What skills should a sales manager have?

Trading has been 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, peddler, or traveling salesman. The modern name of a trading person is sales manager. With the development of capitalism in modern Russia, the importance of this profession has increased many times over. In the Soviet period, the so-called suppliers were engaged in the supply and sale of products at the enterprises. Now the sales manager sells the products made by the company.

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

• working with clients, developing a client base;
• communication with customers and counterparties by means of communication or in person;
• Negotiation;
• conclusion of contracts;
• receiving and processing orders for the supply of products;
• accounting documentation;
• control of timely payment for delivered products;
• presentation of goods.

The role of a sales manager is determined by the market segment in which the company operates. The size of the company also affects the number of responsibilities. In large companies, there are 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 particular employee determines the size of his salary. The seller will grow in the eyes of management when he directly affects the company's money.

A sales specialist processes requests from the company's website, requests by phone, e-mail. He knows how to work on the phone both with a warm base (this is work with existing clients) and with a cold base of new clients. The salesperson must be able to "close" the customer's objection.

When hiring, an employer has basic requirements for a salesperson. He must have the following professional knowledge and competencies:

• experience in negotiation;
• knowledge of sales theory;
• ability to look for clients;
• knowledge of the industry;
• experience in telephone sales.

The main criterion for the successful work of a sales manager, according to executives, is – it is not a higher education, but a savvy in business. Selling is the hallmark of a good salesperson.

A skill is a professional skill brought to the point of automatism. Selling skill consists of many simple skills that combine to form a complex professional skill. Key skills of a sales manager are developed over the years. He must constantly study, participate in trainings, attend special courses. The ability to learn continuously is the hallmark of a good manager.

Professional literacy, the availability of special education in the profile of the company help a specialist to quickly master sales skills. For a manager, a combination of skills and competencies provides an ideal work result. 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 must develop. Knowledge of the basics of psychology will help here, which is useful for every seller to know. You cannot persuade, put pressure on the client.

Competent speech and good looks are conducive to communication. The art of persuading, arousing sympathy for oneself will help to establish friendly relations with the client, so that he wants to buy the offered product.

Honesty in work is important. There is no need to embellish the quality of the product. The lie will be revealed, and the client will be lost to the given company. Otherwise, if the client is satisfied with the quality of the goods, he will replenish the client base. It is necessary to maintain a relationship with the buyer of the item even after the transaction is completed. This is how a customer base is built up.

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

5 classic stages of product promotion:

• the first contact with a potential client, attracting attention;
• identifying the needs of the client;
• product presentation;
• elimination of objections;
• signing of the contract.

The modern sales manager is proficient in the technique of active sales. In this case, the seller deals with a client who has no need for a product to be sold. The active selling technique is applied in a tough competitive environment. A good salesperson knows where to apply this technique. She doesn't always justify herself.

Another important trait of a salesperson's personality is to maintain self-control in stressful situations. When working with people, you need to be prepared for any situation. Not all clients are “white and fluffy”. Learning special techniques for dealing with unpredictable customers will help the salesperson develop the skill of dealing with people of different temperaments. Communication with a client does not always end with success. The specialist must be able to lose with dignity, benefit from negative experience.

Negotiation is the main function of a sales manager. He conducts a dialogue so that the client gradually "matures" before the transaction is completed.

The ability to hear what is important for the interlocutor at the moment, to understand his pains and needs is the most important skill in negotiation. 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. A sales manager needs to develop the ability to feel the client during negotiations.

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

Removing objections is one of the main skills in the work of a salesperson.... Objection is a question of the client, to which the seller gives a reasoned answer. Typically, the client has 5 main objections during the conversation. If the client objects, asks questions, it means that he is interested in the presentation. To prevent objections from becoming a stumbling block on the way to closing a deal, the manager must be able to convey to the client that he understands his position. The ability to remove an objection must be brought to automatism.

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

You can determine the performance of a sales manager by the number of deals made, by the results of the sales plan. A successful manager is characterized by the fact of a major deal that brought the company a lot of profit.