Sales Management - An Overview

The art of meeting and exceeding the sales goals of an organization through effective planning, controlling, budgeting and leadership refers to sales management.
Sales Management helps the organization to achieve the sales targets efficiently.

Process of Sales Management

1. Sales Planning

   • Marketers must plan things well in advance for the best results. It is essential to have concrete plans. Mere guess works do not help in business.
   • Know your product well. Sales professionals must know the USPs and benefits of the product for the consumers to believe them.
   • Identify your target market.
   • Sales Planning makes the products available to the end users at the right time and at the right place.
   • Sales Planning helps the marketers to analyze the customer demands and respond efficiently to fluctuations in the market.
   • Devise appropriate strategies to increase the sales of the products.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

2. Sales Reporting

   • Sales strategies are implemented in this stage.
   • Check the effectiveness of the various strategies. Find out whether they are bringing the desired results or not.
   • The sales representatives should be aware of their roles and responsibilities in the organization.
   • It is essential for the organization to evaluate the outcome of proposed strategies for any particular department. Organizations depend on KPI also called Key Performance Indicator or simply Performance Indicator to measure the effectiveness of implemented strategies.
   • Ask the sales team to submit reports of what all they have done throughout the week. The management must sit with the sales team frequently to assess their performance and chalk out future course of actions.
   • Mapping individual performance over time is essential.

3. Sales Process

   • Sales representatives should work as a single unit for maximum productivity. A systematic approach results in error free work.
   • The management must make sure sales managers follow a proper channel to reach out to the customers. It pays to adopt a step by step approach.

Sales professionals should follow the below mentioned steps for maximum sales and better output. Do not ignore any step.

1. Initial Contact/Lead
   • Collect necessary data of potential customers once the target market is decided.
2. Information Exchange
   • Inform the customers about various product offerings.
   • Make the customers aware of your brand and its benefits.
   • The information exchange can be either:

     Over the telephone or
     Face to face interaction with the potential customer.

3. Lead Generation
   • Make a list of the people who show inclination towards purchasing your organization’s products or services.
   • The sales representatives must identify those who have the potential to buy their products.
4. Need Identification
   • Fix a meeting with the prospective buyers. Sit with the client and try to find out more about his needs and expectations.
   • Suggest them various options which would fulfill their demands.
5. Qualified Prospect
   • Identify individuals who are keen on purchasing your company’s products or services.
6. Proposal
   • Once the buyer agrees to purchase particular products, the seller presents a written proposal to him quoting the rates as well as other necessary terms and conditions. Such a document is often called a proposal.
7. Negotiation
   • Negotiation is a stage where two parties (buyer and seller) discuss and negotiate for the best deal beneficial to all.
8. Closing of Deal
   • This is the stage where the transaction between the seller and buyer takes place. The selling happens in this stage.
9. After Sales Service
   • Keep in touch with the customers even after the purchase for higher customer retention.