B2C Sales Series, Part 2: Fixing Skill & Communication Gaps on the Front Line
Hi Folks , this is the second part of the series which I intend to continue. The purpose is to address the issues faced by all the Companies operating in the B2C segments and selling Traditional OTC products.
We can start with the grass root level sales teams and the issues / gaps in promoting the products that the management has decided on or manufactured in the respective companies.
What I have seen and experienced – there are 2 basic issues
1) The salespersons do not have the necessary skills to meet the targets. Necessary skills include lack of process knowledge/ lack of product knowledge and host of other qualities. I will deal with those in subsequent articles. In today’s times, the salespersons have a horizon of working for 2-3 years in any company so the motivation to apply themselves to upgrade is low but that is not a universal phenomenon.
2) The most important factor is communication or, lack of it, in informing the front-line sales team about the Management vision. In most cases the message of Management doesn’t reach in its original form to the Front line. Most companies, being hierarchical, there are few levels in between and the intent or even the content of the message gets distorted.
Both of the above points have a large or most significant role is many companies struggling to meet the revenue Targets. Once the targets are not met the blame falls on the Salespersons who may not be the only party to the failure.
Addressing these two should be the top priority at all levels of the Management. The best part is that both these issues can be easily addressed by Training and clear definition of goal. The quality of salespersons and management can be improved drastically, but as they say, any problem can be solved but first identify and accept the problem.
External help is the most obvious choice since the management may have a myopic view of the situation. There is no quick fix solution but a step by step build up the Sales culture.
