Professional and personal qualities of a sales manager. Training and improvement of the sales manager. What is the first thing a sales manager should know - a product or persuasion techniques The best qualities of a sales manager

Answer from Quora user Mira Zaslove .

Sustainability. Sales work is always fraught with failures. The easier a specialist perceives failures, the faster he will succeed and be able to maintain a positive attitude. At all stages of the sales process, you will have to deal with backlash. For example, you call a potential client, and he hangs up. You offer a person to buy something, and he says that he does not need it. Or promises to buy, but does not pay.
The ability to ask the right questions, listen to the interlocutor, understand what he is saying, and correctly allocate time. Remember that customers and deals are not the same, and you should only spend time on things that will bring real value.

Make sure you understand:

1.) Why customers buy your products. In order to develop the right sales strategy, you need to understand the motives of buyers. Sometimes the motives change and the client backs out of the deal. For example, if he buys a house, because is looking for housing closer to a potential job, but then it turns out that he did not get a job, the deal will not take place. And you will never know why he refused if you do not find out in advance the motive for the purchase.

2.) How much money your client has.

Perhaps the client wants a bottle of French champagne, but he only has money for a bottle of cheap beer. The sooner you know this, the better. Send him all the necessary documentation and ask about the conditions under which he will make a purchase. As soon as the client sees the numbers on paper, he will understand that he may need to look at other options.

3.) Who makes the purchasing decision. Make sure you speak directly to the person who makes the final decision. You can spend time explaining the details to someone who is not responsible for anything. The sooner you figure out who is writing the check, the better.

4.) How much time your client has. Maybe the customer is asking the right questions, really needs the product, and has the money, but plans to make a purchase next year, and your last stock is running out this quarter. Ask when exactly they will need your product and make sure you can arrange just-in-time delivery.

Resourcefulness. Taking action increases your chances of success. Grow your customer base and don't rely on a single deal to save you. Try to get as much information about the client as possible (see the previous paragraph). Sales is a people business, and people can surprise you. Deals that seemed like a done deal can suddenly fall apart. Try to always have a few potential deals in reserve to close the plan.

The below response was given by John Levitt, head of sales at Parse.ly.

Sales professionals who do not have the right qualities lose a lot of opportunities. Here is a list of the qualities I look for in potential employees:

The ability to self-organize. Being organized and systematic allows you to work more efficiently and make better deals.
The desire to learn new things. Before you can be trusted to negotiate, you have a lot to learn. Those who are willing to learn move up the career ladder faster and bring more value to the enterprise.
The ability to demonstrate one's competence. If you are an expert in a certain area, you will easily gain the trust of customers and learn how to deal with rejection.
Ability to deal with rejection. No matter how good your product is, customers will always find something to complain about. You need to quickly and convincingly present weaknesses in the form of new opportunities. The salesperson doesn't have to say no. Regardless of the question, he must be able to turn the conversation in the direction he needs.
The right attitude to work. A salesperson must be able to handle rejection. He should always strive for greater success and quickly forget about failures.
Humor. The ability to defuse a tense situation is very important. We all need to smile sometimes. Smiling makes any conversation interesting, and people pay more attention to cheerful people.
Ability to act quickly. Sluggish and apathetic people will never succeed in sales. However, it should be remembered that any rush must be reasonable, not reckless.
Sincerity. People always feel affected, do not trust such specialists and do not make deals with them.
The ability to sell based on the value of the goods. It's easy to talk about product features. Talking about value to the end user is much more difficult. You can learn this, but for this you will have to change your habits.
The ability to listen. The most simple and obvious quality. No one likes interlocutors who do not allow a word to be inserted into the conversation. By recognizing the needs and desires of the client, you will be able to build an effective dialogue. It is unlikely that you will succeed if you offer customers a product that does not suit them at all.

Do you want to add something? We are waiting for your comments!

mashable.com
Translation: Airapetova Olga

The sales manager is the face of the company. His responsibilities include the sale of goods and services, as well as the demonstration of advantages, the formation of a positive attitude towards the company.

