The difference between a good salesperson and a not so good salesperson is that a good salesperson will sell his products and services keeping in mind that he is the owner of the business and will take into consideration various factors which affect the profitability, cash flow, future long term business opportunity from the same customer and a partnership with the customer. A not so good salesperson will sell the products and services thinking it is his job to sell irrespective of whether it is a loss-making or profit-making deal, how does it affects the cash flow of the company, one-time sale ( something is better than nothing) and having a vendor-customer relationship with the customer. Just a thought from me…… how would it be to make a salesperson run a company? Can he do it or not? The biggest examination for a salesperson and also the best training would be to make him run a company for some time and see how he performs. There are simulations available in the market to test this ability when major companies talk of unlocking the potential of their salespeople, then first thing they need to do is to know what do they mean by potential? if you really want to see the potential of a salesperson then give him way to work on his own if you cannot risk your business then use simulations or anything that he can make his own decisions and run the business himself. The biggest problem here is that we cannot part with financial information with the front line salespeople… Why Not ? are you saying that they will leave and then leak the information to competition.. common! lets not be naïve as you know the competition information your competitors also have the information about your company. A strong recommendation from me is that all companies should share the financials of the company with their front line sales staff. Financials does not only mean the revenue figures of profit numbers but actually the entire Cash flow, cost incurred by the company versus the profits, because sales peoples job is not only to bring in the sales and make money for the company but also to have ideas to save cost and make money for the company, sometimes I feel we really under-estimate the sales guys which is not fare. The senior management needs to understand - are their Salespeople businessmen? if not why not? and how can they be one? The answers to the above questions will direct them to the reality that they have been closed for several years and hence in today’s competitive world they need to compete in the market and be one step ahead of everyone.
