Assignment on Marketing Management

Assignment Topic: Evaluation & Measurement of Personal Selling & It`s Impact to the
Organization.
Introduction:

Personal selling can be defined as "the process of person-to-person communication between a

salesperson and a prospective customer, in which the former learns about the customer's needs
and seeks to satisfy those needs by offering the customer the opportunity to buy something of
value, such as a good or service. The term may also be used to describe a situation where a
company uses a sales force as one of the main ways it communicates with customers.

The earliest forms of exchange involved bartering systems. However, the advent of coinage

enabled exchange to occur more efficiently and over much larger distances. The earliest
references to selling, involving coin-based exchange, comes from Herodotus who noted that
"The Lydians were the first people we know of to use a gold and silver coinage and to introduce
the retail trade.” This implies that selling and buying, originated in the 7th century BCE, in the
area now known as Turkey. From there, selling spread along Mediterranean, and then diffused
throughout the civilized world.

The Socratic philosophers expressed some concerns about the new type of selling in around the
4th century BCE. Their commentary was primarily concerned with potential disruption of the
more social aspects of selling. Traditional forms of exchange encouraged a social perspective -
emphasising the social bonds that united members of a society. For example, during periods of
drought or famine, individuals shared in the plight of their neighbours. However, the advent of
this new form of selling encouraged a focus on the individual such that in times of scarcity,
sellers raised their prices.

During the Medieval period, trade underwent further changes. Localised trading based on
transactional exchange and bartering systems was slowly transformed as transportation improved
and new geographic markets were opened. From the 11th century, the Crusades helped to open
up new trade routes in the Near East, while the adventurer and merchant, Marco Polo stimulated
interest in the far East in the 12th and 13th centuries. Medieval merchants began to trade in
exotic goods imported from distant shores including spices, wine, food, furs, fine cloth, notably
silk, glass, jewellery and many other luxury goods. As trade between countries or regions grew,
trade networks became more complex and different types of sellers filled in the spaces within the
network. During the thirteenth century, European businesses became more permanent and were
able to maintain sedentary merchants in a home office and a system of agents who operated in
different geographic markets. Exchange was often conducted at arm's length, rather than face-to-
face.
Procedure and Stages of Personal Selling:

Personal selling is when a company uses salespersons to build a relationship and engage
customers to determine their needs and attain a sales order that may not otherwise have been
placed. The personal selling process is a seven-step approach: prospecting, pre-approach,
approach, presentation, meeting objections, closing the sale, and follow-up.

The sales cycle, more generally speaking, turns leads into prospects, suspects into prospects and
prospects into customers.

Prospecting is the step where salespeople determine leads or prospects. The pre-approach is used
for preparing for the presentation through customer research and goal planning for the
presentation. The approach is when the salesperson initially meets with the customer and
determines a customer’s wants and needs. Once the salesperson knows the needs, he or she is
ready for the presentation that will entice the customer to commit. After the presentation, a
salesperson must meet objections or address customer concerns. Gaining commitment comes
next. Finally, the salesperson must remember to follow up after the sale is made.

There are several stages involved in the process and a salesman has to understand all the stages
in the process to make the process more effective:

1. Prospecting and Evaluating 2. Approaching the Consumer 3. Preparing for the Sale 4. Making
the Presentation 5. Overcoming the Objections 6. Closing the Sale 7. Following Up.

