Super-salesman

Sales people are not born, they are not made either, but they only have to develop the skill to sell.

First important part is you must love people, and know how to communicate with them, interact with them and mix with them. Have a sense of belonging, and social responsibility towards your fellow human beings.

What are the daily chores of a Sales person?

1. Open the Email, and read the mails.
2. See if there is any inquiries in the mail box. and mark them if the inquiries asking for some items that you have.
3. Give them instant reply, on the product with prepared brochure, specification sheet, price, delivery and term of payment. If you are not sure of the inquiry, write to the inquirer and clarify your understanding with him/her. Call them by phone if they are within your range of contact. Everytime you make an offer, bring the email into a folder for you to do follow-up and to organise your files in the OUTLOOK. Take down the details of the enquirer and log your quotation in a log book. Make a habit to organise your data every time you do a quotation, so it will save you lots of time when you will be searching for them later.
4. For those whose needs are not within your scope, leave them aside until you can find time to reply
5. Go into Alibaba message board. For Gold members, alibaba gives an alert for every inquiry or person interested in your product, so from your mailbox you can assess the Alibaba message board directly.
6. Inside Alibaba message board, you are limited to only by typing out your proposal or use the templates, which you have prepared and stored them into folders. You can also make your templates on the Rich Text format and store them in your PC. You also have to organise the files into the folders as in the Alibaba site.
7. When quoting, make sure you are clear on the terms and conditions of your offer, delivery time, and currency used.
   
   In the afternoon, make phone calls to your clients and prospects for follow-ups on your quotations. Do some visitations to the customer's site around your neighbourhood and get their feedback on your price, product quality and delivery time. Also make presentations of your product by demonstration, or by some seminar teaching, prepared in Power Point, or in the printed forms. Always bring samples along to show them the real thing.
   
8. At night, prepare some brochures, or specification sheets in PDF format. Use tools like Coral Draw, Fireworks, etc. to enhance your pictures, nice and outstanding, remove the background, and make it transparent if you want to paste it in a color background.
9. Ask for the order after you finished.
   
   Street Smart
   
   
   

Sales people should work as a team with the other departments: Production, R&D, Quality Control, Accounts and Admin., and most importantly the Marketing guys.
There should be on equal standing, no one is more important than the other, and in unity, concerning company's policy, and product development.
From the marketing, sales people get their strategy and plan on how to approach the market, and what to propose to the inquirier in case of the off-the-shelf items, to get the information about the environment and competitors. Price ranking and the materials available to convince the buyer that they are getting the right and useful "thing" for their requirement. Materials such as a well prepared brochure, pictures and text description, Certificates of approval, and company's position in the market place.
From the production department, the important information is the ability to produce the volume and quantity in time. Delivery period is based upon the quantity ordered, and the raw material available in the Production Planning.
Also the quality assurance department to give a test report on 100% of the product. Either give a Test Report, or a QC PASS sticker on the product. The Factory Approval Test (FAT) for precision instrument has to be complete on all the perimeters, and detailed report on a certified form, signed by the tester and his/her manager, with company chop. It should contain the standard of which the instrument is being tested and passed the test within a set tolerance of deviation.
Price negotiation, and delivery time. After sales service backups and warranty coverage have to be done along with distributors and service stations appointed by the company, with technicians trained to do a level of troubleshooting and repairs at their level.
Sales department should keep a record of the Serial Number of the individual units sold to whom and which country. This record should be in the central file, available by Local Area Network, and also to be registered and keyed in by the overseas agent through Virtual Private Networks (VPN) with firewalls and security.
Sales people should receive regular updates on the product development, the technical aspects and the applications and limitations of the product. Also provide feedback to the production and research and development as to the users' feedback on the product quality, application and customer's satisfaction. Keep a clientele record of the customers and provide the information to marketing team for promotion of new product and communication on company matter.

Nin ja

Who is a Sales Person?

• The counter person
• The van driver
• The Engineer or mechanic
• The Production Planner
• QC Manager
• Maintenance Crew
• Housekeeper
• Restaurant Cook
• Staker
• Security Guards

This list can go on and on, and it seems all of us are sales people. Why? Everytime we do something, or propose to do something, we are selling ourself to others, our idea, and our plans. But going deeper, let me take the case of a Hotel for example.

The first person that impresses the guests is the Doorman. The person who opens the door of the Hotel entrance is smartly dressed, and stands out among the crowds, he is tall and good looking with a smile on his face, greets the guest with the "wellcome" smile, opening your car doors and taking out the luggages for you.

Then you walk to the Reception Counter, and you meet the counter girls. Their conduct, behaviour and attitude ought to put you on, greeting with "Good Morning, Sir." and ends with "have a pleasant stay in our fine Deluxe Room."

You got to the room, it was the airconditioner that should work, the TV set, minibar drinks table, and the bathroom, they should be clean and well kept. Bell boy explains the room switches and a hidden personal safe, and the in-house phone numbers to call for Room Service or the amenities available in the Hotel.

Then you decided to go to the Restaurant for a bite, and after that a drink in the Lounge and be entertained by some music and song.

All these people are sales people, part of the team to sell the "product" in a package. The more human service is involved, the more people is directly involved. Those working behind the scenes, like the maintenance crew, the Engineering Service people who maintains the electrical and plumbing systems are also a part of the sales team for the Hotel.

The end of it .... Customer's satisfaction and the good feeling which wil make him come back again on his next trip.