The challenge is twofold sales director, to align human and financial resources of your computer with the objectives and strategies of the company, and also to optimize results and meet goals. Plan, organize, select, train, motivate and manage teams of people and economic resources. Generically these are and have been the challenges inherent to the position.
(ניהול תיקים)
In a turbulent market environment and scarce resources. The old days where the best seller went to director of sales ... left behind by that of losing a good seller and earn a mediocre manager. Today the figure of the coach is a good example to identify the current sales director; She loves her job (selling), knows his team (sellers) and motivate them and make them work to get the best of each and has a vision of the entire party (market), a difference that also takes the field to score goals with key customers.
Current challenges of sales director
Given current market situation, the challenges of always, the correct execution of the tasks described above intensifies some challenges presented below.
(קרן גידור )
1. Increasing the productivity of salespeople:
. Getting reach sales targets costs, but costs reach an acceptable productivity while on the road in several campaigns discounts and promotions, the little room that allows us to market
the challenge Current focus is on the target customer. There can not be a strategy of indiscriminate selling across the market. You have to decide where we are going to sell and which are reactive. Today more than ever confuse potential customers with target market can be costly.
(ניהול תיקים)
The act of renunciation, I want to sell here and therefore will not spend resources there, is one of the most difficult decisions to accomplish, especially if billing tightened, but only with proper prioritization of target customers is achieved an acceptable productivity.
2. Change the argumentation of the end product only speak of money:
How to get from the competition if ever the products / services appear more? How to defend the price? These questions arise again and again in the steering committees and the solution is not obvious, otherwise it would already be applied. This challenge has a potential solution in consultative selling.
Consultative selling puts the seller in a plane where it is assumed that the product / service competition can be comparable to the price, our argument is not focused only on product benefits. It focuses on legitimizing the seller and the company as partners of clients to help them improve their position in the market, convince you that we know their concerns, we know how to help and we want to do, we know that suffering and our company wants and can help you ...
Apply the philosophy of consultative selling is not easy or fast, the seller's profile must change, we must form it, not all vendors can sell to all customers ... but some companies have found a good way in this field.
3. Getting a differentiated value proposition to competition:
[אלגו טריידניג]
The way they taught consumer manufacturers category management, and then to pass in the B2B selling products / services to sell solutions and not now sell platform products / services in the technology industry.
The basis of the success of the sale of solutions are the individualization of supply, the integration of a range of products and services from multiple vendors and the argument based on the client and not the product. The main difficulties, the need to collaborate with others in the industry and the formation of vendors so they can change their sale.
[אלגו טריידניג,ניהול תיקים,השקעות ,שוק ההון,קרן מנוהלת,פורקס,מט"ח,תשואה חודשית,תיקים מנוהלים]
4. Manage customers instead of selling products
One of the most notable changes paradigm in managing the sales process go through manage customers rather than selling products. Understand that money is earned with customers and which products are the instrument for this, not the reverse.
Put the products to service customer management ends the fixed spread belief, each should have a purpose.
A good model is to classify the products / services we offer and make it available to the management of customers into three categories: products that allow attract and retain customers and to pay us the structure, which bring the margin to the relationship with customer and providing us the image to differentiate ourselves from the competition. see see portfolio management product
5. Focus on quality loyalty customer
There is much talk of customer loyalty, but if the company wants to capture part of the value of effort, loyalty has to make a sales management focused customers more value, loyalty indiscriminate net worth hardly provides the income.
It is becoming more usual sort clients by a color code that identifies its profitability, (blue, green, yellow, red), there are several models for this. The aim is to identify the most profitable customers for their loyalty and take action with red to improve profitability. Do not forget that a little profitable, red is red because it requires customer service and much much discount. If we do not attend to their "color" fall into the mistake of devoting more resources to the most requested and leave a back seat to more understanding. We will be the loyalty of the red and making vulnerable to competition the most profitable, sympathetic blue ...
6. Find new revenue logic.
The vast majority of companies use the same logic of income: Set a price for their products / services based on cost plus a margin has. Many companies think that this is the only logical, mistakenly, think that logic still successful companies like Google, Ryan air, Facebock, Telefonica, Ikea, HP ...
Innovating the logic of income can be output, I propose a many alternative approaches:
• Price based on perceived value, and airline tickets
• Price fixed at a loss to capture a captive customer of another product / service, as do mobile phones or copiers.
• Profit sharing, fixed price bass and a success bonus, widely used in engineering.
• Billing for assignment channel or space, as does the English Court.
• subscriptions and fees, increasingly used in the services sector
• Profit from the financial income negative working, as some retailers
• "Fremium" basic free services combined with services "plus payment". Model widely used on the Internet, dropbox, spotyfive, gmail ....
Be creative in the logic of income it gives powerful weapons sales network.
Mistakes to Avoid
Facing these challenges pose resolution and strategic vision. In light of the many experiences we have known, I would like to end by mentioning the three major threats to the sales manager. Not to engage in them, it will have taken a big step to focus on the real challenges to be effective in their work.
1. Think more about your sales team in
is usually common for sales directors have been good sellers before, so sometimes the sales managers do not run, just do. They have been good sellers and therefore the temptation to sell is sometimes beyond his strength and desires. Absorb their people, they think that only they know how to do and ignored a central aspect of all managers; run, make them do. The sales manager must be well above key customers, but above all to make your computer band.
We have seen cases in which the need to achieve a certain turnover and the poor quality of some vendors, the director leaves to engage the challenges of their role and is dedicated only to the sale. The consequences are not good for the company, except perhaps very short time.
It is not easy to solve this problem, since in many cases it's more fun to be directed, and it is clear that not all great creator becomes the night It is in a good manager.
2. Think optimal solutions, forgetting the problems of implementation:
We have witnessed serious mistakes in the work of sales managers, in light of the strategy that the company wanted to develop, always forgetting the urgent need to study the if practical way of working that would be supported by your prospects, and the equally important task of investigating how much difficulty going to put in the work of marketers. Sometimes the best is the enemy of the good.
3. Forget the characteristics of the "sales" characteristics:
. A final point refers to the need to take into account the specific aspects of the character and way of being of good men and women selling
The task they perform, usually far from the centers of decision, receiving complaints on topics such as the service- of which have little information and they are not usually attributed to them; also, the fact of having little support from their managers, marketers makes suelan present some common features of importance.
All sales director must take into account the way of life of its people, sometimes sacrificing some efficiency necessary for proper humane treatment.
We live in turbulent times, but exciting in the field of sales. When the product is no longer useful to differentiate and financial decline. Only knowledge and customer relationships can create lasting competitive advantages and that ... .what do sales. Good luck.