1. Identifying the Prospective Buyer (Prospecting and Qualifying):

The first stage of personal selling process involves identifying potential customers. All prospects
identified may not turn out to be actual customers. Hence identifying the right prospect is
essential as it determines the future selling process. Marketers tap different sources to identify
the prospective customers. Marketers search for prospects in directories, websites and contact
through mail and telephone.
Marketers establish booth at trade shows and exhibitions, get the names of the prospects from
existing customers, cultivate referral sources such as – dealers, suppliers, sales representatives,
executives, bankers etc. After identifying the prospect the sales person qualifies the prospects on
the basis of their financial ability, needs, taste and preferences.
2. Pre-Approach:
The next step to prospecting and qualifying is pre-approach. At this stage the salesperson needs
to decide as to how to approach the prospective customer. The salesperson may make a personal
visit, a phone call or send a letter, based on the convenience of the prospects.
 3. Approach:
At this stage the salesperson should properly approach the prospects. He should properly greet
the buyer and give a good start to the conversation. The salesperson’s attitude, appearance, way
of speaking matters most at this stage.
4. Presentation and Demonstration:
At this stage the salesperson provides detailed information about the product and benefits of the
product. The salesperson narrates the features of the product, explains the benefit and the worth
of the product in terms of money.
5. Overcoming Objections:
After presentation and demonstration, when customers are asked to place order, they are
reluctant to buy and raise objection. Customers give importance to well-established brands, show
apathy, impatience, reluctance to participate in the talk etc. Customer may raise objection with
regard to price, delivery schedule; product or company characteristics, etc. Salesperson handles
such objections skillfully by clarifying their objections and convinces the customer to make
purchase.
6. Closing:
After handling objections and convincing customers to buy the product, the salesperson requests
the customer to place order. The salesperson assists the buyer to place order.
7. Follow-Up and Maintenance:
Immediately after closing the sale, the salesperson should take some follow up measures. The
sales person assures about delivery at right time, proper installation, after sales service. This
ensures customer satisfaction and repeat purchase.
Understanding the Abilities of Sales People:

The best sales teams are a lot like great schools: They care about results, but the way they
achieve them is by being relentless about developing the inside sales skills of their reps. In fact,
the best sales teams are most often led by someone who is more like a sales coach than a
sales manager. This dedication to developing inside sales skills ultimately creates a sales team
that not only hits its short-term goals but instils a culture of learning and self-improvement in
order to achieve its long-term goals as well.

But it’s not always so easy. Superb inside sales skills don’t always come naturally to young reps,
and sales leaders often feel like they don’t have the time or mastery to adequately coach their
reps. We know how important this process is, though, so we boiled everything down to the 14
inside sales skills every sales rep must master.

1. Product Knowledge

A sales rep who doesn’t perfectly understand the product they’re selling is a completely
ineffective rep. Product training should be one of the very first things you teach new reps – they
should be able to explain in detail how each product works, what business value it offers, and the
reasons it appeals to your company’s ideal customers. This will help ISRs (Inside Sales Reps)
craft their sales pitch effectively, and ensure they highlight each product’s strongest features.
Deep product knowledge is honestly one of the few things that separates the top 1% of reps from
the rest

2. Strategic Prospecting Skills

Once ISRs have the product knowledge to sell, it’s time to do some prospecting. However, while
many sales leaders have their quota-carrying reps also do early cold-calling, I actually don’t
suggest for ISRs to do cold calling. From a unit-economics perspective, it is obviously
considerably more cost-effective to have your Sales Development Reps (SDRs) do cold calls,
while your quota-carrying ISRs should be doing more sophisticated prospecting – what I call
“strategic prospecting”. This means searching for referrals through existing connections to new
prospects that fit the target buyer or ideal customer profile. It’s also important for reps to go back
to Closed-Lost opportunities with whom they already had previous conversations and try to
revive them. Another strategic prospecting activity is to ask for referrals from existing
customers, and even talk your investors (VCs) for referrals to their portfolio companies. All of
this is fair game for the quota-carrying ISRs to do prospecting.
 3. Rapport Building on the Call

ISR’s have a disadvantage over outside sales in that they’re not meeting with prospects face-to-
face. This means they must work harder to build a connection with busy and sometimes hostile
strangers over the phone. Some sales reps already have a natural ability to create an instant
rapport with a prospect, and only have to finesse it. Other reps can learn to research prospects in
advance and find common ground to empathize with the person on the other end of the line.
Whether you’re chatting about sports, attending the same college, or just the weather, rapport
should not be underestimated.

