Selling is one of the worlds oldest professions, one that has moved with time from the era of batter, shaped by the industrial revolution (production orientation) that led to sales orientation and finally to marketing orientation.
“Selling is at the cutting edge of every business, without the eyes, ears and intuition of a good salesperson, a business will suffer”, (Selling, DK’s Essential Managers p7- (2009).
Sales is also one of the most written about topics. This is not surprising as is forms a great chunk of trading which is the engine of all economic activity.
A sales person’s job starts with the understanding that sales people appreciate their strategic importance in business, required behaviors and knowledge skills set needed for admirable business performance.
Secondly sales people must fully understand the vision, mission and values of the organization they work for in order to effectively embody and epitomize its culture, goals and performance.
Salespeople must also have good product knowledge, this forms the success story for every listening potential customer. Customers love great stories about a seller’s products and the impact they have had on users. Products and services must bear solutions that transform the buyer’s position to a healthier one. Coupled with understanding of product knowledge, a good salesperson is obliged to fully recognize customer needs as well as the market in which the organization operates including key trends. Only then can they offer pertinent solutions.
An extension to the above is the need for salespeople to acquire selling skills and an understanding of the sales process. Selling skills are used throughout the sales process from prospecting to closing the sale, building and managing relationships, influencing and persuading and follow up. Communicating and presenting with confidence and poise forms a critical style and approach of a successful sales career.
Today’s continued changes and trends in digital marketing requires that modern salespeople must be tech savvy in order to move away from overreliance of the traditional approach of prospecting and taking orders to managing digital tools for selling such as Zoom or Teams’ meetings, making online presentations, managing social media communication as well as ability to understand and consume digital strategies, analytics and trends.
Regardless of the negative image of selling over the years which was shaped during the production era when market demand surpassed supply and sales people started using hard selling techniques, and during the marketing era when they started to bombard the customer with numerous messages, selling remains a noble and honorable profession that can be both rewarding and fulfilling.
Selling remains one of the critical success skills available today to formally employed sales people, existing and potential business owners and those aspiring to build wealth and success outside employment.
