We all make mistakes. Being perfectible humans, it must be accepted that it is a well-recognized way of learning solidly, especially if there is the capacity for self-criticism and the intention to improve so as not to commit them again.
This very old human procedure turns out to be imperfect in many cases. This is because the daily worries and the innumerable commitments that must be made within the few hours of each day, make reflection moments almost impossible to correct when they are detected.
The experience has been replaced by another very effective individual procedure: that of learning and, in addition, the applied intelligence of those who supply it is recognized by learning from the mistakes of others, avoiding the high cost of making them.
Reading about specific topics and news that describe other business mistakes contributes significantly to raising awareness and preventing them.
In our days, learning by experiences is only carried out with low risk for the company. Individual training generates experiences in training activities, providing similar situations (cases) to real ones and then providing the knowledge and skills that allow them to be avoided and even overcome.
In business, due to consulting and training experiences, and even in medium and large companies, I have seen that many mistakes are made in the sales area.
They affect the achievement of such coveted achievement in the exercise of their representatives, as well as in that of the other members of the organization.
Knowing them implies the first positive step to be able to detect them, but they will only be modified if the appropriate actions are taken for each particular case in order to avoid suffering the economic and image damages that they represent for the company, its managers, its products and services.
For this reason, our contribution is detailed below to contribute to the identification of our own to evolve towards a state of excellence.
Conceptual ignorance of what it means to sell. When one wishes to increase his sales and concludes that there are no clear possibilities of achieving it, it is a clear symptom of this lack. Knowing "what it is", "how it is achieved" and "what is required to do it" constitutes the beginning of many satisfactions for achievements. Where "prospecting" constitutes the provision of the necessary raw material from the natural production chain in terms of permanent sales results.
• Exacerbated confidence in the product or service. Under this name are those who, for having an excellent product or service and even a certain exclusivity, consider that with a little advertising the sale is assured. And they trust that telephones will ring as in glorious times past. In this way they display an attitude of pride and ignore all the important aspects that must be considered when establishing the sales strategy with all its details.
• Sellers and sales managers are solely responsible for the sale. Although it is true that they are the ones in charge of selling and entering the fruits in terms of "business", by spreading this type of comments from the management, it is separated from other complementary and necessary responsibilities of the other sectors that should share the company's sales goals. This encourages "fifths" or "fiefdoms" to take root, even blocking future operations due to the negative attitude they transmit in their behavior. The philosophy that should prevail from the leadership of the company to overcome this blockade is to assume, disseminate and demand in terms of attitudes that "the entire company sells" and the responsibility for this happening, lies with the managers and the president of the business.
• Absence of a Quality Customer Service program. In the absence of an objective method that allows establishing the sales opportunities that are lost due to dissatisfactions generated with attitudes described in the previous point and contrary to the wishes of management for the different non-sales representatives, it gives sufficient reasons to consider the implementation of a program that entails concepts, criteria and attitudes aimed at always achieving satisfaction with every contact that is linked to the organization.
• Not having an ideal seller selection profile. Selecting representatives "by eye" or "with a nose" as the only decision-making tool leads to errors that increase turnover, selection and training costs, and what is even more damaging: they deteriorate the company's image. For this reason, every company must have a vendor profile that responds to the type of product or service it sells, the image of the company that is to be transmitted in each contact with prospects and clients, with the potential for greater future responsibilities in the organization., etc.
• The incorporation of highly experienced sellers. Omitting it through the incorporation of highly experienced representatives represents the most common signal that identifies these cultists who do not appreciate or evaluate that in doing so, they incorporate all the vices that operate as a "market virus" because by not correcting them in a timely manner, They begin to deteriorate relations with clients and prospects from the very beginning of their activities and for as long as they are in practice without training. In addition, it is very likely that the desired results will not be achieved consistently and with satisfaction, thus starting a very fast and painful path to the image of the company and its products, which both cost so much to achieve and which it is desired to preserve and extend in the future. market niche. The explanation is very simple:what was good in another company, does not necessarily coincide with the peculiarities of its own. The "seal" that differentiates one company from another, through its representatives, is only the product of induction and "tailor-made" training, adequate supervision and support for daily management.
• Not having one or more sales strategies. When there are no sales strategies in a clear and objectively specified way from the management (sales management method), it is difficult to interpret and apply them by the representatives. If this does not exist and there are no other complementary alternatives, it does not allow the organization to reduce the risks of unexpected variations in demand within its niche, nor to capture the real sales possibilities available to increase the organization's income.
• Sell without objectives. Lacking objectives in the sale is similar to the take-off of an airplane with no defined destination in terms of the airport where to land. Generally caused by planning trial and error, or for different conceptual or pragmatic reasons, several companies discontinue their application. Surely believing that just by assigning a high sales commission, it is possible to definitively set aside a key task that seemed useless to them.
• Lack of a management control board. Continuing with the previous example, imagine getting on a plane that must try to arrive at an airport without instruments, in the middle of a storm, descending from 10Kms in height and decreasing from a cruising speed of 900Km / h. Like pilots, the supervisor or manager must have objective elements that allow her to establish her most optimal position in relation to her goal. If they do not have the information that allows them to lead the team and correct individual deviations in a timely manner, the flight generally ends in emergencies that affect the entire company.
• Ignore the history, the mission of the company and the importance of the role it will play in it.
This aspect, covered by induction programs in all the leading companies, constitutes the previous step to the specific immediate subsequent training. This induction stage achieves a key element for management: «identification of all the members with the objectives of the company, its management philosophy and integration into its culture». It is valid for all sales employees, as well as for employees from all other sectors and hierarchical levels of the organization.
The frank and direct style in which these errors in sales are described, in no way invalidates their effects, often perceptible but forgotten in their rectification, when the goals are not achieved in terms of results.
The key issue is to establish which or which of these errors may be being committed, to face a quick adjustment and rectification in the deviations found.
Objectively recognizing that the market is recessive or difficult to achieve the goals in terms of sales, is a generic aspect on which it is not possible to act to reverse it. While everything that is done internally to adapt and overcome it, allows us to face many strategic options that will surprise us favorably with their effects on sales.
© Copyright 2008, by Martín E. Heller
