a tele-call to make an appointment.
b.
While discussing try to find out on which client
or customer is looking for solution from you.
c.
You need to provide them the best suited option
available with you which can resolve his or her problem.
d.
Once he is agreeing close the sales.
e.
Try to cross sell if you have list of products.
f.
If not close the sales then follow up
rigorously.
3.
Good at
people and good with numbers:
If you are good
in dealing with people and if you can play with numbers then you are definitely
a very big shot as sales professional. To be good in both skills it takes
patience and practice, you need to be very sensitive, adaptable and quick
learner with soft skills. Further, knowledge of product and competition is
required to get attention from the prospect; you can convert them into customer
only if, you have thorough knowledge of product not only of yours but also of
your competitors. It means along with soft skills you need technical skills too
to close sales, and there is good news that you can learn this skill even if
you don’t know how to do it in the beginning.
4.
Anthropologist
approach:
Sales job is
people dealing job so you need to understand your target customers, their
demography, socio-cultures, beliefs etc. All this you can able to do if you
think like an Anthropologists, they usually observe human psychology their
behaviors to understand them in a same way you need to understand your target market
and audience with these all factors which can make an impact on your sales.
Here the statement justifies itself that how sales is an art as well as
science. Observe like anthropologist and act like a sales professional.
5.
Communication
skills:
It is like life
blood for a sales professional, because if you have deep knowledge of your
product and services, also knows in and out of your target market and customers,
but if you can’t communicate then it is like you own the most precious thing
but it is covered with glass, you see it feel it but can’t use it. Similarly, communication
skill is one of the pre requisites of sales profession. Let me tell you the
fact if you are good in communications your 60% of job is done remaining 40%
you can do with your other skill sets. So make a note you need to be good in
communication skills and to do it you need to do practice, why I am saying this
because doing a sales call requires guts and yes communication skill is the
first step of it. So take it as a challenge and start communicating.
6.
Value
people and commitments:
One more very
important and crucial thing every sales person need to follow seriously is to
value people and always true with your commitments. I bet on this that more
that 70% of sales professional don’t value their people and their own
commitments and here is the place where all glitch happens. It happens only if
you don’t know your products, customers and if you are carrying an ego. Ego
kills sales and in my experience every sales professional has to make a note of
this statement which I am going to write in inverted commas i.e.; “As
a Sales Professional you never React always Respond.” Hope this will answers your lot of
confusions about dealing with customers where many a times situation arise, so
follow this rule and you will get the desired outcome in terms of sales or
relation building or scope for future follow-ups. But first value your words
and the commitments you made to people & as sales professional you always “Commit
less & Deliver more”. This little extra mile will create a
difference between successful sales people with the one who is not.
7.
Job
of rejections:
Sales profession
is a profession of rejections almost daily and again you need guts to accept it
and continue with the journey. Most irritating fact about sales profession is
that your near and dear ones are the primary sources who make you feel like
looser but once you start and go with the flow take all this key learning’s and
accept such rejections, So make up your mind to accept rejections from your
close ones and improve yourself consistently. I tell you in last, all this hard
work pays you will abound amount of money and success which you are looking in
your career. Do more numbers of calls each day, do a lot of cold calls and a
time comes all rejections becomes your mile stones in success journey.
8.
Son
of soil:
This is one of
the most loving section now I am into as you have heard this phrase many a
times but let me tell you the roots and meaning of this statement in details.
You will get success in sales not only if you have knowledge of your products
and other factors which explained above but also your geography, rather I say
knowledge of your territory where you need to know how many new entrants are
entering who all left, what competitors are doing all these things you will get
to know only if you have direct access of your customers and clients and hence
you need to spend 90% of your time on field. While doing this you know the
geography and other factors and when you are on the ground you will get to know
what you can’t see from the top. That’s why sales department is very close to management
hearts and always try to motivate you, train you, sometimes humiliates you as
well if needed to get the work done, and in the end you make it by closing
sales. A first sale is always very close to heart of a sales professional, when
you work on soil and by the time it gets fertile then only your seed will
convert into plants and in the end you will reap what you sowed, means you
convert every call into sales if you follow above mentioned tips and tricks in
your daily activities.
Sales is one of
the most creative and innovative profession, definitely you need to go through
so many learning’s, sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s
hard too but as soon as you learn it you will be the jack of your trades. In
last I can say “sales is not easy but definitely it is not that much hard” if
done with keeping all the above mentioned tips in mind one thing I guarantee
you is you will learn and most important you enjoy too.
