Back to Basics, Part 4: Breaking Down Core Salesperson Gaps and How to Fix Them

Hi, this is the fourth Instalment of my series – Back to Basics. the idea behind this is to explain and share the constraints that our foot soldiers (Front line sales persons) are facing. Though it is not that only they are facing the issues, but their line Managers may also be in the same boat also. Till now, I have tried to establish the problems / gaps faced by the Sales Teams to get the desired results. (Please see the previous three write ups).

After having listed the likely and most common causes I would like to elaborate on each one of those.

• Lack of Confidence – This stems from the fact the Sales Persons are not fully trained / Groomed, and may have other psychographic issues like not belonging to the milieu in which they are supposed to be working. This can be easily tackled by personal handling by the seniors/ imparting thorough product knowledge and communication package.
• Lack of Patience and Good listening Skills – The age-old premise that the sales person has to be constant talker is no longer valid. We need to listen to the customer carefully and understand what he is saying without actually saying it. The sales person is to be able to catch the hidden hints, if he has to understand the need of the customer.
• Lack of Interest – In most cases the sales person is really not interested in real issues but just wants to get out and take orders.
• Lack of Follow up – A sales is not complete once you have received the order, the follow up on host of other post-sales actions are needed to close the process.
• Improper Need Analysis- In today’s time this is one of the most important aspects in sales. The need of the customer may not be the product alone but the services / prices and other related things like lead time of the orders/ Logistics. So unless the sales person understands that, it is not possible to get repeat enquiry/orders and this service the Order.
• Lack of Relationship Building skills -This is one of the most important traits specially in the basic channel sales where the sales person has to be in constant touch/ repeatedly with the Channel partners.
• Over commitment – It is common to see that the Sales persons make tall claims about the products / services which cannot be substantiated by actions. This leads to an atmosphere of distrust, leading to break down of relations with persons and most importantly with the company resulting in long term loss of business.
• Jumping to Conclusion – This is culmination of all the above points where the sales person assumes that “one size fits” all and he starts to offer solutions based on ten preconceived notions/ideas.

It is not implied that all of the above are missing in any person who is not successful. It is mix of the above which may be different from person to person.

It is also not an unsurmountable problem and can be easily solved by first understanding gaps and designing training or communication package for the Sales Team, and it is the role of the Management to give proper tools to the team and see the positive results.

 

Disclaimer – The points above may have reference from some article/ papers, I have tried to provide explanation on those.