Are Your Sales Executives Marketing Or Selling?

How much business is you company losing due to sales executives using the marketing approach when meeting with existing or potential clients? Over eighty percent of sales executives in South Africa actually market their company’s products and services. The modus operandi of a sales executive in today’s business arena, when meeting with clients is to tell the client about themselves, their company and products or services. The effect of this can cost company money, because when you market instead of selling, targets are difficult to reach, forecasts are hard to determine, sales pipelines are exaggerated, and sales cycles are extended. There are many reasons for this, unstructured company orientation programs, outdated company sales training, company in-house sales training programs that are not refreshed, sales trainers that do not have a proven track record in sales training staff, and the fact that a large number of experienced sales people who should be passing on skills have left the corporate world to venture on their own, to mention but a few. In a survey involving over 14 000 clients in South Africa covering a cross section of private company’s, government and parastatals, mainly in procurement covering job designation from junior buyers to senior executive level, this is what clients wanted from sales executives selling to them:nn• PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE: sales executives who understand their companies products and services emphaticallyn• CLIENT KNOWLEDGE: sales executives who understand the clients company and the way they operaten• INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE: sales executives who understand the industry that the clients company is in, how they operate in this environment and the issues that they facen• SITUATIONAL SELLING SKILLS: sales executives with less of a generic approach more focused on the specific needs of individual companies. sales executives that are able to communicate information in the way that the client would like to receive it. How do your sales executives rate against these criteria?nHow do your sales executives rate against other company’s sales executives in your industry?nHow do you differentiate your sales executives from competitors in the industry?nHow do you deliver what your client wants, better than anyone else? To change the way a sales person sells is difficult, as it is hard to change personality traits, but training a sales person on how to sell, with understanding and ensuring that the implementation of the skills is not immediate but over a period of time which will enhance the productivity of the individual. nIn order to equip sales executives with the skills and understanding as to their function, and to bring in the business in a cost effective, consistent and measurable way the following needs to be focused on:nn• To understand that eighty percent of the sale is done prior to meeting the client, this is achieved by following the seven basic steps to a sale, namely: 1. Researchn2. Planning and Preparationn3. Identifying the Decision Makern4. Entering into a Dialogue with the Clientn5. Taking Actionn6. Closing the Dealn7. Locking the Dealnn• In addition, sales executives need to understand the following: 1. Where the client is is in their purchasing cycle?n2. Presenting a business casen3. Creating awareness and needn4. Comparison, feature and promotion of company product or servicesn5. Making an offern6. Post purchasennSales is not an exact science, making a sale is largely in the hands of a company’s sales executive, if they are not using the right approach or are ill equipped to represent your company, your competitor will more than likely benefit, chance favors the prepared mind! Marc Thompson is a Managing member of The Communication Academy, and is responsible for all sales and management training. In addition to in-house management courses they run a two day workshop entitled “Selling with Confidence” where all of these issues are addressed. Contact Marc by e-mail: marc@thecommunicationacademy.co.za or by calling: 012 345 4866. They also do in-house workshops for company’s that would like to train large groups. For more information visit: www.thecommunicationacademy.co.zan