In today’s sophisticated and competitive marketplace, the professional salesperson is not the fast-talking, hard-closing, uninformed and unethical “peddler” portrayed in literature and entertainment media. The professional salesperson is a solutions provider to the client.
Personal selling is the process of seeking out people who have a particular need, helping them to recognize and define that need, demonstrating to them how a particular product or service satisfies that need, and persuading them to make a decision to use that service or product.
Therefore, salespeople function in two ways. First, they identify customer needs, determine ways to meet them and then provide that information to the customer. Salespeople also work in the other direction: they identify customer needs that cannot be satisfied by the company’s present line and communicate those needs to the company for consideration in the development of new products and services.
Selling is vital to the survival of any company. Without sales, there are no customers providing reasons for the company’s existence, much less income to the firm. Unfortunately, the sales profession has gathered some negative characteristics that are not valid in our current business environment. Sales forces, which are perceived as having friendly but unsophisticated, unintelligent and unethical representatives, are losing market share.
Surveys have identified aspects of selling and salespeople that are definitely not complimentary. Among them:
Sales is just a job, not a career; salespeople must lie and be deceitful to succeed; selling brings out the worst in people; selling only benefits the seller; selling is no job for a person with talent or brains.
This perception is perhaps more important than ever before. Because of increasing competitive and economic pressures, companies are downsizing or rightsizing their sales force. Often, they are turning to their salespeople to help reevaluate budgets. It is the positive-imaged salesperson who will retain the trust, loyalty and budget consideration.
The old style “Willie Loman” did not do enough research on the buyer’s current and future needs. He did not receive the necessary marketing, technical, and other training required from his company or supplier. He will tend to lose his accounts despite his regular calls and friendly smile.
The successful, salesperson is known by the following:
- Personal Integrity – Continued success in sales requires the highest possible ethical standards in dealings with prospects, established customers, and the salesperson’s own company. A salesperson who lies or deceives customers in order to complete a sale is soon out of a job because customers do not repeat orders and prospects soon get the word that this person is not to be trusted. An outstanding salesperson has high values and operates in the most ethical manner.
- Personality Structure – Sales is a demanding career. The salesperson must have a strong internal personality structure, a positive self-image, and a sense of self-worth. A person who is unable to accept the reality that not every prospect becomes a client is devastated by failure to make a sale with every presentation and feels an overwhelming sense of personal rejection.
The persistent myth that salespeople are arrogant, overbearing, and excessively aggressive belies reality. Successful salespeople are instead highly empathetic, interested in other people and their needs, and eager to be real service to customers and clients.
- Personal Relationships – Successful salespeople are in an excellent position to attain status and recognition in both their company and the community. They are recognized as productive, capable professionals. Selling need never be personally degrading. Salespeople are not required to pretend, to abdicate their personalities, or to become doormats for customers.
Success in professional selling does not call for assuming an inferior position socially, psychologically or financially. The most successful salespeople find that their customers become friends with whom they form lasting social attachments. They derive great personal satisfaction from their ability to perform a needed service for their clients while earning a rewarding income for themselves.
- Personal Abilities – Success in sales requires high levels of both intellect and developed skills. Salespeople must be able to understand sometimes quickly and almost intuitively – a customer’s business needs and problems. They must interpret those needs and suggest viable solutions even if customers themselves do not have a clear picture or cannot verbalize those needs clearly.
Salespeople need a broad knowledge of the field in which they operate, and of the ways their clients’ and prospects’ business perform. They must also understand people and how to relate to them positively. The development of these skills requires not only intelligence but also meticulous training.
A look at the leaders of Fortune 500 companies shows that many established their careers in sales. It was the career path in sales that forced them to know the company’s products and services and also those people in departments such as R&D, manufacturing, customer service, and operations, which made creation, production and delivery feasible. With today’s complicated products, team selling is more prevalent. The salesperson must capitalize on communication strengths both internally as well as externally.
The sales profession represents one of the highest paid careers. The skills of the sales professional include not only product/service knowledge but also basic psychology, basic accounting, computer expertise, up-to-date industry information, and strong oral and written skills.
Perhaps no other job requires so many major and minor talents. Perhaps that is why very few careers offer the personal and financial benefits that a sales career provides.