What Are The Qualities Of A Good Sales Representative?
Category: Sales Representatives
Not all sales representatives are equal. What makes the difference between a good and a bad sales representative?
Customers' knowledge
A sales representative is first and foremost characterized by its knowledge of its customers. A good sales representative has a good customer base and maintains good relationships with all its individual clients. Good sales agents visit their customers or call them regularly. They know their needs and they know how to answer them.
Visiting customers is very important and cannot be stressed enough. It is only through regular visits that the representative can meet more people in that company. More contacts means
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What is the purchasing cycle like? Who makes decisions along the way? Is the purchasing decision based on price, quality, delivery, service? Is the customer expecting a discount as part of the purchasing process? These are a few questions that a good sales representative will know the answers to.
Knowledge of the industry
A good sales representative not only understand each and every individual customer, but it also understands the market as a whole. Principals are hungry for market information. Key information includes:
•Market growth: Is it a growing market, is the market flat, is it stagnating?
•Market trends: Are there new products being introduced? Is there any breakthrough innovation, any disruption to an existing market?
•Competitors: How are they positioned? Are the competitors' products perceived as inferior, equal, or superior to the product they represent? What is the unique selling proposition of the product being represented? What is the demand for that product vs. the competitors'?
•Feedback: What improvements to the product are the customers suggesting or requesting?
Product
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Any company will prefer a representative that gives regular reports. A sales representative that brings less revenue but that gives better reporting can in certain cases be preferred to a representative that does not report on its activities. Managing representatives is crucial for a company.
Feedback
Customer contact is very important for any company, in order to get feedback on its products, to know about new trends and new customers requests, and to know about new products that customers would like to see. Selling through sales representatives cuts the direct link between a company and its customers. A good sales representative must relay customers concerns and requests to the company it represents. Sales representatives must be opened to discussion and must listen to their clients.
A good sales representative must also report negative comments from the customers. Any company is interested in constructive criticism, which can make products evolve to better serve the customer. Sales representatives must understand customers' criticisms and must provide constructive feedback to the principals.
The sales department would need information such as prices of products so that they can inform customers. They would also need to know if certain stock is available before talking to customers about that product. Marketing This function of the business is responsible for identifying the needs of customers and fulfilling the customer desires profitably. In other businesses sales and marketing may be combined into one department but
More new products need to be introduced and research needs to be done to find out which products will be most popular and profitable.
All Sales representatives should use company’s funds responsibly and good business judgment when incurring a business expense.
Customer service is valued as a competitive tool by many organisations. It gives you the ability to gain customer loyalty while meeting the customer’s expectations. Staff will have many skills and knowledge that will provide a competitive edge. Most organisations are known for the quality of their customer service. This means that they are known for good customer service or poor customer service. However, being known for good customer service will attract customers. It will also attract customers who are usually hard to reach.
Summary: The author used in-depth interviews and a qualitative grounded theory to gather information about salesperson or sales manager’s approach on sales. The data were analyzed using qualitative data analysis software NVivo. The author intention for the study was to understand the factors affecting the performances of salesperson. Author opted to use qualitative method for this study because lots of previous studies on this issue employed quantitative research method which is empirical and involves hypothesis testing, measurements and numerical data. Author
For instance, Saks has created a page with all their associates listed on it. On this page there is an “about me” section for each employee that highlights specialties and particular interests of the store’s representative. Not only does this allow customers to better find sales associates who can meet their needs, but it allows salespersons to better advertise themselves. Newly developed tools even allow sales persons to go so far as to directly comment on certain products, so customers can identify what sales representative’s opinions are on particular products.
1) As companies trying to sell consumers stuff, they are not competing with them, only other companies,
The customer services styles are quite important when it comes to the direct dealing with customers. Besides the products or services that are being offered to the customers by the organization you are working for, the way in which the sales persons represent those products and services to the customers play a major role in the satisfaction of the customers. The customers often seek polite, genuine and helpful response from the customer service representatives and for that purpose the customer service representatives adapt different customer service styles depending on the priorities of the customers.
Look for salespeople who: Communicate well with teams from other functions, Tolerate ambiguity, Have a deep interest in product technology, Can bring customers together with various functional teams in your firm, Can develop their own sales models and collateral material.
Within the sales division of Frito-Lay the management system runs as a chain of command with the sales representative being the last line of defense between the company and the customer. The sales representative receives his sales plans and product placement orders form the district sales leader who receives his orders from the zone sales manager and so on up the chain. Ultimately the role of increasing sales and product recognition rest on the shoulders of the sales representative.
The changing business environment- highly competitive "global" product markets, an increasingly rapid advancements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and increasing capital intensity of production.
Sales people are motivated to the degree that he or she believes '(1) effort will yield acceptable performance, (2) performance will be rewarded, and (3) the value of the rewards is highly positive' (2003, p.20). For sales people to reap rewards or benefits, they first need to know the expectancy of their position. During this first stage, the managers will layout the training that is needed and will set their goals. The managers are also responsible for continued follow up and coaching. Often times this type of follow up is accomplished on the sales floor, so they may continue to have a high level of performance. The coaching is kept positive so that the sales person may continue to exert a higher level of performance. Floor coaching and setting the standards helps sales people see and understand the performance levels that are required. It is also up to the manager to choose highly talented people that are able to accomplish the sales goals that are given.
Potential new entrants: With positive economic outlook, fine business environment, and increasing number of population growth rate, it is expected that there will be more companies coming in the industry;
There are many skills needed to deal with customers. They range from dealing with indecisive people to emotionally unstable ones and even timid ones. By using positive communication, good body language, and by actively listening, you can be sure that you can identify the problem that is occurring and start looking for a solution that not only makes the customer content but that follows the policies and values of the business. Most problems arise because not everyone knows these skills and how to use them. The right training can go a long way for a business and its relationships with its customers.
A sales manager has many responsibilities such as spreading product to customers, setting sales areas, goals, and analyzing sales data (“Sales Manager” What’s para. 1). Although a sales manager performs many duties, people in this position will also set a sales goal for the year, and will build a sales outlook on what they will do in the upcoming years (“Sales Manager” Sokanu para. 1).A person in this position will also manage where the goods and products their company will be distributing by giving certain sales area where a salesman will work and sell the product (“Sales Manager” Sokanu para. 2). During work time, a sales manager may be asked to hire and train a new salesman added to his team (“Sales Manager” Sokanu para. 3). Occasionally, a sales manager will interpret sales statistics in a specific area when looking where to assign certain salesman to a sales territory (“Sales Manager” Sokanu pa...