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Hard Work The most desired Quality of Sales Professional in Sales of
Technical Products
I am mentioning the hard word as the most desired requirement for this
profession because hard work overrules all other qualifications .Hard Work
is not only important in selling but it plays very significant role in all
other professions also .The profession could be sales ,operation or
anything else. I would rather say that hard work plays very important role
in one’s personal life also . The first and foremost requirement which
anybody should possess to succeed in any part of life is hard work . But
the problem is that every body thinks that who hardly works is hard
working.
Why Hard Work is very important?
To be successful in this form of selling one should have good communication
skill, knowledge of the subject etc. I will talk about these and so many
other skills which a sales guy should have to embrace success in next
chapters. To be honest with you one need to put lot of hard work initially
to be a good communicator and to have sound knowledge. As we know that our
mother tongue is not English it is either Hindi or any other regional
language but we communicate in English. If you need to have command on any
foreign language you need to put lot of hard work. You will need to read a
lot or listen to a lot. Same thing can be said about sound knowledge which
can not be gained without hard work. I could have written about other
qualities a sales guy should have to succeed in life but that will deviate
you and me from the core issue of hard work. You can now clearly make out
that hard work is the mother of all other requirements . If you are
intelligent than it is not your achievement because this is the god’s gift
to you. But to work hard is in your hand. Any body who has got moderate
intelligence, moderate selling skill but is hard working will be successful
.But same can not be said about a professional who is very intelligent ,he
has got fantastic selling skill but is not hard working. He can never can
never get success consistently in his professional life.
To be successful in this form of selling you will have to interact a lot
with your prospects and clients . I know that any body who has spent even
six months in selling would be knowing what is the difference between
prospect and client . But for the sake of those who want to start their
career in this form of selling I would like to explain the difference
between prospect and client. Prospects are nothing but probable clients.
You will also need to interact a lot with your principles if you are
working with a distribution organization or a system integrator. Similarly
you will have to interact a lot with your dealers, distributors or system
integrator apart from the clients if you are working with principals or
manufacturing organization. For simplicity I will mention client instead of
clients or prospects now onward. You will have to interact a lot internally
also. Internally I mean to say you will have to interact a lot with various
department in your organization. These departments are Project Deptt,
Presale Deptt, Purchase Deptt, Support Staff , Operation Staff etc. As
mentioned earlier hard work not only basically helps you in acquiring
knowledge, but it also helps you in keeping your self updated. There is one
more point which I would like to mention here is the optimum level of hard
work .
I have seen during my career that lot of people put hard work but they are
not able to achieve the success. You will have to put minimum amount of
hard work to achieve the results. There are times when in spite of putting
some amount of hard work result achieved is big zero. I would like to give
you example here to make things more clearer to you .Suppose you want to
lift the weight or you want to lift a stone which is weighing very heavily
there is a optimum amount of effort which you have to put to lift that
stone . Any thing less than optimum effort will not help you in lifting the
weight . Same thing is true in the selling also .If you put 20 % efforts
that does not mean that you will achieve 20 % results. You may have to put
sometimes 120% efforts to achieve 100 % results. Once you achieve a
breakthrough with any client than next 20 % effort may yield 100 % results.
So optimum level of efforts are very- very important. It happens so many
times with sales guy that he has made so many visit to client and client
has reached a level where he may close the deal with one or more visit. But
sales guy fails to analyze this and get frustrated as he thinks that he is
not yielding results in spite of putting efforts so he stops going to the
client or stops putting efforts .
So it is also necessary for sales guy to understand that he needs to put
the optimum efforts to close the deals. When I talk about hard work . I put
more emphasis on a sale guy to move out in the field . I have seen lot of
people wasting their time in the office. In office hours they should meet
their client. I have termed office as a relax zone. Lot of people waste
their time unnecessarily preparing vouchers , make presentations or prepare
reports in the precious time which should be devoted to field . Why I have
called office as a relax zone because every body wants to relax. To be
comfortable is the nature of any human being . The type of climate we have
in India ,is very-very detrimental to any body . Once in a year it is very
hot then some of the months it is very cold and some of the months it is
raining so you really have to struggle a lot ,You have to put a lot of
physical effort to be in the field . Apart from this we do not have very
good transportation in India we have to drive our own vehicle . Most of the
sale guys are not paid very well & they drive on two wheeler which also
effect their performance. As a sales professional you will have to move out
in the field in spite of all the problems. Until & unless we do not
interact very frequently with our client the chances of closing the deal
will be very minimal.
There is a saying that out of sight is out of mind. Same is true for sale
guy if they don’t put hard work, do not meet their client regularly they
will be out of their mind. So to keep on knocking their doors and keep on
reminding them is very essential. This will help you pushing the sale and
reduce the sale cycle. When I say that regular visits will reduce the sales
cycle I really mean it. You would be quite amazed how visiting regularly a
client can reduce the sales cycle. What happens in real life is that the
client has got has got his own priorities in life and unfortunately most of
the time buying your product is not his top most priority. Your frequent
visits to your client will keep on reminding him that you exist .When you
put lot of efforts and show your sincerity & hard work most of the time
your client also appreciate your hard work and sincerity. He feels that he
must also do some thing and it will not be possible for him to make lame
excuses every time you visit him. Apart from this if you regularly visit
your client you will have more visibility about your account. I have seen
very moderate people growing very fast because of hard work and have seen
very intelligent people not growing just because of sheer laziness. You
should make hard work as your attitude It should be way of life which
should be very- very natural rather than something imposed to you. When I
talk about attitude , would like to quote an example given to me during one
of various sales training. Example goes like this that giving a signal
before taking a turn should be your attitude while driving. This means that
you should give indicator even if you are driving alone vehicle in night.
