The age of selling and salespeople
CHAPTER 1: THE AGE OF SELLING, SELLING AND SALESPEOPLE
SELLING IS PERVASIVE
The pervasiveness of selling in practically all human endeavors, occupations, preoccupations, and professions that require contact and engagement with people is by itself a compelling reason to formally study the art and science of selling. It is an art because it requires skills that have to be constantly practiced to achieve, at least, a decent level of excellence or perfection; on the other hand, it is also a science because it is an organized common sense and borrows a lot from applied sciences like psychology and sociology.
SALESPEOPLE, UNDER THE LENS
Salespeople engage in a wide range of activities for the firm. They provide information about the firm’s products and services to target market or customers; they remind and persuade customers to buy them. They are the revenue-earners of the firm.
The types of job salespeople do depend on the firm’s mission/vision, goals and objectives, and the role the firm plays in the channel of distribution. Basically, the nature of the job is affected by the type of accounts salespeople handle, such as manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, or individual customers.
Fred Wiersema, the author of Customer Intimacy, has put it quite candidly that firms are in business because of their customers. Without satisfied and loyal customers, businesses will not grow and prosper. Not even the brilliance of their finance people, neither the charisma of their CEO nor the products or services they churn out everyday, can make the business survive without the customers. But Fred Wiersema was only looking at one end of the continuum. Of course, there is a salesperson at the other end.
ATTRIBUTES OF AN EXCELLENT SALESPERSON
Francis J. Kong, a columnist of the Philippine Star, has the following list of attributes descriptive of an excellent salesperson:
1. A sight for sore eyes. He makes good first impression, always neat and
SELLING IS PERVASIVE
The pervasiveness of selling in practically all human endeavors, occupations, preoccupations, and professions that require contact and engagement with people is by itself a compelling reason to formally study the art and science of selling. It is an art because it requires skills that have to be constantly practiced to achieve, at least, a decent level of excellence or perfection; on the other hand, it is also a science because it is an organized common sense and borrows a lot from applied sciences like psychology and sociology.
SALESPEOPLE, UNDER THE LENS
Salespeople engage in a wide range of activities for the firm. They provide information about the firm’s products and services to target market or customers; they remind and persuade customers to buy them. They are the revenue-earners of the firm.
The types of job salespeople do depend on the firm’s mission/vision, goals and objectives, and the role the firm plays in the channel of distribution. Basically, the nature of the job is affected by the type of accounts salespeople handle, such as manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, or individual customers.
Fred Wiersema, the author of Customer Intimacy, has put it quite candidly that firms are in business because of their customers. Without satisfied and loyal customers, businesses will not grow and prosper. Not even the brilliance of their finance people, neither the charisma of their CEO nor the products or services they churn out everyday, can make the business survive without the customers. But Fred Wiersema was only looking at one end of the continuum. Of course, there is a salesperson at the other end.
ATTRIBUTES OF AN EXCELLENT SALESPERSON
Francis J. Kong, a columnist of the Philippine Star, has the following list of attributes descriptive of an excellent salesperson:
1. A sight for sore eyes. He makes good first impression, always neat and