4. Buyer-Seller Agreement

In order to set mutual expectations and to make your prospects more comfortable, sales reps
should learn how to create a Buyer-Seller Agreement, (aka “Upfront Contracts” as Sandler Sales
Training calls them), to set the tone for all calls and meetings. These are verbal agreements at the
beginning of the sales process that outline expectations for both sides. For example, a sales rep
can ask a prospect, “Is it OK to ask a few questions about your business and then I will show you
a demo of our product to see if there is a potential fit for both of us?” It allows the prospect to
feel comfortable and understand what is coming next, so no one feels ambushed by the next step.
It also allows the sales rep to open up a two-way street in the selling process so that both parties
get to a win-win conclusion.

5. Active Listening

Most sales reps feel comfortable talking to prospects, but listening is another story. ISRs need to
become proficient in active listening, or listening with a strict focus and asking intelligent
follow-up questions. People can usually tell if you’re really listening to them, rather than just
thinking about what you’ll say next – and most people appreciate a good listener. Great listening
skills can help reps empathize with prospects to learn more about their business and pain points.
With that knowledge, they can then sell more effectively and offer a better solution.

6. Communication

On the phone, the tone of voice, volume and pace of a sales rep’s speech are surprisingly
important sales skills. In sales, how you say things to a prospect matters more than what you say.
According to Sandler Sales Training, only 7% of communication relies on the content of what
you say, whereas 38% of communication is about other attributes of communication such as
tonality, etc. As you may have heard before, it’s not what you say but how you say it. Reps
should try to subtly mirror a prospect’s tone of voice and style of talking – if a prospect is more
formal and polite, speak similarly; if they’re more informal and joke around, do the same. This
helps prospects feel familiar with you and relate to you more easily to create rapport. Reps also
need to speak clearly, not too quietly, and not in a monotone. You need to let your emotion and
personality shine through, so that the person on the phone knows you’re a human and is
interested in talking to you.

7. Qualification Questioning

ISRs need to start off every sales conversation by asking questions during the Discovery phase to
analyze a prospect’s business needs (i.e. Needs Analysis). It’s important to not just throw
random features and benefits at the prospect hoping something will stick. In fact, I tell ISRs to
stop sharing all of your product’s capabilities all at once. This is a bad tactic. Instead, you need
to delve deep to discover your prospect’s business pain and how your product can help them
solve it by asking qualifying questions. These questions help you determine what you should
share about the benefits and value in your product based on what is going to be most important
for them. Beyond the Discovery stage of the selling process, over time, ISRs will need to qualify
prospects for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline, Competition and Buying Process in order to
get all the key criteria that will help them get to the purchase. Being good at qualification is
critical to be a successful ISR.

8. Time Management

The most effective ISRs can make the most of their time, with more dials and more connects
than other reps. The key to being highly productive is using good time management skills. You
need to train each rep to sort through leads to find the most promising ones, and not waste too
much time on a deal that isn’t going anywhere. You can use analytics to identify the industry,
business size, and other characteristics of ideal leads, and share the information with your team.
It’s vital to make the most of the hours in the day to bring in more deals per rep.

9. Objection Prevention

Great sales reps practice the art of proactive “Objection Prevention” and not merely “Objection
Handling” and can thus reduce some of the most basic objections by way of how they approach a
sale. Train your reps to be strategic and think ahead by studying what typical objections come up
in most cases. For example, there is no reason to get to a point when a prospect can say, “I don’t
have a need for this” or “Call me again in a few months”.

It is possible to be proactive and address a common objection before it even comes up. For
example, at Insight Squared, many of our reps hear people say “You do reports for sales but I can
get reports from Salesforce anyway.” Instead, we preempt that objection by sharing during our
Discovery Call that our cross-object sales reports are impossible to run in the CRM and yet these
reports can save time for the Sales VP or CEO to run and can help grow revenue significantly
and all this is possible in a few clicks of a mouse button instead of days spent in Excel with data
that will be antiquated by the time you’re done.
 10. Objection Handling

Even the best reps can’t prevent every objection, so it’s important to help your team prepare for
objection handling when they do hear one. Reps have to be on their toes so that the sales process
doesn’t end abruptly, and they lose the opportunity at the deal. On our sales team at Insight
Squared, we coach reps to empathize, soften and ask good questions to understand what is
genuinely at the core of what the prospect is concerned about. Reps need to learn to sincerely
understand the prospect’s problem, ask for more information, and offer clarity to help the
prospect overcome their objections. You should do extensive role play and training to help
prepare your team for this.

