Personal Selling Assignment Abongile Dyantyi – 218156167 Industry Type Sales representatives sell retail products
Personal Selling Assignment
Abongile Dyantyi – 218156167
Industry Type
Sales representatives sell retail products, goods and services to customers. Sales representatives work with customers to find what they want, create solutions and ensure a smooth sales process. Sales representatives will work to find new sales leads, through business directories, client referrals, etc. Sometimes, sales representatives will focus on inside sales, which typically involves “cold calling” for new clients while in an office setting, or outside sales, which involves visiting clients in the field with new or existing clients. Often, these sales representatives will have a combination inside/outside sales job.
Inside sales
This role involves working out of your office and generating sales via the phone, email, and online target clients. You may spend a lot of your time working on cold leads. However, we have seen companies use this term to describe quite the opposite. Instead, they use the term “inside sales” to describe what is really pure account management. That means the position isn’t heavily focused on finding new business.
Hiring companies often list desired qualities of the ideal inside sales applicant including, “hungry,” “aggressive,” and, “not afraid to close a deal.” These arguably unflattering adjectives apply to inside sales because selling over the phone or via mass emailing has become increasingly more challenging. This sort of inside sales job quickly turns into a scenario with no chance for any type of positive outcome.
If the jobs are pure cold-calling positions, companies will usually try to recruit younger salespeople by focusing the total compensation package, instead of an at- or below-market base salary. This “total comp” focus is usually followed by an inflated OTE number (“on-target earnings,” the total predicted money made by the sales representative if he or she hits all the quota goals).
A company that inflates OTE possibilities usually uses a “We want someone who sees the bigger picture” spiel. Here’s a hint: only interview for inside sales jobs if you know the company or the position pays a secure base salary with full benefits. However, seeing the term “inside sales” in a job description doesn’t always signal a trap.
The advent of the telephone and its use as a sales tool gave birth to the distinction between inside and outside sales. The term “inside sales” was created in the 1980s to differentiate telemarketing or telesales from higher-touch phone sales common with business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales practices. Still, inside sales is essentially the same as telemarketing. By the late 1990s or early 2000s, the term “inside sales” was being used to mark a difference between it and outside sales.
Sometimes inside and outside sales personnel and practices are paired for greater efficiency. For example, an inside sales individual within a department may handle the legwork of creating and organizing sales appointments for outside sales personnel, otherwise known as lead generation. In some cases, inside sales personnel may be used to upsell incumbent customers.
Careers Options in Sales sector
Sales Representative
Sales Associate
Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Retail Sales Consultant
Sales
Account Executive
Outside Sales Representative
Inside Sales Representative
Characteristics of inside sales
Harmony between marketing and sales – This has to be at the top of any discussion about high-performing inside sales units, because proper sales and marketing alignment is what helps to yield the right number of qualified leads. If you don’t have the right prospects in your sales funnel, you’re inside sales team is never going to reliably meet goals; there’s no avoiding it.
This is why an integrated inbound marketing strategy is so crucial for companies that rely heavily on inside sales. Most B2B buyers have multiple options available to them, so it’s imperative they get the right information at the right time that will help them understand the true value proposition of your company. Marketing and sales
must collaborate to produce engaging and informational content, and communicate with each other frequently and to ensure a seamless transition for the leads.
Widespread and uniform use of CRM – CRM software has come a long way in recent years, and it’s now so widespread, affordable, and intuitive that organizations of all sizes and types have implemented solutions. But that doesn’t mean every company is using their CRM platform effectively. Inside sales managers who understand the value and importance of CRM instruct every team member on what the specific protocols are, and why they are necessary.
Every sales rep in the unit enters the data in a standard format for each customer to ensure the data sets are readable amongst all team members and that data analysis is scalable.
A strict timetable for follow-ups – When you are an inside sales rep, you may only have one chance with each prospect to demonstrate you actually care about their pain points. The best way you can do this is by actively listening to them early in the conversation. So many sales professionals believe that in this limited amount of time to make an impression, they have to run through all of the bells and whistles of their solution to hook and impress the buyer.
But they aren’t looking for innovative features for their own sake; customers want a partner who has proven they understand the situation in detail, and is dedicated to improving it.
Consistency throughout the unit – The most successful inside sales teams have leaders who communicate clear expectations and require everyone be held to the same standards. Everyone follows up with leads in a specified time frame. Every inside sales rep makes a commitment to professional development. Each employee acts honestly and ethically in every single interaction with their clients.
These leaders expect nothing less, but they are always fair and open about reasons, processes, and results. This dedication filters down throughout the entire unit, and begets inside sales reps that are consistent and accountable.
Drive and enthusiasm – As an inside sales professional, you’re going to have similar conversations with prospects, enter similar data into CRM software, and hear the same objections frequently. The most successful inside sales reps have an innate drive, and are able to maintain an enthusiasm to serving their clients’ needs, even when activities are rote. They consistently use multiple channels to try and reach their leads, create new content that will help them communicate the concept of value, and relish the pressure of beating their quotas.
A commitment to customer service – Some inside sales reps are content to pass their clients off to tech support and customer service once they’ve closed the deal, believing they can turn their attention to other pressing matters. It should go without saying this is not how effective inside sales units operate. Great inside sales reps know their responsibility to deliver an outstanding customer experience never fades away, and that understanding this principle can be important to the future of the company. Research by McKinsey indicates customers are overwhelmingly likely to increase their financial contribution to an organization following positive experiences at key moments, and it’s up to everyone in the company to exceed the expectations they’ve set with customers.
