It is common that in difficult times, the urgencies caused by low sales come to obstruct the clarity that its leaders require to get the ship in shape and on course to reach its goal.
Through different experiences of management consulting, it has been possible to observe repeated behaviors that are very opportune to analyze for their improvement.
In several cases of analysis regarding the entry of a new salesperson to a team, organizational errors often occur that lead him not only to incorporate and reiterate pre-existing errors in the management of the team, but also to add to the group vices that come with the representative, developed in their training and previous management.
It happens that a few hours after joining, without an induction and training process on products or services, and even less on sales and management techniques, they come out to face a difficult challenge.
It has been observed that many new sellers generally start out by selling to existing Customers. This is great if this happens: there is no more effective and quicker sale than selling to a Client who knows the quality of their products or services and the level of satisfaction that they obtain. But it turns out that there is a natural limit that prevents them from increasing.
The drawback in many organizations comes from not having established a prospecting plan (prospect search) to permanently provide new and enough prospects (potential customers) to ensure and achieve the sales that are required in their objectives.
The natural consequence of this lack is that sellers miss their productive potential by trying to sell more in a closed circle of opportunities already satisfied.
The only way out of this vicious circle is to carry out sales procedures, as carried out by companies with professional management for many years (Prospecting) and that for different reasons of culture towards selling, are not carried out in many companies in our country. medium.
Not only must the salesperson carry out face-to-face interviews with opportunities in his niche, but the task of procuring them is an inescapable part of his management.
Depending on the type of product, service and industry, to make a sale normally requires from 5 to 10 prospects contacted and previously qualified.
If the salesperson lacks such a number of prospects and has simply been waiting for them to call them on the phone or for the company to do an effective advertising to provide them, they are not playing a professional role toward achieving their goals.
And in such a case, it is recommended that your managers adopt a realistic vision and attitude if they intend to achieve the sales goals set for each period in such circumstances.
Finally, we can say that this is the beginning of a continuous productive process of vital results for the organization, whether it is a sole proprietorship, SME or large company.
Only by developing prospecting tasks consistently and permanently, it is possible to find that missing link that prevented the organization from achieving greater sales results.
© Copyright 2008, by Martín E. Heller