Personal qualities of a manager

Communication is important. He must be able to find a common language with the interlocutor. In a broad sense, this characteristic includes a number of key points:

the ability to properly negotiate;
perfected mastery of basic techniques and sales techniques;
the ability to quickly win over a client, build a dialogue in the right direction;
the ability to maintain constant contact with key counterparties throughout the entire period of work with them;
knowledge of the company's product, the ability to present it in a favorable light, to show advantages over competitors.

For a sales employee, it is important to have an inner core. It is the ability to stand your ground without going beyond ethics and politeness, to find the right words and facts to convince the buyer that he is being offered the best product.

Neat appearance and competent speech are important.

Professional qualities of a manager

To find sales staff, firms spend a lot of time and money.The most important characteristics of a successful employee of the latter include:

knowledge of sales theory;
experience in similar areas;
character traits that allow you to successfully sell goods and services.

To strengthen knowledge reading books, attending trainings.

How to Start a Career as a Sales Manager

Take on any job first. For a successful career, you need basic experience that will serve as proof of knowledge and the ability to apply it.

If there is a desire to sell, then experience, customers, theory will soon be added to it. This comes with time, but the “light in the eyes” cannot be obtained in any other way than from birth.

What are the main qualities that sales managers should have and how to develop them as a leader. Why doesn't it always work. Examples are given by our expert, business coach Andrey Karpenko

- To understand all the components of the profession, it is important for a salesperson to draw up his own plan, evaluate professional capital, “acquire” useful tools in the right areas and move forward in professional development.

The task of the leader here is to help develop these qualities.

How to develop goal setting in a salesperson

Goal setting is a clear understanding by the seller of the goals of his sales and what he wants to get as a result.

You can give your salespeople the ability to set their own sales plan. And do not tell them the final figure - let them appoint it themselves. And you, as a leader, compare the results with your preliminary ones. If sales managers set a higher plan, great. If you put up less, you correct it together with them, trying to get out of the situation and increase the results.

I note that practice shows that with the development of this quality, it is not uncommon for a manager to tell an employee to complete the maximum possible plan for him and not set minimum goals. And this is already a gross mistake. By doing this, you yourself, as a leader, give the employee an escape route in case of unsatisfactory results.

It sounds like this: "Do as much as you can!" In this case, he can always say that he did everything possible, but he did not succeed: "As much as he could, he did so much." I have had one case. The sales manager very often came to one client in the store - in order for him to place an order for new products (she placed orders automatically for the usual assortment). But the store manager didn't want to listen to information about ordering a new product. This happened because the girl set herself the goal of selling goods, including new ones, for a certain amount.

After discussing the situation, a slightly different goal was set. In fact, the girl needed to make the client listen to her. And after a two-minute conversation, move on to discussing a new product. This is much more effective than starting to sell a new product from the threshold.

How to ask questions to a client

This quality refers to finding out the needs of the client. You need to ask the right effective questions so that the client provides additional information.

Make sure that the employee can immediately write 10-15 questions that he will ask the client. If an employee creates this list, he will be able to choose 2-3 suitable for a particular client.

How do managers destroy this quality in employees? It is extremely simple - the leaders themselves do not ask them any questions. Ask yourself: “How many questions do I ask employees? Do I show them by example what to do and how to do it? Do I know how to ask questions to the client, to clarify the situation?”

If you, as a leader, only set tasks without asking questions to employees, they will copy your behavior model and, with a calm soul, coming to customers, they will sell goods to them in the same way, using the “bulldozer” model. In such a situation, employees are not ready for customer objections. They believe that you need to push harder, give more examples and evidence in order to get your product accepted.

At the same time, keep in mind that many employees, after passing the trainings that companies conduct for staff, conclude for themselves that it is worth asking any questions you like, just to “fill up” the client with them. But no client will answer a bunch of questions. He will answer the first 2-4, and then ask his own, quite logical question: “What did you come with?”

How to develop the ability to influence the interlocutor

It is about working with arguments, resolving doubts and objections, closing the deal.

If you want to perform these actions well, scripts, scripts, the experience of colleagues within your company, effective sales training programs come to the rescue.

