A strong sales’ taskforce is critical for a business to thrive. The sales team comprises members who are envisioned to achieve goals at both the company and personal level. In this regard, it is important for firms to hire representatives who are capable of delivering the right services to target customers. Sales’ job is a highly involving activity that demands a sales representative to possess a strong charisma, attitude, and discipline.
Coaching and Mentoring
Coaching in the context of a sales job is the aspect of tutoring new and inexperienced junior workers by more experienced personnel. It is aimed at training and assisting new workers to acquire the necessary skills required in a job setting. On the other hand, mentoring is the act of developing a long-term relationship between a senior and junior member of staff in the same or a different faculty. It is meant to provide an insight into the job specification.
A coach differs from a mentor in that a coach tutors the subjects in the same area of specialization while a mentor-subject relationship cuts across all disciplines. Coaching helps the workers to build trust. This aspect creates a platform where issues affecting the individual workers are advertised and enables the sales manager a follow-up to the performance of the subordinate workers. From the coaching sessions, a sales representative gives feedback on the performance in the field.
A sales manager gives guidelines on the way forward for the sales team. He is supposed to portray leadership qualities by being a role model to the subordinate workers. An employee being mentored benefits from the career advises accorded by a person who has been in the field and has achieved credibly. A mentoring program enables the younger sales representatives to have the needed knowledge pertaining to the market demand. This is from the expertise already gained by the mentor in the field of practice.
Teams
Teamwork is an important cohesion tool for workers in a sales job. It involves joining two or more people with complementary skills to achieve a common goal. Team building is important for the sales managers since it helps in organizing the mode of paring the different individuals in the sales’ business.
The manager also decides on the reward scheme for the sales teams. This is done to motivate individual members of the teams to achieve the set targets. It is important for the sales manager to evaluate the reward scheme as it is the cause of most team’s failure. The reward scheme should incorporate all the benefits that surround the success of the business. It should recognize individual inputs in achieving the results.
Performance
There are four ways in which setting of goals can impact the performance of the salespersons. Goals set have motivating and energizing functions. The higher the goals are set, the more the efforts the workers make in striving to attain them. The setting goals also affects the problem-solving skills of the workers.
Work and difficult goals are handled with the attention they deserve, and an amicable solution is achieved. In addition, goals affect the level of persistence of the sales representatives, making them more persuasive in their line of duty. Lastly, goals help to direct the attention of the sales representative and mind away from the less important activities creating enough time for the sales.
Input-Based Goals and Output Goals
Goals can be grouped into input and output based. The number of calls to make, presentations to prepare, and the volume of proposals to make are some of the input-based goals in a sales job setting. Output-based goals are set by the organization. Some of these are sales volume to be made, revenues to be generated, and the profit to be made in the sales. It is important for firms to keep track of the input and output based goals in order to maintain the flow of achievements.
Values and Motivational Factors
Being of the age below 27, this is the generation that is growing fastest as compared with the other three generations. It is the generation that represents the fresh minds who are solution-focused when faced with difficult tasks. The motivation provided is sufficient, considering that experiences must be passed from the older generation to the younger workforce.
Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation factors occur before a worker starts working in a particular profession, and they can be also be termed as internal motivating factors. On the other hand, extrinsic motivating factors happen after a worker is recruited to a job position of choice. Therefore, they are influenced by the proceedings of the acquired job. Status attainment, job promotions, wages, and salaries increase are some of the extrinsic motivational factors in a job setting.
Intrinsic motivation factors help an aspiring worker to be self-driven and disciplined in the career of choice. However, it can make the worker lag behind in terms of economic gains. Extrinsic motivation factors make workers be focused on the personal gains making them economically active in their respective positions. However, these factors make the workers bias by only following only specific channels that are of benefit while ignoring others.
Market Potential, Sales Potential, and a Sales Forecast
The market potential is the likelihood of a product competing with related products already established in the market. It is a concept that assesses how well a new product will perform in a new market. Sales potential is an estimate of how fast the product will sell at a set price. The price already set, may or may not influence its performance.
The sales forecast is a more broad analysis of a new product. It focuses on what, when, and how to sell a particular product to the target market. The three terms are interlinked in that the success of a new product in a market must be planned, forecasted, and executed in the most appropriate way.
External Factors
There are several external factors that affect the market potential of a product. A country’s potential market for the proposed product may affect the performance of the proposed product. Any market competition directly affects the potentiality of a proposed product by outlining the hindrances of a new product piercing in a new market.
In any market, risks are likely drawbacks, and the ways of mitigating the risks for a new product in the market may be quite challenging. The risks resulting from the uncertainties in the market as a return on investment is not always guaranteed after investments are made. The market potential of a product may also be influenced by imposed rules and regulations imposed by the various regulatory bodies. If the rules are favoring marketing of the product, it then follows that the product will thrive and its production is continuous.
Sales Analysis and a Cost Analysis
Cost analysis is a deep insight in assessing the effects of adjusting prices of products and how it will affect the sales and respective profits. The analysis influences the price to set for the products, weighing the cost of production until the product is no longer in the hands of the production firm. Cost analysis is done on the basis of fixed and variable cost, break-even point being the best reference point to set the cost of a unit item. Sales analysis is involved in market planning and design.
It is aimed at developing the best marketing strategies that will sell the product to the maximum possible consumers. Many companies put more emphasis on market analysis as compared to the cost, and it has been shown to be the best strategy. Marketing analysis targets at maximizing individual buyers at the set prices.
Salespeople and Goals
In the case of failure for the sales representatives to miss the target goals, the cause can be attributed to either the sales manager. A manager may fail on his part by setting unrealistic goals, making fewer follow-ups to the sales teams, being too harsh in relating with the junior salesmen, and offering less or no assistance whenever the need arises to the sales representatives.
On the other hand, the fault can be for the respective salesperson for not taking the necessary measures required to hit the set goals either by showing less concern or by lacking the necessary vigor to the particular task. In the case of a failure, a manager is supposed to carry out an analysis of the possible cause through benchmarking and provide a way forward to the failing salesperson. The manager can also increase the incentives awarded to include slight improvements in sales.
Conclusion
Sales’ task requires a network of activities and individuals who possess the right skills. The two must run coherently in order to realize the success of the business. The sales managers should encourage the subordinate representative to team up. From a well-coordinated sales network, the realization of profits and achievements of the target goal becomes apparent.