Understand the role and responsibilities of a sales executive and a sales manager

As leaders, sales managers are generally responsible for hiring and firing, identifying where
training is needed and providing it, mentoring sales reps, and assigning sales territories.

Their role also includes creating sales plans and analysing data in order to make informed
decisions. They will regularly report back to directors on progress – and may even have a
hand in steering the future of the business.

Everything they do contributes to their goal of hitting sales targets and generating profit for
their company.

What Does a Sales Manager Do?

A sales manager’s role consists of many duties – here are some of the most important:

Identifying Sales Goals

Setting sales goals is one of the main aspects of a sales manager’s job description. Of course,
it’s not as simple as plucking an ambitious figure out of thin air and overworking your team
in order to hit it.

Sales goals need to be exciting, but they also need to be realistic – consistently failing to hit
targets will not be well-received by the board and will quickly de-motivate your team. But if
you set them too low, you may be holding back the business’s bottom line.

As a result, much of a sales manager’s role involves analysing both historic and real-time
data to deduce:

1. What the sales goals and targets should be

2. How close their team is to hitting them
3. What needs to change in order to get their team on track to hit their sales goals

# Sales executives promote products and services to clients and negotiate contracts with the
aim of maximizing profits. Salaries are often enhanced by a good benefits package, including
commission-based earnings, bonuses, lunch allowances and sometimes health insurance and a
company car.

Explain the objectives and strategies of a sales force

The most basic of sales force objectives is to raise the total sales numbers in each
period, generally each week, month or quarter. Sales forces record the number of
customers served daily, and sales managers view detailed reports displaying
trends in daily sales volume.
The main objective of sales force management is to optimise the performance of
the sales and marketing teams. We could even say that sales force management is
a strategy to increase business sales since it also relates to performance and
results.

An example of a strategy used to achieve a revenue growth objective is to institute

a commission compensation program for salespeople in addition to base salaries.
This can motivate salespeople to push themselves harder to beat their personal
sales records.

The Salesforce strategy has always centered on customer data mining and organization,
but with it scattered across so many channels and hidden within a variety of software
tools, integration remains an essential aspect of achieving a true 360-degree customer
view.
5 Critical Salesforce Strategies to Implement
Prioritize customer experience.
Take advantage of mobile tools.
Sync integrations into your CRM.
Introduce self-service portals.
Capitalize on AI.
Discuss the policies that impact sales management

Relationship between sales and other functions in the

business

Working together
The sales department in a business must work collaboratively with other departments to
achieve success. They must build a relationship with marketing, finance, production and the
supply chain to allow them to operate in an efficient and effective way.

Marketing

Marketing and sales work together very closely in a business. The role of marketing is to
attract a customer to the business and develop an interest in their products. Marketing will
also ensure the sales department are selling products and services that meet the wants and
needs of customers.

Finance
The finance department provides a budget and an amount of money that will allow the sales
department to function effectively, whilst also monitoring the sales made and the revenue
achieved. Finance will also closely monitor any costs that the business has, and ensure the
sales department are selling enough products for the business to achieve a profit.

Production

Production must communicate effectively with the sales department to inform them of how
many products they are able to make within a certain time period. This will allow the sales
department to inform customers of any delay and avoid disappointment.

Production will also have to ensure that their products are of a high quality and represent the
brand effectively. This will avoid complaints and returns by customers, and make the role of
the sales department much easier.

Supply chain

The supply chain must gain information from the sales team to allow them to supply the right
goods and services to the correct customer. The supply chain will also want to ensure they
have enough stock and that customers receive it within the time period promised by the sales
team.

Explain the personal selling process

Personal selling is also known as face-to-face selling in which one person who is the
salesman tries to convince the customer in buying a product. It is a promotional method
by which the salesperson uses his or her skills and abilities in an attempt to make a sale.
It is a face-to-face selling technique by which a salesperson uses his or her interpersonal skills to persuade
a customer in buying a particular product. The salesperson tries to highlight various features of the product
to convince the customer that it will only add value. However, getting a customer to buy a product is not
the motive behind personal selling every time. Often companies try to follow this approach with customers
to make them aware of a new product.

