Back office Jobs in Sales

The function of Sales has evolved in the last 5 years with Internet becoming more popular through mobile phones in general and whats app in particular. In this blog, I will list down the possibilities in Sales as a career option for all those of you who do not like to work outdoors under the Sun.

What are the backend roles in Sales?

Sales Coach Mr. Sanjay Singh Speaks about Back office Jobs in Sales

1. Tele caller:  Incoming and Outgoing voice calls desks are separate
2. Digital Marketer : Lead Generation, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Content curation
3. Marketing Communications : Closely interact with brand team and sales team so that apt marketing communication is made. This person is also expected to understand print production, deployment and marcom. implementation.
4. Sales Coordinator : This role is expected to be a bridge between management and sales team.
5. Sales MIS : Sales Management Information Systems (MIS) creates sales dashboards and sales funnels so that management can review the work in progress, performance analysis and productivity management of sales teams.
6. Customer Relationship Management: CRM software automates the sales journey and this executive is expected to run and manage CRM software.
7. Customer Loyalty Program Coordinator : Develop loyalty program and implement the same based on past purchase history of the customers.
8. Customer Grievance Executive: Complaint handling and handling irate customers.
9. Customer Care Executive: They interact with the customers post sales and ensure a high customer satisfaction index. (CSI)
10. Market Surveyor: Market Research and data collection based on live samples in the market.
11. Market Intelligence Executive: To know about competition and competitors in the market.
12. Media Scanning Executive: To scan all newspapers everyday to find out what has been covered on relevant industry verticals.
13. Data Entry Operator : To make soft copy of hard data available with the company.
14. Content Writer : To prepare impactful and meaningful copywriting for any content to be published.
15. E-Marketing Executive: To handle incoming leads from e-commerce portals, especially in B2B markets.
16. Lead Validation Executive: All leads declared by sales teams in their respective Daily Sales Report (DSR) is validated on the following day with the help of a welcome call by the lead validation executive.
17. Sales Trainer: Internal training of sales teams on products and services
18. Supply Chain Executive: This person is expected to take care of Sales order processing , logistics management, Store coordination etc

The above roles in Sales very clearly suggests that a career in Sales does not necessarily mean outdoor work. You can very well think of getting into the support function of Sales and remain in the backend.

May this tribe increase!

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The Vocation Called Sales

Sales Management is a vocation which employs a very high percentage of educated populace of this world, directly or indirectly. This profession welcomes people from all educational backgrounds with or without experience. Out of every 100 people who enter this profession, only 15% make it to the top. If you look at any Balance Sheet, there is only one entry which says “Revenue received from Sales..”. Sales is the only function of management which gets in revenue for the company. All other functions of management make use of money brought into the system through Sales.

To understand the vocation of Sales better, let us answer the following questions honestly.

1. Who are these sales professionals who are able to make it to the top?
2. What separates a sales professional from other sales persons?
3. What is so different and unique with this profession of Sales?
4. Is Sales a Super Specialization?
5. What are the possibilities of growth in the function of Sales?

What makes you successful in Sales?

Sales Success

• Continuous transformation of abilities into capabilities
• Look beyond normal. Make your own road!
• Enjoy the pressure of target and work hard towards the same
• Loves to network and meet new people
• High level of self discipline
• Understand the power of Everyday!

Who is a Sales Professional?

Qualities of Great Sales Professional

• Looks for an opportunity in every problem
• Always wears the prospecting antennae
• Ensures a positive relationship with every acquaintance
• Believes in the function of Sales
• Practices the profession of sales with a science
• The Karmas of Sales drives business

What is unique with Sales?

• Future proof
• Rewards, Recognition, Awards and Accolades – Lot of opportunities in Sales
• Name and Fame: This profession of Sales provides maximum opportunity
• Key positions in top management are always filled by sales professionals
• Understanding of Customers and their buying behavior supersedes educational degrees

Is Sales a Super Specialization?

• The vocation of Sales is a super specialization as every Tom, Dick or Harry do not survive in this profession
• The super specialization comes in the form of Direct Selling, Industrial Selling, Key Account management, Channel of Distribution, Exports, Digital Selling and e-commerce.
• Sales is a performing art which is backed by a science of selling. Not everyone survives in this profession.

