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Are you a born salesman or made into a salesman?

Last night on ‘The Money Show’ on Talk Radio 702 and Cape Talk 567, Bruce Whitfield and I chatted about ‘Sales’ and the challenges that you need to overcome.

A Salesperson is the most visible and perhaps the only outward manifestation of your business seen by customers. They play a very important role of not only upholding a company’s  image but also holding the customers hand and generating leads into sales. This sales professional makes the difference when it comes to both making and maximizing the sales. We liked, twitter follower, Thandanai Khoza (@thandakhoza) from Sakina Energy Solutions definition of ‘Sales’ “Selling is not telling, it is identifying need/void and fulfilling it”.

Our callers pointed out some of the challenges with “Sales’:

Language – David from Benoni who is in the Event/AV/Advertising industry, said that languages posses a challenge to him. Yes, we agree that this is a universal problem but confidence is the key. If you don’t have confidence in the service you offer, how can you expect your potential customer to have confidence in your product? An easy strategy for David, is to use a different language and that is the language of successful delivery of service. It’s called the customer testimonial. Ask for them and collect them and use them to help you with any language barrier you experience.

You need to answer the following questions; Who do you want to target? What type of customer are you looking for? Do you understand your buyer?  Collect testimonials from your “happy clients” that show how you exceed your expectations. Know your product ————Ă  Know your customer

Only I can sell! - The most common problem we as entrepreneurs face is ‘Only I can sell and need another 10 of me to grow’. Caller Terry from Gallo Manor, who owns an Events Company, highlighted this problem. She has tried to grow her event company by creating a RSVP program, a product, which she now needs to sell. The problem Terry is facing is she cannot find the right sales person who understands her product fully and who can cold canvas and generate leads for her. I suggested she firstly needs to work on her ‘Sales System’. You need to have an efficient system in place because if you don’t…how can you expect to create another ‘you’?

Selecting the right sales person is a critical and requires a lot of attention. So when recruiting sales staff, keep the following three aspects in mind:

Selection

  • Work with good stock! Go beyond assessing interviewees past experience. Put forward scenarios and see how they deal with them. This will give you an insight into their passion and ability to think on their feet.

Structure

  • Structure determines behavior!
  • A good salesman will be confident enough to accept a smaller basic and receive an aggressive sales commission structure which should be uncapped!

Sales Pipeline

  • Craft your selling process into whats called a sales pipeline. This maps out the steps that include lead generation through to deal closure and retention of customers.
  • Think about who your customers are, how they buy and from that build your sales pipeline.
  • Develop training for each step and along with that, train your sales staff on the targets that you have set.
  • Manage your sales staff against targets. It they achieve them, great. If not, provide more training support and if still not look for a new sales person!
  • If your problem persists, come see us and we will work with you to build a sales engine that will deliver results!

Remember…..the purpose of an entrepreneur is to build an asset of value. An asset of value is a business that of a day you can successfully raise funds for or even sell for a premium price. Systems are KEY to building an asset of value so please, start now, begin today and systematise you business !!!

Have PASSION, work hard, make money,…… and sell like you mean it!

 

Author: Pavlo Phitidis

As an entrepreneur and director of various businesses, Pavlo offers over 20 years of direct experience in conceptualising, starting and building business enterprises in South Africa. He has brought to market business assets in excess of R1bn in the forms of family businesses, company start-ups, company turnarounds and a number of acquisitions for the purpose of company listings.

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  • Great experience working with you to gain clarity of what needs changing in my business. Stephen Jordan Access to Africa - 25 August 2011, Marketing Module

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