11. Demo skills

For many B2B products, the demo is critical to starting a sales process. Sales reps need to not
only understand the product but must be able to show off its capabilities to a prospect effectively
through a demo. Demos are challenging in that reps need to first discover what benefits will be
most important to solving a prospect’s pain and highlight the business value of those features
during the demo. Throwing too many features at the prospect is a bad tactic and can overwhelm
and confuse them. This is another skill that you should practice with your reps, so they can
practice their demo presentation, and clearly be able to show off the product.

Don’t miss these other great articles on sales reps’ skills: 

How to Hire Sales Reps: 5 Must-Have Traits to Look For

15 Steps to Becoming a Better Salesperson 

How to Create a Great Sales Rep Profile on LinkedIn

12. Gaining Commitment

Great ISRs can get a prospect to commit to a deal quickly. The key is making sure the right
people with the right approval power are bought in to the process as the sale progresses. Reps
must continually ask questions, assess the prospect’s needs and reinforce what the prospect is
interested in buying. Reps should ask “Is this helpful? Is this how you envision it?” and more. By
forcing a prospect with buying power to acknowledge again and again that you’re offering them
real value, it helps push them to commit to a deal.

13. Closing Techniques

Now that the ISR has convinced the prospect that their company needs the product, it’s time to
close. Managers have to train reps to push prospects, ask for the order and get it signed fast. A lot
of prospects will try to push the closing date back a few weeks or a few months, and your rep
may be trying to reach a monthly or quarterly goal for the team. In this case, reps have to
establish a timeline, and push the prospect to sign using a compelling event. This shows how the
prospect is missing out on revenue by not having the product in place now. With the right
combination of pressure and value offered, reps can learn to close deals sooner.

14. Post-Sale Relationship Management

Many of us forget to thank customers and to continue building and maintaining the relationship
after the sale. Firstly, it’s important to be appreciative for the business regardless of whether the
customer will buy from you again. This is just common sense and common courtesy. And those
sales reps who are genuinely appreciative are the ones who typically grow professionally and
become masters of their craft. Furthermore, you don’t want your customers churning later and
going to a competitor. Additionally, your customers can and will refer you to other customers.
Finally, even ten years later you can still go back to the individual to whom you sold years ago,
and they may still become a customer even when both of you are in a new and different
company. Relationships really matter; it’s that simple. Yet some reps don’t engage in post-sale
with their customers. This is a key area at which I encourage all ISRs to get really disciplined.
Issues in Evaluations of Performance:

Performance evaluations, which provide employers with an opportunity to assess their

employees’ contributions to the organization, are essential to developing a powerful work team.
Yet in some practices, physicians and practice managers put performance evaluations on the
back burner, often because of the time involved and the difficulties of critiquing employees with
whom they work closely. The benefits of performance evaluations outweigh these challenges,
though. When done as part of a performance evaluation system that includes a standard
evaluation form, standard performance measures, guidelines for delivering feedback, and
disciplinary procedures, performance evaluations can enforce the acceptable boundaries of
performance, promote staff recognition and effective communication and motivate individuals to
do their best for themselves and the practice.

To create a performance evaluation system in your practice, follow these five steps:

1. Develop an evaluation form.

2. Identify performance measures.
3. Set guidelines for feedback.
4. Create disciplinary and termination procedures.
5. Set an evaluation schedule.

1. Develop an evaluation form:

Performance evaluations should be conducted fairly, consistently and objectively to protect your
employees’ interests and to protect your practice from legal liability. One way to ensure
consistency is to use a standard evaluation form for each evaluation. The form you use should
focus only on the essential job performance areas. Limiting these areas of focus makes the
assessment more meaningful and relevant and allows you and the employee to address the issues
that matter most. You don’t need to cover every detail of an employee’s performance in an
evaluation.