What are the possibilities of growth in the function of Sales?

Where do you start in Sales?

Following options are open for a fresher who has studied the function of Sales:

• Tele calling
• Lead Generator
• Digital Salesperson
• Sales Executive
• Marketing Communications Officer
• Frontline Sales persons (FOS: Feet on Streets)
• Sales coordinator
• Sales Trainer
• Supply Chain Manager
• Complaint Desk officer
• CRM officer

What is the power of Everyday?

• Monthly business targets are divided into everyday targets
• Everyday must be closed in the right spirit to stay successful in the field of Sales.
• A kiss in the morning and a kick in the evening is an everyday dose for all salespersons.
• Everyday the salesperson must win against self targets. If your everyday is good, every week , every month and every year will be great

This blog gives the reader an idea into the function of Sales Management. The blog is written with a specific perspective to introduce freshers into the function of Sales. We need smart youngsters to make this profession the most future proof career option where earning name , fame and money is the simplest for those who understand the function of Sales !

20 Facts about Sales Leads

Leads are the beginning of the Sales Journey. Is is therefore very important that leads must be understood in all its perspective by a good salesperson. After all, more leads will lead to more sales and therefore more profits!

1. Prospecting on Suspect data (contactable data) gives us leads in the sales funnel.

2. Lead Magnets are created to specifically attract sales lead to the sales funnel.

3.  MQL Leads are leads which have the “Willingness to buy” only.  Such leads do not translate into business immediately.

4. SQL Leads are those MQL leads which apart from the willingness to buy are backed with “Capability to buy” and “Urgency to buy”. All MQL’s , if engaged well will ultimately become SQL.

5. SQL Leads when backed with a “Budget to Buy” becomes a BANT lead. (B = Budget, A= Authority to buy, N= Need, T= Timeframe to buy)

6. Lead Generator engine for “Influencers” should be created and monitored separately.

7. Lead Generator engine for “Applicators” should be created and monitored separately.

8. Lead Generator engine for “Customer” category starts with defining the market segments and then building a tree downwards so that the infinite market of customers is pruned down to a finite market. Once this customer tree is prepared , market attach should start bottom upwards.

9. Leads, once generated, must be nurtured well or else they leak from the sales funnel.

10. Multiple sources of lead generation is a must. Do not settle for one source only.

11. B2B Leads are slightly different and hence must be generated accordingly.

12. Lead generation is an everyday activity irrespective of the treasure of leads that you may have in your sales funnel. Today’s leads will become sales tomorrow.

13. Recognising a lead as MQL, SQL or BANT is one thing. It is very important that you have a strategy in place to translate MQL to SQL and SQL to BANT.  How do you do this in your business? You need a qualification process in place.

14. The salesperson must differentiate between a virgin lead and “Lead from a Lead” (LFL). In this category you have leads which come from Referrals and Cross selling.

15. The Lead MIS (Management Information Systems) should clearly identify the no of leads received from each silo of lead generation. This is important so that each silo can be rated for their performance in lead generation. The typical silos are walk in leads, leads against a BTL activity, Leads against an ATL initiative, Leads from SEO, Leads from SMM etc etc

16. No lead is insignificant or useless. It is very important to believe this in sales because we have a tendency to ignore leads which do not look very attractive from an immediate sales point of view. Every lead must be recorded, nurtured and engaged in the sales funnel on a regular basis at predefined periodicity.

17. The silo which generates leads by churning customers from competition requires some specific competency of churn management.

If the reasons given above for a customer to leave his existing vendor is to be followed, a lead generation program by churning unhappy customers from competition can be prepared. Do you have your churn management program ready>

18. The age analysis of leads must be studied by salespersons once in a month. This analysis will give the age of leads which are more than 120 days in your sales funnel, 90 – 120 days , 30 – 90 days, less than 30 days.  This gives the salesperson an idea that which leads to be attacked on priority for sales closure.

19. Lead generation normally does not earn any incentive for you but the salesperson must understand that all winning sales teams have a very robust lead generation channel.

