Are you a sales person?

In your anxiety to sell, achieve target and to earn your incentives, you should not resort to any unprofessional practices such as making false claims about product, offering false promises to customers, faking your bills and so on. Your long-term career will be at risk In the present day, market place has been crowded with consumers having too many choices to choose from. Take for example how you buy a mobile phone. First scan the options available in the market. Then do some reference check with friends and web check; read as many reviews as possible. Finally, you go to the shop and you face the sales person who adds his or her bit to your buying decision. Recall how often you got influenced by the sales person in making the final purchase decision! That speaks about the power of selling. For a business to succeed, for an idea to get you revenues or a good product to find its customer, sales person is the key! It is more so these days when customers are spoilt with choice. Practically, every business needs sales people. I have heard from small to medium sized software companies that they needed people to sell their services. I have received requests for sales people from an architectural and design firm, from an MBA institute, from an infrastructure company, from herbal health care product company, from medical diagnostic center, from agri products organization and so on. The paradox however is that there are not many who are available for these jobs. I said it as a paradox because if you see many of the MBA students, they mostly opt for marketing specialization followed by finance. Why is it there still a short supply of sales people? The reason that I could gather is the serious gap in the understanding of what is a sales job. Organizations expect sales people to be on the look out for prospective customers, reach out to them and ensure sale is made. The students on the other hand are taught heavily marketing and some elements of sales. However, students may find 'marketing' more interesting than 'sales'. They may think it as more elegant, intellectual and strategic. And less legwork! Due to this gap in understanding and expectations, we end up with an ironical situation of many sales &marketing students passing out, yet organizations not finding enough sales people. As an alternative, organizations are hiring graduates or engineers and placing them in sales jobs. They may not have complete understanding of professional selling and therefore struggle to experience early success. Let us understand the five essential factors for a sales person. Product Knowledge: A good sales person must know the product in and out. You cannot convince a prospective customer with half knowledge. It is also important to understand broadly the market and the other options similar to your product. It helps you to answer all queries from the potential customer at the time of buying. Personality: You need to be a confident, pleasing, communicative and friendly personality. You need not be meek; at the same time, you cannot project yourself as over confident and better than the customer. Your personality should help you in engaging the customer and not scare them away. Persistence: You need to demonstrate patience; you must also realize that every person that you come in contact may not end up buying your product. In such moments, you should not lose your heart; you should not take it personally; instead, you must continue your efforts.

Pay for performance: When you are considering a career in sales, do not expect a high pay packet. Usually, the guaranteed monthly pay is kept low and more of your compensation is linked to your sales performance. Companies are telling that you achieve your sales targets and you earn your incentives. It means a lot of accountability and some uncertainty - especially during the early stages of sales career. Once you gain confidence, you will know how you can make your money!

Professionalism: In your anxiety to sell, achieve target and to earn your incentives, you should not resort to any unprofessional practices such as making false claims about product, offering false promises to customers, faking your bills and so on. Your long-term career will be at risk. Check out what you think of these factors; if you feel comfortable, you may be the sales person that the market is looking for!