For most staff positions, the job performance areas that should be included on a performance
evaluation form are job knowledge and skills, quality of work, quantity of work, work habits and
attitude. In each area, the appraiser should have a range of descriptors to choose from (e.g., far
below requirements, below requirements, meets requirements, exceeds requirements, far exceeds
requirements). Depending on how specific the descriptors are, it’s often important that the
appraiser also have space on the form to provide the reasoning behind his or her rating.
Performance evaluations for those in management positions should assess more than just the
essential job performance areas mentioned above. They should also assess the employee’s people
skills, ability to motivate and provide direction, overall communication skills and ability to build
teams and solve problems. You should have either a separate evaluation form for managers or a
special managerial section added to your standard evaluation form. (Click below for an example
of a performance evaluation form that covers all the areas essential to rating the performance of
management staff.)

2. Identify performance measures:

Standard performance measures, which allow you to evaluate an employee’s job performance
objectively, can cut down on the amount of time and stress involved in filling out the evaluation
form. Although developing these measures can be one of the more time-consuming parts of
creating a performance evaluation system, it’s also one of the most powerful.

If you have current job descriptions for each position in your practice, you’ve already taken the
first step toward creating standard performance measures, which are essentially specific quantity
and quality goals attached to the tasks listed in a job description. A job description alone can
serve as a measurement tool during an evaluation if, for example, you’re assessing whether an
employee’s skills match the requirements of the position. But standard performance measures
take the job description one step further. For example, one task listed in a receptionist’s job
description might be entering new and updated patient registrations into the computer. The
standard performance measure for that task might be to enter 6 to 12 registrations per day
(quantity) with an error rate of less than 2 percent (quality). For some other standard
performance measures that were created for a receptionist in a two-physician primary care
practice.

3. Set guidelines for feedback:

Feedback is what performance evaluations are all about. So, before you implement your
performance evaluation system, make sure that everyone who will be conducting evaluations
knows what kind of feedback to give, how to give it and how to get it from the employee in
return.

Don’t make the common error of glossing over an employee’s deficiencies and focusing only on
his or her strengths. It is by understanding their weaknesses that employees can take ownership
of their performance and role in the practice. And when given the support they need to make
improvements in these areas, employees learn to take pride in their work and are willing to take
on new challenges with confidence Outline expectations for improvement. When you address
areas where improvement is needed, outline your expectations for improvement and how you
intend to help the employee meet them. For example, if an employee is speaking harshly with
other employees and does not seem tolerant with patients, give the employee some examples of
his or her behavior and offer some suggestions to resolve the problem, such as role-playing
sessions or a communication skills/customer-service workshop or seminar. Define the
boundaries by letting the employee know what is acceptable and what will not be tolerated, and
then establish a plan for monitoring performance and re-evaluating the employee.
Encourage feedback from the employee. After you’ve discussed the results of the evaluation with
the employee, encourage him or her to give you some nondefensively feedback. Ask the
employee whether he or she agrees with your assessment, and/or invite suggestions for
improvement. For example: “You seem to become impatient and short with patients when the
physician is running late. Since there are times when running late cannot be avoided, how do you
suggest we handle this to avoid such a reaction?” This should lead to an open exchange of
information that will allow you and the employee to better understand each other’s perspective.

4. Create disciplinary and termination procedures:

In some cases, even after a thorough performance evaluation and a discussion of expected
improvements, an employee will continue to perform poorly. You need to be prepared to handle
such a situation by having well-defined, written disciplinary and termination procedures in place.
These procedures should outline the actions that will be taken when performance deteriorates – a
verbal warning, a written warning if there is no improvement or a recurrence, and termination if
the situation is not ultimately resolved.

Verbal warning. This should be given in private, with the behavior or reason for the discipline
clearly stated. For example: “I observed you talking disrespectfully to another employee at the
front desk. You said she was brain-dead and tossed a chart at her. We will not tolerate disrespect
in the work-place. Furthermore, this outburst could be overheard from the reception room. If this
occurs again, a report will be written up and placed in your file. Do you understand the
importance of this?” After the verbal warning is given, allow the employee to respond, but keep
the exchange brief.

