Sales management truths and tricks (Part 1) ? The Academy of ...

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MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP BLOG
Sales management truths and tricks (Part 1)

AUTHOR
Miklos Gasz (CBS)

There are a few tricks in sales management leadership that makes it a slightly different skill from management leadership. The main source of difference is the fact that sales people aren?t manufacturing with machines or working with computers but they get other people to do something. They have to be causative over people.

Now, sales management works only when sales managers have a good grip on sales people while sales people have a good grip on their clients. Bottom-line: Your sales management requires the best leaders you have with the best sales skills.

Why? Sales personnel will perform the best when:
- They are self determined and want to sell on their own.
- They are experts in the product or service they are selling (and that of the competitors as well).
- They are honest and driven by the true intention of helping the customer and the company.
- They are capable of becoming the opinion leader of the customer.

Thus as a sales manager one is expected to:
- Keep sales people confident and gung-ho all the time.
- Know the product or service (and that of the competitors) more than an expert and train or debug sales people in them with ease.
- Be himself honest and clean like a saint and setting the best example.
- Be capable of becoming the ?opinion leader of the opinion leaders? ? requiring the smoothest leadership skills.

How do we get sales people and managers like that? The answer is ? as usual ? that we make them. I will describe here a set of tools that proved to work very well:

SALES TRAINING

Selling and closing the sale requires skills. They can be learned and improved till perfection. But this is not the main point here. A salesman?s intention and success to sell is proportional to his self-confidence about being able to 1) get into good communication with anyone, 2) answer any possible questions, 3) handle all possible objections and situations and 4) close the sale. When he is confident he will sell. Regular sales training does teach him new tricks, new approaches but also reminds him how well he can sell. This all does add up to an ever increasing professionalism and confidence in one?s skills ? and to an ever increasing sales performance. Sales seminars once or twice a week work miracles.

I would like to remind fellow leaders that all of us have a duty of providing ongoing training or correction when we catch something non-optimum. It is especially true in sales management. A salesman?s enthusiasm can sag when he hits barriers. An antisocial customer or failures in a row can damage his confidence in his skills. A good sales manager does spot it, finds out what has happened and revives his self-confidence. It can require reviewing applicable sales materials or closing techniques, practicing with him or even referring him to an expert. Restoring the feeling of being able to 1) get into good communication with anyone, 2) answer any possible questions, 3) handle all possible objections and situations and 4) close the sale will restore good sales performance as well.

TRAINING IN THE PRODUCT

A salesman?s best weapon is that he believes in the product or service he is selling and knows it is better than that of the competitors. Just remember the MLM success of Amway or Herbalife. It requires training and regular briefing about the product, the market and the competitors. Making sure sales personnel attend briefings and updates regularly will provide the information to become an expert of the product and be able to answer any possible question of the client. Regular briefings and internal PR will keep any doubt or question mark a salesman might have about the product away.

SELLING THE BEST PRODUCT

Management has an additional duty in making sure sales people succeed: To provide the best choice on the market. It can be the best quality, the cheapest product, a unique service package, etc. The point is that the product has to have an advantage, a winning edge on the market all the time. That is the only way of having something a salesman can honestly talk about and sell. When he feels he has to lie in order to sell it will ruin his sales results. Give him something he can honestly recommend and sell.

BECOMING AN OPINION LEADER

Being an expert and having the best product on the market will turn a good salesman into an opinion leader. Let me demonstrate it through an example: I have a friend who was a salesman on the energy market for a long time. He has become a sales manager and sales trainer since. While he was still out on the field and selling for E.ON he has trained himself and kept himself up-to-date about the different tariffs on the whole market to make sure he gives accurate advice. He knew what he says is accurate and his clients discovered it as well. In a few years he has developed a good reputation and customers called him every time when the energy market changed. He knew the best tariffs and E.ON always had a segment where their prices were the best. So my friend has become an opinion leader of his clients.

People trust their opinion leaders, therefore no one sells better than an opinion leader.

Conclusion:

Sales management will have a grip on the market when sales people:
- Sell the best choice on the market (the best quality, the cheapest one, the smartest product, etc.)
- Are being trained in sales techniques regularly,
- Attend briefings and updates about the product and the market regularly.
These factors do add up to self-confident sales people and opinion leaders who will honestly recommend and sell your product.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Miklos Gasz (CBS) is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is management leadership. He has achieved a Degree in External Trade and Logistics from the Socrates Foreign Trade Academy certificates in Leadership, Management and Board Management from the Hubbard College. He has been employed as a Consultant for various companies and has experience within the franchise, FMCG, food and education industries. His clients or employers have included the Homeservice Sverige and e-managementconsulting.com. He has geographical working experience in the United States of America, Sweden and Hungary and he speaks English, Hungarian and German. His service skills incorporate management leadership and performance improvement.

To contact Miklos Gasz, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or alternatively please visit Miklos?s CBS Blog.

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