Do we dispatch or sell by making our sales?

The question in the title of this article tries to provoke the reflection of SME entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, managers and sales managers who sell their products and / or services in customer service locations or by telephone, who will discover here that the difference between one and Another option involves an opportunity to generate more sales in each of its customer service locations and the continuity of your business.

This development of the topic is valid both for those who attend the entering public as well as for those who receive their clients' orders by telephone.

In order to facilitate the analysis, let's define what is and what happens in each of these management options:

Pack off

This term is used pejoratively in business jargon to describe those who are called sellers and are only limited to providing the potential buyer with what they are requesting, without any additional intervention other than to deliver the requested goods, register the operation and specify your collection.

Under this transaction, the increase in sales can only occur if there is an increase in the availability of money to potential buyers, from a special promotion that includes a real decrease in the price of the merchandise, fundamentally.

The responsibility of the seller, with little or no training, should only be present and respond to what each buyer requests, since that is the only basis of this generalized modality where each operation is exclusively transferred in the intelligence, knowledge and Previous investigations that you have made to make your purchase request.

This modality can be seen in the management carried out by the main chains of local electrical appliances, clothing, hardware stores, pharmacies, perfumeries, software, hardware, spare parts, leather goods, as well as in many other branches and existing items.

The attention is "elementary", brief and with little courtesy due to the lack of profile of the representative and the lack of adequate training for performance in such an important position, ignorance of the benefit provided by his offer, which in many cases is manifested in a bad predisposition and quality in the attention to each current or potential client.

The companies that erroneously act in this way, select and incorporate such representatives under the mistaken belief that they find it economical and easy to replace in the event of resignations or dismissals, and also do not require “training costs” (instead of being a good investment).

Those who have and apply this misconception in their businesses do not contemplate one of the important damages that are generated in the medium and long term: "the image that each interviewee takes" when they leave their premises, having bought or not, which will know how to warn your friends and family to avoid a sure dissatisfaction.

Finally, this modality is the one that has come to misrepresent the concept of sale over time, damaging it as a key and important profession in any business or activity.

To sell

Selling is a profession of service to always honestly satisfy others by advising them on their best option to satisfy a need or solve a problem that all their potential buyers that we interview daily manifest to us.

For this, it is necessary to have representatives “according to what is needed” based on their vocation in the first place. (See Sales Management Consulting)

But since nobody is born with all the qualities that are required to perform in an “ideal” way in office, before starting to attend, you should: know all the products and / or services of the company or business, learn to conduct a counseling interview to benefit the consumer and naturally lead them to make their best purchasing decisions. (See http://www.hellerconsulting.com/capacitacion_ventas_empresas.htm and / or http://www.hellerconsulting.com/libros_de_ventas.htm La Venta Profesional Retail)

Then, when receiving cordially and with the best “good vibes” that you have, you will not only consult your client about the reason for their visit, but will also delve into the situation that gave rise to their request. Only in this way will you be able to complement or supplement your original order (if applicable) with what can really satisfy or really and broadly solve your need and / or your problem.

The opportunity represented by the advice and the possible complementation or supplementation in the attention to the public of each interviewee daily is an increase in monthly sales of at least 20% compared to the management that we have previously described as "dispatching".

Whoever decides or not to buy in that interview, in this way will leave with the positive image of having been attended by a good seller and will always remember the fact that they took care of analyzing their particular case.

In order for this modality to become a reality in each company, a change of mentality is required in the managers of each business or activity, as well as the determination to take it to the ground of the facts and improve it permanently.

This implies assuming the responsibility of investing in: selecting and successfully incorporating only those who meet the seller profile that the company has developed for their business, training and perfecting them in the management of selling professionally, stimulating their productivity, among other valid measures. for each heading and business in particular, applying clear "rules of the game" for all its members so that they always know what they must do to belong to a key group in the organization.

Conclusions

After the descriptive and comparative analysis that we have developed here, it allows us to reach conclusions that will surely be shared due to their objectivity and rationality.

When we are poorly served and poorly advised as potential buyers, the first thing we must accept is that it is not the fault of the representative but of whoever has appointed him to serve us there.

Deepening this reflection, we must accept that if this occurs it is because managers or owners "do not know, cannot, are not interested or want" to improve their quality and efficiency in selling on their premises.

The persistence in leaving everything “as we have been doing it” and trust in a sales modality questioned by many clients, generate the following aspects to the detriment of the company:

it is satisfied with only 80% instead of 100% that could potentially be sold every day of the year under a professionalized modality;

they generate permanent dissatisfaction to those who buy, which in the medium term will affect an inexorable drop in their monthly sales levels;

it detracts from the image of the company and its brands, seriously jeopardizing the success of a promising business and facilitating the terrain for the entry of efficient competitors.

If we want to establish what are the reasons for this widespread malpractice, we can perhaps exist this conformity has a reason related to the knowledge of what it is and how a professional sale of its articles or its services is carried out.

Aware that in life "things do not happen by themselves but we produce them with our actions", in the event that the reading of these truths provokes the reflection of only one of those who are still in the first of the modalities here Described and lead you towards improving your sales in quality and productivity, I will feel the writing and publishing of this article was worth it.