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Chapter1 LEC MM103 PDF
Chapter1 LEC MM103 PDF
“Salesmanship is an art; the perfection of its technique requires study and practice.”
Learning Competencies:
Importance of Selling
You may probably ask “why should I study salesmanship? I’m never going into
sales.” Perhaps not, but who knows? Lot of people have been disgusted when they
hear the term selling. The truth is, even though a person may not engage directly in
selling, one cannot find a job or profession that does not demand selling skills.
Many talented professionals have not advanced to their career because they
have failed to recognized and accept the selling aspect as part of their work. They have
never been able to sell themselves and their ideas to other people.
All business is selling; this is the modern marketing philosophy of most leading
companies in the Philippines. Even if you are not into sales department, the success of
a business lies on the cooperative work of each people in each department. Thus,
“Every Employee is a Salesperson” is a slogan of a large number of businesses, and it
really works in any situation.
The Concept of Professional Salesmanship
Over powering personality, blatant line of sales talk, and use of hard-sell tactics
to get the order--these are where salespeople are known before. When prospect tends
to be called by a salesperson, they are somewhat indifferent and impatient in having
conversation with them. That is because of their previous experiences in some
salesperson wherein they usually a victim of hard sale. Prospects regarded them as
being “makulit” and “mapilit”.
With the elevation in the standards of selling, salespersons’ positions are being
improved in the society. They are now regarded as respectable and important part of
our social and economic structure.
For the true professional the goal is always to make someone’s life better. When
you have passion for what you are selling you have a passion for getting it into the
hands of as many people as you can.
MYTHODOLOGY OF SELLING
Most of us have gathered some perceptions of selling, either from our dealings
with some salespeople, heard stories about them, or our personal experiences in
selling. These are sometimes myths that we believed in, reasons why people involved
into selling because of these sales jobs methodologies.
If one is a born seller, then success will quickly follow, and if one is
not, it will quickly be found out. Selling is a complicated art; it takes several
years to master. Principles of salesmanship can be taught and learned
just like any other profession. They learn the hard way by studying and
practicing their art just as other professionals gain their proficiency.
A student is not a skilled practitioner until an amount of practical
experience has been enjoyed. We are moulded more by our environment
than by our heredity. Thus, “salesmen are born, not made” is no more
true.
We can actually assert that “Salesmen are made, rarely are they
born”.
Many people think that salesman do most of the selling in the golf
course, ball games, and parties. While saleswoman simply calls on their
prospective customers over the phone moreover, salesman does also the
same thing.
Every profession has its different characteristics though some have relatively the
same especially in an office bound profession. Sales career possess a distinct
characteristics which separate it from other profession.
1. High earnings
2. Flexible time with less supervision
3. Challenging job
4. Ability to get recognized
5. Working condition
High Earnings
The thought that you are working as an office employee after you’re almost two
decades of hardships to finished your study enable to help your family is not bad at all.
At least, you have the job. But what makes it frustrating is that no matter how you work
hard, it seems that there is no improvement in your life condition. This is the common
dilemma and disappointments of mostly of our office employees. They’ve work hard and
more, but they are being paid less.
Whereas, a salespersons’ salary will range from P15,000-P25,000 net of income.
Aside from this, there are additional commissions and incentives given for every sale
closed.
For example in one insurance company, for every $10,000 deal closed sale, the
financial advisor gets a P4,000 incentive. They call it MPVI or monthly premium volume
incentive. Hence, if the advisor gets a $20,000 deal, P8,000 goes to the financial
advisor.
On top of it, if the advisor is consistently closing the sale for three (3) consecutive
months, he will be given QPVI or quarterly premium volume incentive, which is the total
incentive he receives from those three months of sale. For example, if in three
consecutive months he receives P8, 000 incentives each, then as his quarterly
incentive, he will be receiving P24, 000. Plus a chance to be a top sales executive of the
year which also has an incentive awaiting and possible promotion is at stake.
There are more incentives offered in some sales industry and if you want this top
paying profession, you have to hustle this yourself because it will not come asking for
your services.
It only goes to show that sales career is one of the best paid professions. But of
course it comes along with proper training, hard work and passion in every selling
activity that you will do.
Sales people do not follow the office time required to an office employee. In most
situations they are bound outside office to meet their client and opt for a possible sale.
They probably go to office late, or not at all, that is if they have appointments with
several clients outside. Sometimes sales executive went to their office just to prepare
their sales kits, make some sales reports, or attend to meeting called by the supervisor
to discuss their accomplishments, sales updates and problems.
Challenging Job
Limited only to do the job in the four corners of an office, most of the time,
employees tends to get bored with routine jobs. As they say, task that they can
accomplish even with their eyes close. Hence, some of them felt that they aren’t
productive anymore to what they’re doing. Employees do not feel the growth in their
career. Certain deadlines are to be met with those bundles of paper works, client follow-
ups, and many others. Maybe these employees get paid higher than the minimum wage
but the condition of being in a routine task is a weak experience for them that make
them feel insignificant to the company.
Sales career are far more challenging than office works. It allows the salesperson
to meet different types of people, of different personalities, in different walks of life, and
with different problems that needs advice and solution from the salesperson.
It broadens the horizon of the salesperson. Every client meet-up and sales
presentation is an exciting experience that allows the salesperson to express his self
and exchange ideas with the client. It is also a learning process that the end result is
productivity on the side of the salesperson, not only by closing the sale, but by helping
out the client in giving solution to their problem.
There is a big difference when you are being challenge by your job: it lets you
accomplish task way beyond expectation, and excitement is always present because
every task seems like new to you. Unlike routine jobs where employees are get used to
on what is expected from them, and what they are going to do to get the job done.
Ability to Get Recognized
In some profession, it requires considerable time and effort to get recognized and
promoted. Others look at the seniority level of employees. This is because the
promotion in an office job has a lot of elements to qualify. Thus, when an employee
lacks one of these characteristic, the promotion is sometimes pre-empted and will take
again several years to be consider. These explain why in some companies there is a
large number of aging employees who still belongs to a rank and file status.
Working Condition
Several methods were used to evaluate the capacity, talent and overall
performance of salespersons in a company. The most common methods used to
evaluate the performance are through the following:
1. Sales Target
2. Sales Territory and
3. Sales Report
The organization sets sales target for each salesman that he has to attain. Such
targets may be set either on the basis of units to be sold or based on the value of sales.
However, while setting the target it is important to consider the following points:
2. It must be reasonable.
3. It must be set taking into account the past records, market potentials, etc.
2. Certain unpredictable changes in the market conditions may render the targets
unrealistic.
3. The same target cannot be set for all salesmen as the potentials of each person and
each market differ.
4. Some salesmen are capable of doing much more than the target set for them. Thus,
sales targets limit the initiative.
5. The target cannot be rigid. What was possible last year may not be possible this year.
Therefore, the target needs to be revised periodically.
A sales territory is a small segment of the entire market for a product or service.
Each salesman is usually made in charge of a particular area or territory. For the trend
in sales in each such area, the salesman concerned becomes accountable.
Thus, sales territory enables the business to not only evaluate the performance
of the salesman but also to know the sales trend.
2. It makes it possible for the salesman concerned to maintain good rapport with the
clients in his area.
7. It also helps to have knowledge of the extent of competition in each area. A particular
area, having intense competition, may require more funds for sales promotion.
1. The sales territory should be so determined that it should be possible for an average
salesman to cover it within the stipulated time.
3. It should also give scope for the salesman to undertake any promotional campaign.
4. Each salesman shall, as far as possible, be allotted not more than one territory.