The job of the salesperson is to make sure that he understands the need of the customers and accordingly
shows various products that he keeps under that category. Under the direct channel, a salesperson visits
potential customers in an attempt to make them aware about a new product that the company is launching
or it may have a new offer which the customers may not get from the open market.

Personal selling involves direct communication between the salesperson and potential customer and
typically happens in person, over email or phone. It’s most commonly used for business-to-business (B2B)
selling, although it’s also used in retail and trade selling too.

There are advantages and disadvantages that come with personal selling listed below:

Personal Selling Advantages

First, personal selling is advantageous for a few reasons. Personal selling…

 Allows for detailed and personalized communication between your business and potential customers.
 Gives your sales team the chance to individually address any questions, concerns, or objections potential
customers may have to move them closer to purchase.
 Provides a personal, one-on-one connection between your organization and potential customers.
Personal Selling Disadvantages

 Expensive method to maintain due to the time and resources it requires.

 Requires more time, effort, and thought due to the methods of personalized nature.
 Prevents salesperson from reaching a large pool of people at once because they’re forced to identify good-
fit — and therefore, more qualified — leads in the process.
The 7 Steps Personal Selling Process

Prospecting

The first step in the personal selling process is seeking out potential customers — also known as your
prospects or leads. Prospecting can be done through inbound marketing, cold calling, in-person
networking, or online research.

An important part of the prospecting stage is lead qualification. Remember, personal selling is all about
finding solutions for your customers, but, naturally, not everyone is fit to be a customer or find a solution
using your product or service.

Therefore, you must qualify your leads to avoid spending precious time and resources on prospects that
have little to no chance of becoming customers — and minimize customer churn.

 Pre-approach
During the pre-approach stage, sales team should prepare to make initial contact with any leads they’ve
discovered while prospecting. Pre-approach typically involves extensive online research about the
prospect, the market, and his or her business. This stage also includes building and practicing a sales
presentation tailored to the prospect.

 Approach
In this stage, the sales team should make initial contact with a prospect by reaching out, introducing
themselves, and starting a conversation. This might happen via a phone call, video call, email, or in-
person.

The ultimate goal of the approach stage is to better understand the prospect and know their wants, needs,
and problems — anything that your product or service can help satisfy or solve. For this reason, sales team
should focus on mainly asking questions in this stage to know if and how his/her product or service can
solve their challenges and pain points of the prospects.

There are three common approach methods:

 Premium approach: Presenting your potential client with a gift at the beginning of your interaction
 Question approach: Asking a question to get the prospect interested
 Product approach: Giving the prospect a sample or a free trial to review and evaluate your service
 Presentation
At this stage the sales team heads into the sales presentation. This is when sales team presents and
potentially demonstrates his/her product or service.

Throughout the presentation, sales team should focus on how the product or service benefits the prospect,
using information gathered in the pre-approach and approach stages. This will ensure the presentation is
relevant to the prospect and their needs.

 Handling Objections
At this point in the personal sales process, after the presentation, a prospect will likely have questions and
objections. It’s the job of the sales team to correct any misconceptions, handle any objections, and answer
any questions — without seeming pushy or losing the trust of the prospect.

The purpose of this stage isn’t to change a prospect’s mind or force them to buy; it’s simply to learn more
about how to best help the prospect reach a solution. If the prospect doesn’t reach out with any questions,
sales team should follow-up to see how they can help.

 Closing
After any objections and barriers to the sale have been removed, the sales team should try to finalize the
sale — otherwise known as “closing” the deal. This stage refers to settling any negotiations, payments,
invoices, contracts, or paperwork that wraps up the deal.

 Follow Up
The final stage of the personal selling process is the follow-up, which is when the sales team contacts the
customer after a sale to ensure they’re delighted and have had or are working through your effective
onboarding.

This stage is important because it allows your sales team to maintain customer relationships that hopefully
renew or upgrade. It also provides a direct connection to your customer service team if a customer isn’t
happy — and happy customers become brand advocates.