Daily Duties of Inside sales
Source new sales opportunities through inbound lead follow-up and outbound cold calls and emails
Understand customer needs and requirements
Route qualified opportunities to the appropriate sales executives for further development and closure
Close sales and achieve quarterly quotas
Research accounts, identify key players and generate interest
Maintain and expand your database of prospects within your assigned territory
Team with channel partners to build pipeline and close deals
Perform effective online demos to prospects
Challenges of an Inside sales
1. Sales coaching is one of your biggest responsibilities as a sales manager, and among the most difficult to successfully execute. It is easy to become overwhelmed with your responsibilities and neglect the development of your reps. Don’t try to tell your team what to do. Instead, focus on helping them discover how to tackle different challenges and work through their individual problems. While end results are important, the right process and a keen understanding of the process can be just as paramount.
2. Data-driven approaches and data analysis should be a key asset to you and your team, but when applied incorrectly data can cause confusion and frustration. You can’t get lost in spreadsheets while your team is waiting for your insight. You also can’t be careless about your data or it could lead you could draw the wrong conclusions. Use tools that help you organize, analyse and report so that you can easily understand the analysis and share these actionable insights with your team. Good-quality data and the key sales performance metrics will help you diagnose problems in your sales process, leaks in your sales pipeline and separate your best reps from underperforming ones.
3. Time management can be a tricky beast to tame. In such a fast-paced and constantly evolving position, it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of responsibilities on your plate. Still, you need to stay on track and carve out enough time to focus solely on managing your reps. You should be meeting with each member of your team individually as well as in a group. Dedicate times slots in your calendar in advance to make sure you see everyone you need to see regularly.
4. Stepping back from the act of selling can be really tough. Chances are, you used to be a sales rep before becoming a sales manager. Even if you weren’t, you might want to step in and close a deal if your reps seem to be in danger of losing it. You need to remember that you are not r job is to coach the reps and develop the sales strategy – you are not here to sell. Trust your reps to do their job and allow them to make their own mistakes – and learn from them.
5. Maintaining consistency is key for a sales manager, so why is it so hard? You are going to want to treat some reps differently based on who you connect with better or who you trust more. You might let your top sellers get away with using their own techniques rather than the company-established selling process. You might expect one rep to make significantly more calls than another, even though they are at the same level. This inconsistent management can’t happen. The reps will notice that they are being treated differently, and will become frustrated. Inconsistency from you will undermine your company culture.
6. Motivating reps can be a challenging exercise, primarily in avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. What motivates some will not motivate others. Some might want time off instead of bonuses. Others will be more motivated by intrasquad competition. Make a varied program based on coaching and rewards that will motivate each one of your team members.
7. Aligning with marketing has never been easy for sales teams. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to do it – marketing and sales alignment is crucial to the success of your company. You should have regular meetings with the marketing team just like you do with the sales team. Make sure that you are united around common goals so that you can tackle selling together. Each team should have their tasks clearly outlined so that they don’t end up overlapping. A prosperous relationship between marketing and sales can go a long way toward ensuring that the sales pipeline is always full of high-quality, marketing-provided leads that the sales team and work on closing.
Training undergone
Many businesses who sell products and services employ two types of sales representatives — inside and outside. Outside sales representatives work face-to-face with potential and current customers to present products and services. Inside sales representatives sell products and services over the phone, and often assist outside sales representatives remotely. Most organizations implement a training process for inside sales staff to ensure success.
Recruitment/Selection
Before hiring inside sales employees, successful training often involves successful recruitment and selection of sales staff. To ensure new employees are successful, those involved with the training process are also involved with the process to hire inside sales staff. Candidates are evaluated, tested and interviewed during the hiring process with input from sales managers, successful sales staff and those who develop sales training programs.
Features
Inside sales training is often done in a classroom setting. New employees are taught about the organization, its values and policies, and its products and services. Employees are also taught sales techniques and processes to perform the functions of job efficiently. Like any educational program, employees are often given assignments which are required to be completed. Some organizations may include outside resources as part of the training process.
Time Frame
The training process for inside sales staff is well-planned to be completed within a short time frame, typically ranging between two and eight weeks. Training time frames depend on the complexity of the products or services being sold. Throughout the training process, inside sales staff is often evaluated to ensure they understand the organization’s values and policies, products and services, as well as the concept of successful sales.
Prevention/Solution
Many organizations who hire inside and outside sales representatives often include a clause in an employment contract to ensure the recruitment and training process is successful. This clause includes a training and work probationary period. The training and probationary period allows employers to evaluate new employees throughout the training process, and decide if the employees’ progress is acceptable to continue employment. If new employees are not successfully reaching training milestones, employers often obtain the right to terminate employees during the training and probationary period.
Significance
Providing inside sales training allows an organization’s employees to learn and use established sales processes, which will allow them to be successful quickly. Many organizations continually improve inside sales training processes. Through continued research and a dedicated internal training and sales staff, new training programs can be executed to ensure continued success and profitability for the organization and its employees.
Name of the Sales agent is Andile Yabo and he is one of the employees at intellicell call centre. He works as inside sales agent, they sell cell phone contracts to their clients. They are a legit call centre and they follow their company policies Act. I was also given an opportunity to experience the inside sales job and how to approach and sell to clients.
Contact details of Andile Yabo are 0713908013. He gave me permission to call him at any time during his work hours. Our pictures are as follows
