I have started my Sales career in the age of 20, immediately after leaving the college. My first job was at NIIT Technologies and I was assigned to sell their IT courses in my native place (Thanjavur in Tamilnadu). I was there for a year and then moved to a local FMCG distributor and started selling soaps, detergent, milk and other consumer products to the local retailers. During these period, I have gained immense ground-level knowledge of how FMCG sales and distribution works.
To gain more exposure, I later moved to Chennai and joined as the Manager in a Multi-national call center. There, I have learned how to communicate better and convince prospects over the phone. Yes. It requires different skill sets to convince people over the phone. Rigorous training, mock calls and feedback from the quality team helped to become a better tele-sales guy.
Later in my career, I was bitten by the Marketing bug, became passionate about it and authored a book.
Based on my experience, I have distilled 9 key differences Good and Great Sales people;
1. Good sales people are ‘Go-getters’.
Great sales people are ‘Go-givers’.
2. Good sales people focus on achieving their ‘Targets’.
Great sales people focus on maintaining a healthy ‘Sales Funnel’.
3. Good sales people ‘Follow-up’.
Great sales people ‘Engage’.
4. Good sales people treat all prospects equally.
Great sales people understands that not everyone is their customer and spend most of their time with few qualified
prospects.
5. Good sales people know their product features and benefits really well.
Great sales people know the pain points of their customers really well.
6. Good sales people do excellent product presentations.
Great sales people tell stories which resonate with their prospects.
7. Good sales people spend 80% of their time ‘speaking’ and 20% of their time ‘listening’.
Great sales people spend 20% of their time ‘speaking’ and 80% of their time ‘listening’.
8. Good sales people sell based on the price.
Great sales people sell based on the value.
9. Good sales people focus only on the ‘immediate transaction’.
Great sales people try to understand the ‘life-time value of the prospect’.
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Rajesh Srinivasan is a Marketing Strategist who helps companies increase their sales conversions by creating highly converting sales funnels. He is an Author and Professional Speaker who speaks on Marketing strategy and Branding. Rajesh is an Alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
