Sales
Sales focuses on the act of selling a product for compensation like money. Related to pricing and marketing.
Urgency is a good tactic but can be hard to create in the digital world. Provide specific instructions how to to act right after the marketing.
Dissatisfied customer is worse than non-customer. Always start a selling process by asking yourself: "What can the product do for this customer?" Do not even try to sell the product if you see no value potential the customer could gain. Angry or otherwise dissatisfied customers will start spreading a bad word about your product and ultimately you will lose a chunk of potential customers.
Under promise, over deliver. Never promise a feature to a client without first talking with the management or development team. This will lead to dissatisfied customers when promised features start coming late.
Know their own product. Not every little detail but all key features and weaknesses. If you are not interested in your product, why should the customer be? You should not be caught off guard with a basic question.
Know the competition. Key features and weaknesses of the competition. Never diss your competitors, it is not professional and backfires by lowering your and your company's perceived character.
Lose early. If you find yourself crafting multiple proposals for a single customer, just let it be and move on.
Keep in touch.
- Personally take care of all problems the customer has in next few days. After that, direct them to basic support.
- Call or email the customer personally in a week or so to ask if they are happy with the product and offer help.
- If they are a big customer, link with them on Facebook or LinkedIn and get to know their birthday and dig what they might like. Save a notification to send them a whisky or wine bottle for their birthday.
After a good amount of sales, start optimizing. Salesman usually has the option to either get a lot of small customers or get a few big customers. Benchmark yourself against the best of your field or company to gain understanding what you should aim for. Don't try to improve yourself every interval; try to improve compared to the standard.
The worst salesmen should be offered the most deals to tackle, this
allows them to improve. The best salesmen should be given the bigger
deals that are more rare.
Salesmen
Main tasks of a salesman:
- Inside Order Taking: sales staff at cashiers.
- Outside Order Taking: calling and visiting outlets.
- Goodwill Building: educate and help customers.
- Product Delivery: an opportunity to sell more.
- Technical Presentation: show, advice and assist how to use the product.
- Creative Selling of Tangibles: sell goods.
- Creative Selling of Intangibles: selling of services.
Background tasks:
- Keeping product and market knowledge fresh.
- Prospect potential clients.
- Prepare each sale: individual or a customer segment.
- Pitching the sale.
- Closing the sale.
- Follow up. don't lose contact, prepare for future contracts.
A good salesman ...
- ... is energetic.
- ... is charismatic.
- ... is self-confidence.
- ... is money oriented.
- ... is competitive.
- ... has social status.
- ... has personal network.
- ... generates a good amount of money.
Salesman salary: Best salary type is a base salary with additional commission. Commission drives competitive salesmen which is a personality trait you are seriously looking for.
Evaluating salesmen:
- Quantitative: sales, profit made, old client visits, new client visits, comments from clients.
- Qualitative: satisfy expectations, attitude, contribution to develop the company, organizational skills, long-term potential, personal network, appearance.