1. Just get together once with your team. Write down all speech models and then supplement them periodically. By doing this, you will create a useful knowledge base that contains answers to, for example, the 20 most common objections, arguments in favor of the product for various categories of customers, examples of what to say at the end of the transaction.

2. Call your employees and analyze work situations, isolate from them typical behaviors when dealing with objections.

3. Immediately begin to work out the solutions found. Ask the employee to repeat the necessary phrases 2, 3, 5 times until he becomes related to them.

4. Become a role model for employees. If the manager only set a goal for the employee, but never sold anything himself, then the employees will also perceive this as a kind of role model.

5. The second way to show how to act is to go with the employee “in the field” to the client, negotiate with him and make a successful deal.

You should not be too emotionally happy with your results, be smug and tell the employee something like “now you understand how this is done, next time you will repeat it.”

6. Debrief after meeting with the client. Discuss the positives and negatives as equals with the employee.

How to instill the ability to develop

In my experience, 2 out of 10 people are ready to develop themselves. The rest develop only under the coercion of the leader. Develop such a quality as self-learning in employees with care. So that they do not get tired of learning, but it is enough for professional growth. To do this, it is best to awaken in them a keen interest in personal development. For example:

Create a corporate library
Share useful films with employees
Once a week, make it a rule to discuss something new that you have learned, heard, read or tried out in practice.

An example from life. When at the certification the manager noted the need for personal development, instructed employees to study materials, books and trainings, a logical question followed: “Have you studied this yourself?”. The leader replied, “Why? I do not need it!".

In this case, employees usually copy the behavior of the leader, and development becomes unnecessary for them too. At the very least, optional.

Another case from practice. The manager asked me after the management training: “I really want my employees to develop, where should I start? After all, they don’t do anything at all, they don’t develop in any way, they just sell the goods.

The answer is simple - start with yourself!

Professional trainer

16 years in sales, management, practical training.
Professional capital development expert
Experience in Philip Morris, Henkel, Danone, RTL-holding
Clients: Colgate&Palmolive, BelorDesign, Garsia, Oasis Group, Belorusneft software, Conte Trade and others.
Has evaluated over 1200 salespeople and 180 Executives.
The best result in the country in joint field trainings - more than 800 (sales, negotiations, management).
HotSalesDay training organizer
Founder of the project and community "Work Like a Hobby"
Author of books: "Resolution for the Manager", "I want a normal job", "Excellent Interview"

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In my opinion, the personality of the manager, his qualities, energy directly affect sales.

Today, companies have a huge technical potential that they could not even dream of 15 years ago. Good communication, CRM, allowing you to get excellent statistics and respond in time to the situation in the company, sales technologies, techniques for influencing the client ... Nevertheless, almost every owner can say that there is room to grow and sales in the company are not what we would like to have .

An analogy can be drawn with medicine. Doctors are trained in much the same way. As they improve their skills, they learn similar material. There is more and more diagnostic equipment, as well as medical errors. There are doctors who, after treatment, continue to be healthy for a long time. Moreover, the very presence of a doctor from God in the ward leads to recovery. Moreover, his more technically savvy colleagues may have a worse result.

The same can be seen in education. You have probably noticed that borsch according to the same recipe with the strictest observance of technology has different tastes for different housewives.

It turns out that it's not so much about technology, but about the people who use these technologies. After all, technology itself was created by humans.

Personal qualities of a manager that directly affect sales

Let's take a look at the declared 5 personal qualities of a manager that affect successful sales.

Openness and ability to learn
"Fire in the Eyes"
Perseverance, result-oriented sales manager
Stress resistance is the ability to navigate in a non-standard, sometimes “emergency” situation.
Faith in business

1. Openness of the manager and his ability to learn.

Often under human openness understand frankness and straightforwardness. Therefore, it is believed that the sales manager should not be open.

However, the concept "openness of personality, person" has several interpretations, and we will talk about the openness that is always present in a successful manager.

The openness of a sales manager as a desire to give warmth without harming himself and the company and bringing benefits to others.