Written warning. How you handle the written warning plays a critical role in the success of your
disciplinary and termination procedures. This is the time to make it clear to the employee just
how serious his or her performance problem is. Unfortunately, many practices fail to do this
and/or to follow through with termination if necessary. Once the written warning is mishandled
in this way, it no longer has any merit. A standard, written, warning form should include the
following:

A description of the behavior or problem that includes objective findings,

The measurable actions and changes expected of the employee,

The support the employer will provide for improvement,

A description of what will occur (e.g., unpaid time off or termination) and when (e.g., after one
more occurrence or two) if the warning is not heeded,

The signature of the employee and appraiser and the date of the warning.
Termination. Explain the reason for the termination but do so briefly and objectively to avoid
getting into an elaborate discussion that puts you in a defensive position. Validate the employee
as a person, perhaps by giving a positive slant to the employee’s potential in the job market. For
example, although an employee might have been a poor file clerk for you because he or she
didn’t pay attention to detail, the employee may have a friendly personality that would make him
or her a good telephone operator. Also, let the employee know what will become of any accrued
vacation or sick leave, pension benefits, etc. Know your state’s laws on these issues. Finally, ask
if the employee has any further questions and then assist the employee in retrieving all of his or
her belongings and leaving with as much dignity as possible. If you handle termination well, you
are less likely to have an employee who wants to “get even” by badmouthing you in the
community or seeking legal revenge.

5. Set an evaluation schedule.

Once you’ve built your performance evaluation system – the evaluation form, the performance
measures, the feedback guidelines and the disciplinary procedures – you just need to decide
when to conduct the performance evaluations. Some practices do all employee evaluations at the
same time of year, while others conduct them within 30 days of each employee’s anniversary of
employment (the latter may work better since it spreads the work of the evaluations out for
employer and employee). However, you decide to schedule the evaluations, ensure that each
appraiser consistently meets the deadline. Ignoring employees’ overdue evaluations will make
them feel devalued and may hurt morale and performance.
Factors Impacting the Performance Evaluation:

Performance appraisal is very important for employees. After all, it is one of the most important
factors that drive them to put in that extra effort in their jobs. Performance evaluation helps the
manager distinguish ‘performing and non performing employees’ in an organization on which
appraisals are decided. Performance and skill set of an employee itself will not decide the
appraisals and not always are the employees delighted with their appraisals as employee
performance appraisal depends on several factors.

Below are a few factors that affect employee performance appraisal.

1. Performance: Performance of an employee by default affects his appraisal. Every

organization would want to make better profits. If certain employees perform above
their calibre to help company achieve better results, the organization would appreciate
their efforts by giving them a raise in their compensation. It is a motivating factor as
well for employees who continue to contribute efficiently to the organization.

2. Attendance: A very essential part of employment is to be present at the workstation

and other team and company activities. Taking a day off occasionally is okay, but
frequent absenteeism will no doubt weigh down your appraisals. Employees who
have lesser absenteeism and are punctual can expect good appraisals. 

3. Being motivated: A manager would love to see his employees work with excitement
and energy. Employees who get to work with motivation, take initiatives and show
interest to perform exceptionally are highly looked upon. Positive employees are
retained, respected and rewarded by the organization.

4. Team work: Organizations like team players. Employees who gel well with the team
and help the team improve will surely be recognized and the efforts will be honoured.
This would be one of the reasons why employees with still performance will manage
to get a healthier raise in their appraisals. Employees who spread negativity among
the team might have to face a tough time during their appraisals.

