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| Sales Management Information |
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The Art of Sales (And Tips On How To Manage Your Sales Team)
Selling. Cold calls, introductions, interviews, appointments, proposals, referrals, call cycles, building rapport, listening, asking for the order, overcoming objections, closing the sale, and rejection. There's a lot to know about the business of selling. No wonder many people are a bit overwhelmed when they are asked to do it. And it's not a job for the faint-hearted. Selling is a communication-rich activity, with lots of verbal and non-verbal clues to simultaneously recognise, understand and respond to. It's a tough job looking after the interests of the customer and the company at the same time. Especially when you have to do this many times a day, every day. The sales process does not usually proceed in a linear, one-way direction. The participants will often meander along paths filled with associated ideas, go back to items already discussed, find answers for problems (overcome objections) and explore the features and benefits offered. An effective selling style will display a relevant and appropriate personal manner combined with a strong focus on the required outcome. On many occasions handling a sale is much like steering a boat across a strong current. There is a need to constantly assess the amount of 'drift', making minor adjustments to stay on course for the destination. A skillful sales person can handle these diversions and carefully guide the prospect to recognise why they should make the decision to purchase 'this' product from 'this company'. For those working outside the field of professional selling, it's common for the sales process, and sales people, to be misunderstood. Indeed, there are those who think of sales staff as being universally pushy, overbearing, and making the customer feel ill at ease. However this type of behaviour is usually the result of inexperience or poor sales training. Over recent years the art of selling has been transformed into a process now often referred to as 'consultative selling'. More than just a buzzword, consultative selling refers to the process of developing a clear understanding of your customers needs and following this with a logical presentation of how your product or service can help your customer be satisfied. In effect consulting with your client to determine their needs and develop a solution. Modern, effective sales people have mastered the skill of identifying the needs of individual prospects, matching those needs with benefits offered by their product or service, and closing the sale by ensuring the customer can see real value in the deal being offered. It's a win-win result. Throughout the process an experienced sales person will generate a level of trust with the customer that can stand the test of time. Here are a few tips to help you manage your sales team: * Respect the personal barriers they must overcome on a daily basis. * Have a territory management plan in place. * Provide appropriate supervision to ensure good sales practices are maintained. * Ensure the customer has regular contact with other people (or departments) within your business other than the sales person. * Comprehensively train your sales people on company procedures, their responsibilities and your expectations. * Have a procedure for listening to, assessing, and acting upon feedback from people in the field. * Avoid involving sales people in non-sales activities such as deliveries and collecting account payments. These tasks will undermine the sales relationship and will adversely impact on your sales results. Keep your sales person as the 'good guy'. Selling is an art - the art of guiding the sales process to a mutually satisfying conclusion. (c) 2005 MySalesTutor.com Stuart Ayling is known as the 'Sales Tutor'. Stuart offers a unique sales training eCourse at MySalesTutor.com. This 16-day course give you the skills and confidence to handle any sales situation and close more sales. Stuart has developed this eCourse specially for independent professionals, service providers, and business owners, based on sales "best practices" and proven trust-based sales techniques.
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Careers and Employment 3 Secrets That Set The Context For Sales Success In today's competitive environment, every organization is trying to improve sales results. In every company, the most important and vulnerable link in the success chain is the performance of their people. As a sales management trainer and coach, I see that managers across every industry fail to take a hard look at the capacity of their people to provide the service -- whether it's to internal or external customers that puts them in a league apart from the competition. Pointless Targets I recall a heated discussion with a sales director some time ago where I proposed that the long-term effect of setting activity targets for salespeople would eventually lead to failure. He vehemently made the point that he had systematically imposed activity targets on his sales force and that the result had been to treble average income per salesperson within 18 months. Sales Competence Isn't About Quota Performance! Compounding the problem are two myths regarding measures of competency in sales. Getting Off The Advertising And Sales Rollercoaster Seeing the results of advertising your business can be like watching a roller coaster. The day you run your ad you see a flurry of activity; your ph0ne starts ringing, your web site traffic increases and/ or potential clients visit your store. Your hopes soar. sales go up. Two or three days pass and the response goes down. You look at the bill for the advertising and your jaw drops. Your hopes descend. Profitable Relationships: Is It Amateur Hour or King of the Hill? "We're in the relationship business...airplanes are what we use to provide a service." remarked Colleen Barrett, President and COO Southwest Airlines remarked, Increase Your Sales Accept Credit Cards, Part 2 In part two we will discuss overcoming objections, which credit cards to accept and using the check paying option. The Art and Science of Managing Expectations in Selling It is very easy to fall into a trap with the customer by extending offerings beyond that of what the company infrastructure is able to supply in a reasonable timeline. Outsourcing the Sales Function Small to medium companies that want to increase sales or profits and find it is possible to outsource sales should - do it! At this point most business owners and executives either become overwhelmed with doubt or fear. Effective Sales Territory Management How you prioritize your sales territory management activities depends upon whether you are managing a territory that has existing customers, or whether you are building your customer base from scratch. SEZ WHO? Tips About Recommendations, Sales Cycles, and Trade Shows Here's the scene. You're at the trade show, having a discrete "Sales Call" conversation with a visitor. Things are going well until he says something like... Five Steps to Maximize Success in Targeting For Growth Targeting is the process of selecting high potential customer accounts to receive intense sales focus. Goal setting translates that high potential into achievable numeric objectives, i.e. revenue and margin growth. Accepting Responsibility for Your Sales Success That we live in a time of relentless and pervasive change is no longer news to anyone. There is one important implication of this situation that continues to be a challenge. That is that our employees need to continually change their behavior to adapt to the world around them. Leadership Lessons for Sales Managers Leadership, like class, is hard to define, but easy to spot. How To Become A Better Sales Manager YIPPEE! Kendra won, or should I say, "She was hired," by the "Donald." It was no surprise to me. It was all about people and management skills. You either have them or you don't! Kendra had them and Tana, sad to say, did not. Discounting Your Way Into Sales Oblivion I don't even like saying the word d---------g. I have literally obliterated it from my dictionary with a black marking pen. I'll bite my tongue until it bleeds, before I say the word. Leadership - How To Turn The Vision Into A Reality Be clear about where you are now. Audit your strengths and areas for development The Spirit Of Change A Highly Conscious Approach To Business Management. For more on this topic please link to Innerwealth Web Site Overcoming Sales Objections for Small Business Networks Do you need help overcoming sales objections? Do you sell computer networks, or other IT-related products and services to small businesses? This article provides tips and hints so you can be overcoming the most common sales objections heard when selling networks to small business prospects, customers, and clients. Are Your Business Proposals Losing You Sales? 10 Steps to Get the ?Yes? You Deserve Your ability to write an effective and persuasive business proposal directly relates to your level of success. Write a great proposal and you'll get the contract or make the sale. Write a ho-hum proposal and your prospect will go elsewhere. How Many Salespeople Should I Hire? One of the most asked questions I get is how many sales people does it take to get the revenue numbers needed. Personally, I believe in large sales forces because in highly competitive situations the largest army wins. That doesn't mean, however, that you can go out and hire 100 sales people if all you can possibly sell this year is a million dollars if everything goes right. So how do you decide how large a staff you need?
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