“At one time I happened to purchase products for the company from just such an open manager. He was interested in the results of sales of products purchased from him, recommended novelties, advised. And he always ended his conversation with the following words: “If you get a better offer, call me anyway. I will try to do my best to keep our cooperation going.” And so it was ... Until he went on vacation. Other managers were not up to our company. And if earlier we bought every 3 days, then during the monthly vacation of our manager - never. In fact, they switched to other suppliers. And after he left for another company, the cooperation completely came to naught. ”

Lacked the very openness of the sales manager.

And interestingly, sales managers who were open ten years ago are today commercial directors or owners of their businesses.

Ability to learn is closely related to the ability to set adequate goals and achieve them. A manager capable of learning does not subconsciously block the new, but easily absorbs and begins to apply it. Moreover, the ability to learn over the years does not decrease, just a change in the learning process. It's never too early or too late to learn new things.

2. "Fire in the eyes"

The fire in the eyes of sales managers allows companies to rapidly reach a new level. It's just the fire that helps make the impossible possible. Such a request from the employer - "sales manager with fire in his eyes"— today it sounds more and more often. To make a swift dash, you need a team with fire in their eyes. In other words, there are strong personalities in the team, whose strengths complement each other and create a powerful core.

You can just go to the mirror and look yourself in the eye. What do you see? Not enough brilliance, enthusiasm? Thank yourself and remember that you love yourself and since you live in the world, then God has big plans for you. Think back to your past victories. Did a spark flash? Then it's time to light the fire!

As my grandmother used to say: when you stop acting, then your path rolls towards sunset. And the worse your mood, the faster you move towards the end.

The fire in the eyes gives energy not only for your breakthrough, but also feeds those around you.

3. Perseverance, focus on the result of the sales manager

You have to try. However, only perseverance will help you enjoy the result.

You can try how warm the water is in a resort on the Mediterranean coast. And you can be persistent, move on and swim, having fun

You can try to court girls, or you can be persistent and ... get immeasurably more.

Persistence helps make life complete.

A focus on results determines how complete life will be.

The manager can collect information about the company to which he intends to sell his product and this will also be the result.

Or else go to the decision maker ...

Make an effective presentation...

Sell…

Cooperate on an ongoing basis and sell a lot…

Question: what result are you aiming at as a sales manager?

What you aim for is what you get.

4. Stress resistance - the ability to navigate in a non-standard, sometimes "emergency" situation.

The job of a sales manager is a series of negotiations. Sometimes hard and fast. And dealing with emotions is often difficult. Not because you don’t know how or are not ready ... It’s just that there are laws of physiology and many emotions automatically start before you have time to realize them.

Stress tolerance is the ability to recognize the triggering emotion in time and leave the “attack line” without breaking the firewood:

take time out
break the pattern of expected behavior,
show misunderstanding,
"do not hear"
take the conversation in a different direction...

Get your bearings... Negotiations can be postponed, change the team of negotiators, change goals to take into account new facts

5. Faith in the cause

The world always looks exactly the way it is in man's constant statements to himself.

If we believe in a matter in the soul, then it begins to give us pleasure and possible failure turns into a challenge which sooner or later will be followed by success.

We can talk about faith out loud, but doubt in our souls, then our reactions will give out doubts.

“For one of the furniture companies, we filmed commercials for showing on television, in which the seller briefly spoke about the advantages of this or that furniture. Since the seller is not an actor and cannot be reincarnated, his movements, facial expressions betrayed his attitude towards this or that furniture. And I had to do duplicates again and again so that the words and reactions of the body said that the furniture was really good and worth buying.

When words and body reactions speak of the same thing, this is called sincerity.

I must say that despite the fact that non-professional actors were filmed in the commercials, it was the right behavior in the frame that subsequently influenced the surge in sales and a stable position in the market.”

Unbelief in the soul and faith in words, unfortunately, leads to discord and in the future to the lack of the planned result.

Faith in the soul and disbelief in words are knocked off course. And then the “ship of sales” arrives at the “port of the transaction” after a longer time, sometimes passing through storms.