5. Service to the customers: Employees who deal with customers of the organization
should make sure that they fulfil the required complainants. This is essential as
’employee client relations’ will be responsible for bringing revenue to the
organization. Employees who do a good job here will receive a bonus.
6. Product knowledge: Employees should know in and out about the product or service
that they deal with. Product knowledge or process knowledge is an attribute by which
the employee is measured. Limited knowledge about the product or service restricts
customer experience, and it is difficult to convince the customers about the benefits of
the product/service. This in turn shows your inefficiency which leads to poor
appraisal.
Personal Selling Impact to the Organization:

As mentioned before, salespeople bridge the gap between customer needs and the
product/service that fulfils that need. Often, salespeople are dealing with already warmed up
prospects who have an existing awareness of the company through marketing and advertising
efforts, and it’s the job of the salesperson to close the deal by introducing further information and
helping the customer make those connections.

Driving Sales Organization is the first way to boost sales in your organization.

The following 5 actions will help you get there:

1. Motivate: Make work meaningful to each member of your team and find ways to
inspire them individually.
2. Focus: Develop action plans with your sellers so they focus their time on the most
important activities.
3. Execute: Help sellers get in the zone and get the most done each and every day in our
highly distractible world.
4. Advise: Teach sellers how to consistently win their most important sales.
5. Develop: Build the sales skills of your team to increase their effectiveness for years
to come.

1 Motivate

Most sellers say, "When I believe in what I'm selling, I can sell so much more of it." When you
have a Value-Driving Sales Organization, motivation is that much easier to inspire. Almost all
the Value-Driving Sales Organizations have cultures that support motivation compared to less
than half of the others. Furthermore, 85% of Value-Driving Sales Organizations have sellers who
actively pursue top sales performance versus only 50% of Non-Value-Driving Sales
Organizations. Focus on value and you can capitalize on a huge opportunity to drive seller
motivation.

Researchers at Harvard Business School studied hundreds of sellers to find out what motivates
them. The four factors they studied were:

Task clarity: Whether or not sellers know what to do on a day-to-day basis

Inner drive: The strength of the seller’s need for achievement

Compensation: How and how much sellers are paid

Sales Management: The method and quality of supervision

 2 Focus

When sellers are left without task clarity, they have too many choices of what to do. As humans,
we naturally take the path of least resistance and tend to do the easiest task in front of us. This is
often not the most meaningful or impactful task that you should be doing. We’ve found one
concept to be particularly powerful in helping sellers to know what to do: identifying
their Greatest Impact Activity.

Greatest Impact Activity (GIA): The one task—as hard as it may be—that a seller can do to
achieve the greatest outcomes.

You can help your team identify their GIAs by developing action plans for yourself and your
sellers. With an action plan in place, sellers know exactly what they should be doing and where
they should be focusing each day.

Put the GIA first in the daily plan to give you and your team the best chance for success.

3 Execute

Having a plan, knowing what you're supposed to do, and being motivated to do it is a great place
to start. But if you aren't executing and getting the most out of every day, it's all for naught.

In the last 15 years, the potential for distraction at work has skyrocketed. With email, internet,
texting, WhatsApp, Slack, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., sellers are constantly being
interrupted, making it nearly impossible to execute.

Value-Driving Sales Organizations are 2x more likely to have sellers who are better at managing
their time, focus, and personal effectiveness.

Imagine the improvement in productivity if your sellers were certain of the most important thing
to do on any given day. Knowing their GIA and having an action plan allows them to be
completely focused on doing it.

4 Advise

Sellers are typically unorganized in how they approach winning sales opportunities. They
approach each opportunity differently and often miss key elements during the sales process that
can help them win.

Consistent support and clear expectations from sales managers can alleviate this. When sales
managers coach sellers on how to be most valuable to buyers and help ensure all aspects of the
sales process are thoroughly explored, the odds of winning go up.

If the seller can't make the case to their sales manager for why a buyer should act and act now,
choose you, and trust you, how are they supposed to make the case to a buyer. When you have
sales manager who regularly works with sellers and coaches them to win, your organization wins
more frequently.

5 Develop

Value-Driving Sales Organizations have teams with significantly stronger sales skills across the
board—from prospecting and consultative selling to strategic account management and sales
management.

The top sales skills at Value-Driving Sales Organizations include:

The differences between the Value-Driving Sales Organizations and Non-Value-Driving Sales
Organizations are stark.

