An Effective Sales Person

Sales people have an easy yet a tough job proving their effectiveness. The most relevant metric used by most people is to gauge the sales value achieved or the targets achieved. While this may seem, simple there are some complications with this model. Effective sales persons may be assigned low value customers therefore achieving low value in sales and low target achievement. While mediocre sales persons could be assigned the company’s top accounts and achieve their sales targets and growth targets without effort.

What is required is a more wholistic view of the sales process and the effort applied by the sales person to maintain customer relationships and keep business alive. This of course means development of measurement metrics by the Sales department and the Human Resource Department to ensure that the sales person is evaluated fairly for his or her efforts.

So, what are the traits that make an effective sales person?

First and foremost, the sales person must be available to contact 24/7. Now this does not mean that the sales person does not sleep. This means that the sales person should be accessible. They should use technology like voice mail, answering machines, text messages, twitter, e-mails. Make sure the customer can reach the sales person. And once the customer does, make sure to reply. Sometimes the sales person will not have the information available at hand. That is Ok. Acknowledge to the customer that their message has been received and give a tentative time for the reply or for the solution to their query. Route the call to a customer service representative if they can follow up and reply to the customer sooner. The objective is to achieve customer satisfaction. Although remember that the sales person should always follow up with the customer as the final responsibility of maintaining the customer relationship lies with the sales person.

The sales person should be motivated. This is one of the tougher metrics to measure however it is not impossible to view. A motivated sales person will be a go getter. They will take on challenges ask for more and tougher assignments. A real sales person is hungry. To satisfy their hunger, they are always on the lookout for more challenges. They learn more about the product. They learn more about their customers. They always ask questions in meetings. They are the resource you turn to when you need specific information.

The effective sales person is a problem solver. While at most times managers are faced with employees that bring them issues, the effective sales person will take a set of issues and offer alternative solutions. They will also be a one stop service for all issues whether it is negotiating a new contract with a customer, getting payments or finding out new avenues for business with a customer. They will either find a way to get the job done or they will make one.

They will also be mindful of their time. They will therefore spend less time on fruitless activities and spend more time on actions that result in them and the company achieving their targets. This is also something that can be measured and quantified and therefore evaluated.