The synchronicity of faith in one's work allows you to accelerate and reach the intended result faster.

The trajectory of a person who doubts his business is similar to the trajectory of a deeply drunk person.

Or the movement of a person who takes ONE step forward and TWO steps back. Do you think it will reach the intended result?

It will come if you cast aside doubts.

So, we have sorted out 5 Personal Traits of a Sales Manager That Directly Affect Success.

Only you can audit your qualities. And I believe that such inner work will allow you to change your life, bring it even closer to the ideal you aspire to.

Remember that the greatest value lies within us. And everything else is just tools that help you achieve the planned result faster.

It is possible to have the most powerful computer, but if you do not want to use it, it will not help you in any way.

Everything is inside. Our world is realized as we see, hear, feel it inside ourselves, projecting it onto the screen of the external world.

Success and failure in sales is just an indicator of how fully the personal power of a sales manager is used.

If you have determined for yourself that you have all the listed qualities, then stop holding yourself back. Take your foot off the brake pedal. Only she now prevents your crushing success, your incredible sales volume.

Be sure not to pass by...

Every person who is looking for a suitable job or an organization that needs this or that specialist had to look at sites that generate open vacancies and resumes. And the most relevant, to date, vacancy presented by organizations is a sales manager. Such vacancies are full of requirements and conditions, and the more creative the vacancy is, the more responses it receives. Someone responds to such vacancies for the first time, deciding to try himself in sales, and someone who has already tested his strength in this field is looking for a warmer place.

Personal qualities

Let's look at the qualities that a sales manager should have, and also consider one of the important qualities of a successful sales manager.

I have worked with both sales gurus and chicks that are just starting to fledge. Some of the chicks quickly develop into a guru, and someone needs a long time to adapt, which the employer often cannot afford.

In all the above cases, the factors of development and application of the personal qualities of a sales manager, both in practice and in theory, play. Let's try to consider them. Let's start with personality traits.

One sees only a puddle in a puddle, while the other, looking into a puddle, sees stars

Firstly, of course, this is an active desire to work in sales and develop yourself in this direction. Without this quality, there is no point in considering the other points mentioned here. After all, the starting point of any success is desire.

Secondly, knowledge of this or that product, and maybe the product line that the manager presents to the buyer.

Thirdly, it is certainly knowledge of sales techniques, for the development of this skill there is now a lot of information in open sources, and of course, if an employer is interested in developing his staff and increasing profits, then he simply will not skimp on organizing trainings and seminars on this direction. As you know, investing in knowledge gives the highest dividends.

Fourth, fifth, sixth... communication skills, the ability to competently negotiate, the ability to choose the right product / service that will solve the customer's problem.

All of the above qualities are simply indispensable for an active sales manager and his effective work, which should bring not only pleasure from the efforts made, but also fruits, both for the further development of the sales manager himself, and for obtaining the maximum profit that he aims for. manager.

The best things go to those who do their job in the best way.

Now let's look at the quality that affects a successful sales manager.

The points listed above are a component of any sales manager, without these qualities the manager will not last even a probationary period at work, or he will run away without turning around, or he will be fired. But what distinguishes all the same a successful sales manager? It is, of course, confidence. Confidence, which in turn falls into three categories:

Self confidence
Product confidence
Company confidence

A manager can know five plus all the products he sells, have a great command of sales techniques and communication skills, and at the same time masterfully combine stress resistance, but without that core, without this zest - confidence, everything can become in vain and ineffective.

Developing confidence and personal qualities is possible in several ways, but first of all it is work on yourself. And this can also be helped by positive thinking, perseverance, self-improvement of knowledge and skills, life experience, resisting failures (no need to give up after the first failure), making responsible decisions, reading business literature, attending seminars, trainings, praise from superiors, and, of course, material bonuses.

A successful sales manager is a creative person who does not know how to think in a pattern.

It's never too late to become who you want to be.

_______________________________

Olga Katunina , Head of Sales Department for Integrated Solutions, IT at InformConsulting

#InformConsulting

#Expanding the horizons of possibilities

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