You must be able to drive and win sales opportunities. Indeed, 91% of Value-Driving Sales
Organizations have sellers skilled in doing this compared to less than half of the Non-Value-
Driving Sales Organizations.

The second greatest skill is managing and coaching sellers. Note the difference: Value-Driving
Sales Organizations are 3x more likely to have managers who are effective at helping sellers
succeed.

The third greatest skill is core consultative selling. This relates to the seller’s ability to
understand, shape, and redefine need, craft compelling solutions to needs, and communicate
maximum impact for the buyer. This can be summarized in one word: value. Sellers who possess
core consultative selling skills are better at communicating and providing value.

Develop sales skills with value at the center. The best sellers add value to the conversation above
and beyond your products and services by sharing ideas and advice. The best sales organizations
also have managers who can coach them to do this.
Importance of Personal Selling:

In any organisation, the sales department plays a pivotal role in the success of the business. The
unique and important role of sales is to bridge the gap between the potential customer’s needs
and the products/services that the organisation offers that can fulfil their needs. Here are some of
the key ways in which sales impact the organisation’s success:

 Sales Lead Conversions

As mentioned before, salespeople bridge the gap between customer needs and the
product/service that fulfils that need. Often, salespeople are dealing with already warmed up
prospects who have an existing awareness of the company through marketing and advertising
efforts, and it’s the job of the salesperson to close the deal by introducing further information and
helping the customer make those connections.

Take for example, car sales. You typically go to a car dealership knowing you are looking for a
car. The car salesperson will typically ask you questions about your personal life including size
of your family, typical daily routine, etc. in order to gain insight into what you would use the car
for. They can then offer information about various cars in the dealer’s range that would suit your
needs and guide you in making an informed decision about which car is the one for you.

Because salespeople interact directly with the potential customer, they have the advantage of
being able to glean personal knowledge that will aid them in delivering their sales pitch and
tailoring their offerings to their audience. This is often an attractive aspect for customers, as they
may view the salesperson as the expert, which builds credibility and therefore trust.

 Business Growth

Sales play a key role in the building of loyalty and trust between customer and business. Trust
and loyalty are the main reasons why a customer would choose to recommend your company to a
friend or family member or write a great review of your product or service online.
Recommendations and reviews have always been valued by prospects and customers, as they
come from a third party and the perception is that the reviews and recommendations are
independent of the seller and therefore carry more credibility. In the digital age, they are
extremely influential, due to the reach and power of social media and online media. During sales
interactions, encouraging the customer to recommend a friend or give positive feedback can have
an impact on the growth of the business through increased brand awareness and sales.
  Customer Retention

Selling is a personal interaction between one human and another, which is a powerful thing.
Never underestimate the personal connection between two people, and the potential effect this
can have on your brand’s reputation.

Excellent salespeople are those that not only make the sale but create a long-lasting impact on
the customer. Long term customer relationships lead to repeat custom, referrals and increase the
brand’s reputation by word of mouth.

One of the keys to customer retention through sales is to perform sales follow-ups. Setting up
after-sales calls or meetings is a great way to maintain and build a positive relationship and gives
the customer an opportunity to feedback their experience of the product or service. If the
customer has a complaint or issue, it can be dealt with quickly and professionally. Too often,
unhappy customers will not complain, they will simply switch their custom to another provider
and won’t recommend your services or products to others. It’s more cost-effective to retain
customers than to win new ones, so look after your existing customers well.
Conclusions:

In conclusion, the power of sales in the continued success of an organisation is not to be

underestimated or under-used. Take advantage of the impact sales can have, not only on revenue
but on brand reputation, long term customer retention and business growth.

Sales are the most important aspect for any organisation. That’s where the revenue come from.
You can produce any amount of product with high end technologies but if they are not sold to the
consumer the whole investment goes in vain and eventually the companies die off. Once you
start selling your product the revenue will come you can’t invest in your company and then
produce more and eventually you sell more. That’s how you grow. Hence sales are the most
important thing to a company no matter what you are selling, be it product or services.