9. Meet your new super-salesperson
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Business priorities in the current climate? For most companies, the top three are sales, sales and sales. So what are the attributes of the ideal salesperson?
Low cost: There is little point in a salesperson who costs more than he or she brings in by way of revenue. In fact, sales people should cover their costs by a factor of three or more. So it helps if your super-salesperson is low-cost to start with.
Long hours: In tough times, it’s tough getting sales. Your super-seller must be willing to put in long hours, ready to sell whenever the opportunity comes up.
Accountable: It’s not just getting the sale, it’s getting the details right. For a successful sale to lead on to a satisfied customer (and repeat business, you hope) then there has to be a full process that takes the order, gets itplugged into your business systems, gets it fulfilled and billed. This has to happen smoothly every time.
Transparent: When you don’t get the sale you expected, you want to know why. Your salesperson should have the answers most of the time, and be willing to analyse them.
Multi-territory: To qualify as a super sales asset, your ideal salesman or saleswoman should be willing to work across multiple territories, not just in the ones that he or she feels comfortable in.
Multi-lingual: With multiple territories, comes multiple languages. Ireland is a relatively small market, so we have to look further afield for sales. That means dealing with people in their own language, and using their social and business onventions. Not a problem to the super-salesperson.
Savvy: A good salesperson will be quick to spot opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell. Doing this well can make a huge
difference to the value of an order. Bread and butter to the super-salesperson.
Great communicator: At the heart of the sales process is the ability to connect with the customer and to communicate your unique selling proposition to the customer in a way that closes the sale.
So where can you find this super-salesperson? Does such a creature exist at all? Yes, this sales phenomenon exists and you can find it on a great sales-focused website. No, not on an out-of-date, confusing, unusable online brochure, but a site that puts your customers first and sells your products and services strongly in terms that make sense to them. Eurostat figures in this issue of State of the Net show how important online shopping is becoming in Ireland (with over 36% buying online last year) and across Europe, with up to 59% of Danish consumers buying online. Of course not every business is suited to eCommerce, selling directly online. In those cases, rather than completing the sale, the Web can deliver qualified leads and drive sales that way.
A 2008 report by Econsultancy.com stated: “Driving an accountable return on investment has never been more important.” In a survey for the report, 94% of industry professionals said online lead generation was a growth area and 82% of companies surveyed said it was going to become For help in unleashing the super-sales potential of your website, contact AMAS.
Back to contents of State of the Net issue 13
