We know that selling is the measure of success in any business or activity, so it will be understood that selling more and better represents the life cycle of progress in any organization.
However, the most common vision that exists about sales management carried out by salespeople lies in concentrating the focus only on the interview that the salesperson carries out "face to face" with their opportunities.
Although it is totally true that sales are obtained in the interviews of the seller with their qualified opportunities that have purchase potential, this vision does not delve into other essential aspects of their management so that the maximum productive potential that every seller has is reached.
I have highlighted this aspect in previous articles by defining sales management as a "Productive and Continuous Professional Sales Process" ©, where the quality of the seller's management will determine the satisfaction it will provide in each contact made with a meaning high productivity.
In other words: "A good sales closing is always wonderful, but many good closings represent extraordinary management."
When a seller wants or is asked to sell more, in addition to his effectiveness in analyzing the true requirements of his interviewee, his effective arguments of the best option to satisfy them or solve them until the closing is obtained, he should add the valuable seasoning of the productivity in their actions.
For this reason, I often define the best salesperson who does not have opportunities to sell, as an “unemployed salesperson” since they will wander around wasting their valuable potentially productive time by not knowing who to sell to each working day.
In such a condition each day of management "will go out to see what happens" instead of "going out to make it happen".
The 3 keys
For both independent salespeople, as well as those who lead a sales team, if the following recommendations are taken into account and applied correctly in each case, it will not only translate into a better cycle but it will become a successful sales year.
1. The source of opportunities. Each seller must prepare a list of potential buyers to contact on each business day of the month of the year. Their number must always exceed more than the sales quota for each period of the year. This is crucial since in case of not having it, the difficulties to achieve the goals will be perceived day by day without a possible solution.
2. The productive administration of each day. Based on the fulfillment of the previous key, the salesperson must plan each day of management, arranging interviews in order to maximize every minute of their valuable time so that they can dedicate the maximum of their sales potential in obtaining possible results. It is important here to establish interviews that minimize their displacement as well as develop contingency alternatives that avoid wasting time in the face of unforeseen changes in the schedule.
3. The valuable source of information: your greatest asset. Although the salesperson has a marked tendency towards improvisation and is generally messy in their records, we must accept that only the organized salesperson and the most meticulous with their management information is the one who turns out to be the most productive. Here the administration of the information it has for efficient performance plays a preponderant role. The daily registration in files (physical or digital) of each contact made, the updated means of contact (address, e-mail, telephone numbers, etc.), what was raised in each contact and the key details of the requirements of the interviewees, their concerns, etc., represent essential aspects to develop a continuous, personalized and highly productive relationship in the short, medium and long term in its management.
These three essential aspects are effective to be implemented and incorporated through Professional Sales Management Workshops (see, where the key concepts adapted to each organization and its management modality are incorporated, achieving an immediate operational application at the end of the activity.
Among the aspects included in this activity is the detailed description of the profile of potential buyers in the market as well as the source and most effective way of contacting them in order to form growing portfolios of qualified buyers that ensure an inexhaustible source of sales possibilities.
Those who already apply these three essential keys in their management not only ensure the fulfillment of each monthly objective but also exceed it. For this reason they persist in their application and permanently perfect them so that they provide them with more and better results every month of the year.
Finally, do you and your salespeople come out to see what happens or do you really want to go out and make it happen?
© Copyright 2009, by Martín E. Heller.
