Sales 101 - How to Increase Your Sales Income - Part 7

SALES 101 - How to Increase Your Sales Income – Part 7

By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting May 2009.

Everyone in South Africa is talking about the skills shortage.  Actually the skills shortage is not only linked to South Africa, but appears to be a world wide problem.

When we talk about skills shortages we immediately think of people in the engineering or financial type world.  Sadly they are not the only skilled shortages we have.

The majority of my clients who have product to sell are really battling to find skilled sales staff.

Gone are the days when people just left school and walked into a sales position that then served them well.  Gone are the days that when just anybody could become a sales person.

Clients today are a lot more sophisticated in their requirements.  There is a lot more choice available and people have a clearer picture of what it is that they want and they want to be given what they want rather than what the sales person think that they want or alternatively what the sales person may have available to sell.

The bottom line therefore is that your sales team need to be taught the skills and techniques that they will need in order to secure a sale.

So teaching them the skill (if you yourself have it) should become a matter of priority or you should make the decision to invest the time and money in insuring that they are adequately trained in the skill of selling and that they have the basic requirements of product knowledge.

Once they are trained, ensuring that their expectation and yours meet in the middle and that their perception is same as yours will also assist exponentially in ensuring that your sales force is moving in the direction that you want them to go.

Defining their roles, giving them realistic targets and rewarding them on the standard of their performance will usually motivate them to achieve even larger targets.

It’s just a matter of you ‘reap what you sow’ – so give them the right tools and the right training – you are the one that will reap the rewards.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za