QUALITIES OF GOOD SALESMEN
Salesmen are special people that should posses certain distinct and defined characteristics. This is so because they represent ambassadors for their company. Many are they that regards salesmen work as the easiest profession, whereas it is the most tedious and brain storming profession one can imagine in the universe today. There are two major qualities of salesmen, and these are:
A good salesman should have ago-drive. They should be capable of convincing people to accept their product. To succeed is to stress on the advantages of their product over the competitors product.
They should have self-empathy. Salesmen must have confidence on what they sell. Other subsidiaries qualities are as thus;
Good salesmen should be attractive in appearance so that their visit will be tolerated by customers,
They should be polite and must be able to speak fluently,
They should be able to sell alone with little or no supervision.
They should be able to accept personal criticism.
HOW SALESMEN ARE ORGANISED AND THEIR FUNCTIONAL AREA’S TERRITORY ALLOCATION
Tropical sales organization is based on the sales representative. Field management is responsible for co-ordinating their activities which consists of area sales managers and district sales managers. The headquarters are spear headed by accounts manager.
The central management will also comprise managers whose responsibilities are to increase sales promotion, sales information, personnel, and special operations. The heart beat of the organization is the general sales manager, who also gives feedback to marketing Director. The rank and file employees of the organization are the sales representatives whose duties are shared into two separate forms without one superior to the other.
Those that sell to the ultimate users called the direct contact selling system.
The merchandiser selling whose activities are to assist and advice the retailer to improve and stock more of the products.
The field manager performs two major functions which include:
Bridging the sales representative and the central management.
Continuous management of the field sales-force and direct liaising with “key” accounts.
Bridging the salesforce and the central management (involves passing information and directives of the central body to the field sales-force. Also, the field salesforce gives feed back to the (Central management which could be used for market intelligence.
Continuous management of the field sales1 force includes the training of representatives, organizing conferences, implementing changes from throe to time. They can also asses the effectiveness of individual representatives.
The field management •may be in two forms depending on the size of such company, and these includes:
Area sales manager takes control <of his area office and segmenting the activities of the district as a whole.
The district sales manager is directly in touch with the field salesforce. He passes information to his boss (Area manager) which are got from the field salesforce. The account manager is sometimes call “Superrman” Because of his ability to operate on his own-S5ome cases, they act as a boss to small team of experienced salesmen, But primarily concerned with large national accounts.
The marketing manager is the over lord o>f the organizational chart, whose responsibilities cover all areas of the organization.
TERRITORIES ALLOCATION
Before allocating territories to salesmen, it is wise to consider first, if whether the goods are to be directed through channel of distribution or through other devices. Normally salesforce is organized on the basis of:
Geographical pattern.
Product pattern.
Customer pattern.
Handling large outlets pattern.
Mixed selling pattern.
When sales force is shaped geographically, it assumes the positive advantages of covering all the company products in a particular target territory allocated to them. Where such step is taken, it will reduce travel express; able to locate and get customer knowledge; and also escaping several callings on the same customer.
These types of goods handled by them must be identical, especially industrial products.
There are fewer companies that follow product pattern structure, which must fairly be large enough in specializing in different product lines. This types of salesforce must be a specialist in dealing with technical interpretation and problems solving which may confront them. Many pharmaceutical organizations follow this pattern of territories allocation to salesmen.
Many companies follows customer pattern and such companies must have specialized knowledge of the product involved. They tend to segment the total market, thereby satisfying little portion of the market, instead of assuming the total market. For instance, the laundries are good example. The greatest advantage customers gained varies, including the attitude and the application of such product.
Handling large outlet pattern are handle by sales executive like sales manager. Multiple or chain stores are example of this type of structuring.
The departmental stores are the most commonest and largest retailers that follow mixed selling pattern. They combine the above four basic types of structuring.
These lead to inter-company communication problems. For example, the product manager and sales manager relationship. These enable the management to adequately discharge their responsibility, authority, and also delegating power to appropriate quarter.
PURPOSE OF SALES RECORDS
Sales records of salesmen are of immense value to the management, especially for market intelligence. Sales record may therefore be defined as “A written statement of affair by salesforce during a specific period of time in a particular area”.
The purpose of this record falls into two basic categories, and these are:
(1) As a means of correcting salesforce activities.
(2) As a means of forecasting and planning.
The sales records are capable of aiding management in correcting the Salesforce activities and expenses that are incurred or sustained by them from time to time. Once a salesman has been allocated to a particular territory by a specific company, this enables the management to know the sales coverage. The number of call made by the salesforce which could be weekly or monthly summaries. But, many companies stick to a pattern which is summed up weekly to area sales manager. These sales force must be compensated according to their performances and the management should bear in mind to avoid irrelevant compensation incurred by sales force.
It should be emphatically clear that sales people often gives or supply quite current and detailed information from their territories and at low marginal cost. These information enable the management to forecast and plan for the established product. It may also be vital to them in knowing the performance of the product, activities of competitors, and what makes or induces people in buying or not buying the product.