That means to follow traffic rules should come naturally to you rather than
you follow the rules because of some fear. When I talk about hard work, It
should not only be hard work but smart work also . Whenever you are working
in lot of accounts you should be able to evaluate in early stages what are
the accounts which need lot of your time and what are the accounts which
need least of your time.
One should have clear cut visibility of his accounts that is only possible
if you put hard work , visit your clients regularly, interact with your
clients very well .While you interact with them regularly you will be able
to get a clear cut visibility of your account & that will determine the
amount of efforts you should put in . You will be able to categorize your
accounts . There will be some accounts which will be graded very hot
accounts and can be termed as a ‘A’ grade accounts . There are some
accounts which are not very hot can be graded as a ‘B” grade accounts & it
will take some time to mature these accounts . There are some accounts
which are at very early stages & can be graded as a “C’ grade accounts
.Then there are fourth type of accounts where there is no requirement . You
have to create the need in these accounts .These accounts can be
categorized as a ‘D’ grade account . So based on these grading you can
organize your efforts. You can set priority of your accounts as per the
grading . Most of the time I have seen sale guy are not able to evaluate
their accounts and start putting efforts in wrong Direction . In spite of
their lot of efforts they are not able to close the deal .
So Evaluation of these accounts is very-very important. 80% of your
efforts should go to your 20% account which are very- very hot & 20% of
your efforts should go to 80 % of your account which are not very hot. All
the accounts should move up in a chain . The account which are at very
initial stage should move to semi hot stage after some time. Your priority
on accounts should keep on changing . It is a very- very dynamic scenario
and you know change is the only constant factor .Your assessment about the
accounts should be very dynamic ,it can never be static . Your efforts &
amount of efforts keep on changing as the accounts move up in the chain. To
do all these the first and foremost quality you need to have is hard word
work.
I would like to mention one more aspect of Hard work which is must for any
sale person or for that matter for any person to succeed in any aspect of
life whether it is personal , professional is sincerity . When we talk
about sincerity it means they need to be sincere to their profession , They
have to sincere to their Organizations , they have to be sincere to
themselves an not least but the last for the customers . Actually a sales
guy not only represents his organization to the customer but he is
representing his customer to his organization also. He has to ensure that
interest of his organization and his customers are well taken care of. He
can neither take his organization nor his his customer for a ride. There
has been a very misconception that sale guys should be cunning and over
smart to be successful . They have to be smart but not cunning ,and they
should be very sincere .
Sincerity helps putting in more and more hard work, Sincerity helps
acquiring product knowledge ,it helps you in guiding your customers , it
helps you in pushing the right solutions to the customer . Sincerity pays
you in long run . Most of the sales guy thinks that they can make fool out
of the customers . But remember you can make them fool once but not twice
.The type of selling we are into we have to give ref of existing clients to
our prospects to close the deal . If we try to be cunning most of the time
we will not be able to close the deal because after one or two meeting
customer will be able to understand your real motive. You need to be very
honest with him and try to explain what are the positive aspect of your
product/ technology and solutions & explain him rationally. If you adopt
this approach you may loose business but will be able to win customer’s
confidence. Next time whenever he has some requirement he will definitely
call you & will try to give some priority over others. Even the most
dishonest person on earth wants honest partner. Sincerity towards the
customer will pay you in the long run . I have seen most of the guy are not
sincere towards their organizations also .They report false sales funnel
which raise the expectations of the organization.
Organizations plan as per the projections provided by the sales teams.
Incase there is huge difference between the projected and actual sales all
the planning of organization goes haywire. So the very thing is that work
very well in this profession . Sincere to your organization . Some time it
may happen that you are hardworking but not very sincere. You are meeting
your client regularly but you are not sincere to him. So in spite of
putting hard work you will not be able to achieve your goal because you are
not sincere . when I talk about hard work You have to put more than 100%
effort in this profession . Just by putting 25% effort or just by putting
50 % of effort will not yield any result . Here the results are not
proportional to the amount of efforts . .I will explain it in such a way
that if you put 25% of effort will not yield any thing ,If you put 50% of
effort Will not yield any thigh ,If you put 80% of effort will not yield
any thigh . But if you put 100% of efforts the results will be directly
preoperational. You need to put the optimum effort. Any thing lesser than
that will not yield any result. It is like lifting a weight . If you put
effort lesser than optimum ef you will not be able to lift it in spite of
putting hard work..
Authored By:
Mohinder Chugh
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Writers
Profile
Mohinder Chugh
mpchugh@yahoo.com
I am B.Tech MBA with 18 years experience in Institutional sales mainly IT
(Software,Hardware ,Telecom and Networking ). I am presently working as
National Account Manager -FMS with ORG Informatics Ltd.
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