20. If the salesperson has to choose between missing a sales lead and losing a sales order, I will advise that lose the second one.  This is how important sales leads are.

Become Top Choice Before Negotiating

The Science of Sales Negotiation starts with the golden principle of not starting the process of sales negotiation before time. It is important that the customer has first liked your product to the extent that he feels that your product or service is the best. Only once this point is reached, there is a need to start entertaining the process of Sales Negotiation.

At this juncture, it is important to answer the following questions to self:

Why negotiate if the customer does not like your product?
Why negotiate if the customer has already rated your product as the top choice?

Am I trying to say that one should not negotiate?

No.

It is important to understand the concept behind negotiation. Negotiation is the act of fine tuning the customers exact requirements and terms and conditions under which the transaction will be accomplished.

https://youtu.be/DJZZ2LLQ7NE

Once the customer says that he agrees that your product or service is actually his top choice, it is important to find out whether what he is saying is true or not.

How do you do this?

Ask the customer the following questions:

1. Why does he feel that your product is the best choice? What aspect of your product makes him feel so?
2. What is the financial benefit of the advantage that your product / service provides to the customer?
3. What will the customer lose if he does not buy your product or service?

By getting answers to these questions, you would have set the tone for negotiations to follow. Now when you are trying to probe the answers to the 3 questions posed above, you should yourself be very clear about the answers to the same. Let us try and answer them one by one.

Why does the customer feel that your product is  the best choice? What aspect of your product makes him feel so?

• What aspect of your product feature sounds beneficial to the customer?
• What aspect of your product feature is the customer going to use more often?

What is the financial benefit to the customer if he uses your product or service?

• Monetary benefit in terms of manpower saving, if any
• Monetary benefit in terms of money saving, if any
• Monetary benefit in terms of material saving, if any
• Monetary benefit in terms of mindset saving, if any

What will the customer lose if he does not buy your product or service?

• Time
• Labour
• Waste control
• Interest cost
• Skill

So, next time you are sitting on the negotiation table, please understand that you must make a conscious choice to become the buyers top choice even before you think of entertaining a negotiation with the customer.

10 Reasons Why Sales always Rocks!

The function of Sales has stayed the last choice of youth in India, even though 75% of them are finally employed with this function of management only. Let us look closely at what is so special in this function of Sales which makes it rock for all those who understand the function of Sales!

Why the function of Sales always rocks for its practitioners?

1. Sales is a recession proof, future proof function. Irrespective of the economic condition and technology advancement in the world, the sales person will always be required.
   

2. The importance of Sales Function is directly proportional to the degree of complexity in the minds of customer. The more the customer thinks about his need fulfillment the more is the salesperson required.
   

3. Sales is the only function of management which directly brings money to the company. All other functions directly use the money that Sales brings into the system.
   

4. A salesperson who can sell well, does not even have to touch his salary. Incentives are good enough to cater to all demands of life.
   

5. No business can survive on a single transaction with the customer. It is only sales which helps a marketer achieve the LTV (Life Time Value) of the customer.
   

6. Sales is the only employment opportunity which does not gauge you by your educational qualification alone. This is surely good news for all who hate studies.
   

7. Recruitment in Sales increases when recession is high in the market.
   

8. Sales is transparent to the industry vertical. Every industry needs salespersons.
   

9. Sales methodologies will change with time. Sales roles will definitely change with times. Sales however is as permanent as change.
   

10. Sales is the only function through which one can do demand forecasting, target setting and therefore budgeting and strategic planning.
    

A salesperson bridges the gap between the customers understanding and the producers imagination.

A customer always makes stories about your product or service, Salesperson ensures that customers narrative is the same as the salesperson’s narrative.

Sales is the only function of management which directly brings revenue to your organisation.

In Sales, salary is saving and incentive is to be used as expense.

Sales helps a marketer to realise the LTV of a customer.

Your educational qualification does not help you in Sales. It is only Sales that can help Sales!

Sales is both the cause and effect of recession.

Sales is a non dispensable function in our business.

The need for Sales is permanent.

Sales translates all your planning into action.

May the tribe of salespersons increase in this world!