If we truly want to achieve this, let us know that knowing all the essential aspects of sales management, it would be impossible to do it through a single article.
However, we can highlight the motivation that the theme has always generated and that will always continue to produce since everyone needs, wants and wants to sell more and more.
Starting the analysis, so that everyone can draw their best conclusions, we can express that the results obtained through it is only " a question of attitude."
We know that we depend on the fruits that the sale provides to survive and evolve, reinvesting, expanding, growing and enjoying everything that means obtaining greater and better income.
But the generalized improvisation in its exercise can lead us to adopt or assume different attitudes towards sales that threaten the income we want to generate.
One of them consists in assuming a passive and even contemptuous attitude regarding its execution, as reflected by many clients dissatisfied with the deficient attention received when they simply needed to satisfy a need or solve a problem and had to undergo these experiences.
We call such passive or contemptuous attitudes on the part of those who exercise it as " traditional selling ", for reasons of respect and elegance. And the behaviors that these attitudes produce are classified as malpractice in the exercise of the profession, as they are ineffective and especially because they do not meet the minimum expectations of the interviewees themselves.
It is precisely this deficient behavior that has given it the bad image that the sale still has today, even in spite of being such an important management for the survival and evolution of any business or activity.
The most salient features of malpractice in the sale can be seen in a recent investigation that we carried out and published on our site and that is extensively developed in the first chapter of the ebook « Keys to a successful sale » (1) and interpreted through of various articles.
This attitude produces a very negative reaction in every potential interested in finding out to buy the products or services that are offered. It has an inexorable result over time, as I describe it in this work as " the vicious circle of traditional sales " and that concludes with the life of the business or activity itself.
By performing in this way, the merchant and his assistants act as if they were the kings, and as such make their hierarchical difference felt with all the subjects who come to bother him so that he can advise them in order to make the best purchase decisions..
Another remarkable feature of the "traditional sale" can be seen in a marked passivity described as " waiting for someone to come and buy me."
The origin of this attitude comes from the lack of essential knowledge about sales management and the lack of interest in investing attention and time in incorporating them.
By waiting for them to come to buy me, it forces us to rely solely on having good products and services as a sufficient condition for interested parties and potential buyers to find out and go to them to stock up.
The most striking thing about this is that those who still persist in this attitude, do not modify it even when they may be aware that there is a large competition in their area and territory of action and that perhaps they act the same, better or worse than them.
Perhaps it is due to our Latin idiosyncrasy or the historical inheritance received, where the ease of believing that " we know enough about sales " prevails, but when the results are not obtained in sufficient quality and quantity, it clearly shows us the error that is made in sustain this false and erroneous belief.
Comparisons with our competitors who may act similarly and even worse than themselves are of little use. It happens that not everyone has the same problem, even when the symptom manifests itself through poor sales results in both cases.
Easy, but unsubstantiated, answers are risky.
An example of this we can see in how we decide on our greeting. When a toothache or back hurts, the first thing we decide to do is mitigate the pain without making a clear diagnosis of its origin.
In this way, we go to the nearest pharmacy and request a pain reliever to alleviate the discomfort but we do not eliminate the cause.
The interesting thing here is to recognize that we know, since what should be done is simply to turn to the specialist (dentist or traumatologist, respectively), who after an objective diagnosis can determine the appropriate treatment to reverse the reason for the ailment and the disappearance of the disease. pain, avoiding taking risks to our health through improvisations.
In the antipodes of traditional selling, there is another attitude to consider called "selling professionally".
The main feature that differs from the previous one is the fact of accepting that selling is a verb: the action of satisfying or solving problems for potential consumers or clients with the products or services that are offered. And like any action that meets these characteristics, it needs key fundamentals, effective and appropriate techniques, predisposition, aptitude and desire to delight others with the best of its own offer through each contact with current and potential clients.
The basis that sustains and contains those who practice "professional sales" is "suitability." A term with full force and that many potential consumers expect to find in each seller of each organization they go to for information, advice and guidance to make their best purchase decisions and that, after buying or hiring, are real.
Throughout more than three decades I have been able to verify personally, exercising it and helping to carry it out in many companies that did not find a certain direction for their management, which can attest that their existence produces consistent results and provides growth and evolution of the business, as long as it continues to travel along said path.
The other important differentiating feature is found in the "responsibility" of those who sell professionally, since they know, understand and accept that the results are only the effect generated by their own effective and efficient actions in their daily practice.
Conclusions
According to an ancient Chinese proverb: " If you do not change the direction, you will end up in the exact place you are going ".
The first positive step towards professional selling is to become aware of its existence.
As with all things that must be done efficiently, the sale requires professionalized performance, which implies acquiring basic knowledge, having a working method and having skills or abilities that can be incorporated to exercise it with quality and productively.
Such fundamentals and concepts are not difficult, and they only require the predisposition of each businessperson, manager, entrepreneur and independent professional to learn them conceptually and apply them effectively and consistently over time.
Without it, its application will not produce the desired results spontaneously or by Divine grace, but only from the change of attitude towards it.
The subsistence, development and positioning of any organization, its brands, products and services in each market niche depend exclusively on it: quality, consistency, productivity and profitability in its sales actions.
recommendations
All these aspects, and many more, are developed for their effective implementation in any organization or activity in the following book.
(1) Ebook «Keys to a successful sale».
© Copyright, by Martín E. Heller - www.HellerConsulting.com
