Before I begin let me confess, I do not have personal grudges against any Sales person in general. It just occurred to me the peculiarity of Sales guys in general, which has transpired into this post. With this caution I begin my post about how I have been perceiving Sales guys. Caution is the right word actually!
Being into client servicing since joining Komli Media, I had to interact with our Sales guys. As you know, every client has a Sales guy who has brought the business and Client servicing/Account management guy who delivers that business. According to me, an ideal Sales person should be aware of what can be delivered and what cant. Honesty is not a virtue to possess if you want to be a good Sales guy, but being realistic is a must. However, what I have generally observed as Sales behaviour is audacity and narcissism. Sales guys always want to have the last word, and confident about delivering anything for the client - even if it means a pregnant women giving birth to a healthy, full grown baby in the just 4 months! Yes, that was too much, but Sales guys at times are really "too much".
When I begin to realize this common trait I tried to figure out why is that so. The only thing it drilled down to was targets. Targets come from top management and Sales guys have to get business worth that target. Ofcourse the Sales guys are asked to give estimates on quarterly basis as to how much business can they possibly bring in, but how can someone predict business demand accurately. And what about the potential of the account management team, can they deliver that volume of business? The problem is not setting the right expectations with the client! The client will always ask for stars but we can't always deliver those, can we? The general tendency seen is let's get the business at the terms expressed by the client and then see how it goes. The problem arises when expectations cannot me met. In hindsight, the Sales guy has lost repeat business. In business, common sense says that a merchant/brand/company starts earning back invested money only when it starts getting repeat business from customers. This foresight, is thus an essential trait for an ideal Sales guy.
At a personal level, Sales guys are always perceived untrustworthy. Whatever they say, we seem to take it with a pinch of caution, isn't it? They may be saying the truth, but we just cant trust them. And their flair of sounding confident about anything and everything they say seems to be just too good to accept. I wonder what take their family has about them. Are they different with their near and dear ones? Surely something worth finding out. What if they are no different? That would be a very slippery spot, isn't it?
At their end, balance is the key. And for that, understanding the potential of the delivery team is absolutely essential. There are things which can be done cent percent, things which have high chances of being done and certain things which just cant be done. Realizing all these and making bets accordingly will decide the success or failure for the Sales guy. And they better keep their 'Sales' persona away when interacting with friends and family, and during casual conversations with colleagues. This will make sure they experience a great 'Sales' person life!
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