What skills should a sales manager have?

Trade is the engine of progress since the beginning of time. Previously, a person who was engaged in trade or exchange of goods was called a merchant, a peddler, a salesman. The modern name of the sales person is a sales manager. With the development of capitalism in modern Russia, the importance of this profession has increased many times. In the Soviet period, the supply and marketing of products at enterprises was carried out by the so-called procurers. Now the sales manager is selling products manufactured by the company.

The well-being of the company depends on the activities of the sales specialist. In any serious organization, the work of specialists is described in the job description. Responsibilities of a sales manager include:

• work with clients, operating time of the client base;
• communication with customers and counterparties by means of communication or in personal communication;
• Negotiation;
• conclusion of contracts;
• receiving and processing orders for the supply of products;
• record keeping;
• control of timely payment for delivered products;
• presentation of goods.

The functions of a sales manager are determined by the market segment where the company operates. The size of the company also affects the number of responsibilities. Large companies have sales departments, where responsibilities are distributed among employees. In small private organizations, one person performs the work of an entire department.

Sales Manager Earnings directly depends on the results of sales. The percentage of completion of the plan by a specific employee determines the amount of his salary. The seller will grow in the eyes of management when it directly affects the money of the company.

The sales specialist processes applications from the company's website, applications by phone, e-mail. He knows how to work over the phone with both a warm base (this is working with existing customers) and with a cold base of new customers. The seller must be able to "close" the client's objections.

When hiring, the employer presents the basic requirements for a sales specialist. He must possess the following professional knowledge and competencies:

• negotiation experience;
• knowledge of sales theory;
• ability to search for customers;
• industry knowledge;
• telephone sales experience.

The main criterion for the success of a sales manager, according to managers, – it’s not a higher education, but a savvy in business. The selling skill is a hallmark of a good sales professional.

Skill is a professional skill brought to automatism. The selling skill consists of many simple skills that are combined into a complex professional skill. Key skills of a sales manager have been developed over the years. He must constantly study, participate in trainings, attend special courses. The ability to constantly learn is a hallmark of a good manager.

Professional literacy and the availability of special education in the company profile help a specialist to quickly master sales skills. For a manager, a combination of skills and competencies provides an ideal result in work. The key skills of a sales manager are closely related and flow from each other.

The ability to communicate with people, to find an approach to any client is one of the first skills that a sales specialist should develop. This will help knowledge of the basics of psychology, which is useful to know for every seller. You can not persuade, put pressure on the client.

Competent speech and good looks have the potential for communication. The art of persuading, evoking sympathy for oneself will help establish friendly relations with the client so that he wants to buy the offered goods.

Important honesty in work. No need to embellish the quality of the goods. The lie will be revealed, and the client will be lost for this company. Otherwise, if the customer was satisfied with the quality of the product, he will replenish the customer base. It is necessary to maintain relations with the buyer of the goods even after the transaction is completed. So the customer base is being developed.

A successful sales manager, in addition to practice, continues to study theory at seminars, trainings, and studies special literature. The theory implies types, sales techniques.

5 classic stages of product promotion:

• first contact with a potential client, attracting attention;
• identification of customer needs;
• product presentation;
• removal of objections;
• signing a contract.

A modern sales manager owns active sales techniques. In this case, the seller is dealing with a client who does not have a need for a sold product. Active sales technique is used in tough competitive conditions. A good seller knows in which situation to apply this technique. She doesn’t always justify herself.

Another important quality of the seller’s personality is to maintain endurance in stressful situations. When working with people you need to be prepared for any situation. Not all customers are white and fluffy. Studying special methods of working with unpredictable customers will help the seller to develop the ability to communicate with people of different temperaments. Communication with a client is not always successful. A specialist should be able to adequately lose, benefit from negative experience.

Negotiations are the main function of a sales manager. He conducts a dialogue so that the client gradually "ripened" before the transaction.

The ability to hear what is currently important for the interlocutor, to understand his pains and needs is the most important skill in negotiating. The intuition in communication during negotiations helps to understand at what stage of decision-making the client is, whether he likes the story about the product. The sales manager needs to develop the ability to feel the customer during negotiations.

The seller must know everything about his product. He advises clients on the characteristics of the product, participates in presentations. A specialized education in the business sector in which the company operates helps the seller convey to the client the advantages of the company's products. A competent manager should easily rebuild the presentation for this client.

Removal of objections is one of the main skills in the work of the seller. An objection is a customer's question to which the seller gives a reasoned answer. As a rule, the client has 5 main objections during the conversation. If the client objects, asks questions, this means that he is interested in the presentation. So that objections do not become a stumbling block on the way to concluding a deal, the manager must be able to convey to the client that he understands his position. The ability to remove an objection should be brought to automaticity.

The skill of organizing working time is important for a representative of any profession. The manager should be able to categorize matters according to the degree of urgency. Proper use of time management increases sales.

You can determine the effectiveness of the sales manager by the number of transactions concluded, by the results of the sales plan. A successful manager is characterized by the fact of a major transaction, which brought the company big profits.