SELLING SKILLS

3 selling activities we most like most to perform

SELLING

Selling function is the foundation of personal selling whereas all selling activities start with selling. In order to sell our products, we have to plan out all the selling activities like searching for potential customers and to call on potential accounts. We also need to take care of all the others operations such as promoting and advertising our products to encourage them in buying from us. Selling functions though is the hardest step to achieve perfect result throughout a sales job as it involves external customers who are sometimes hard to be pleased. It has a widescope covering from searching for customers till customer purchase. However we would like to perform it still, as it is the most direct way of encountering and communicating with the customers. This is also the fastest way of learning from our customers, so to improve in our business.

 

TRAINING AND RECRUITING

Training and recruiting is important to a company involving selling and sales. We need to recruit and select staffs that possess the right service attitude. The right staff will possses the skills and qualifications that can meet the standards or requirements of the organisation. The right manpower that the organisation will enhance and increase the brand reputation and image in customers mind. On top of that, staffs needs to attend proper training for them to aid customer enquiries.  Thus, being a customer, having staffs servicing them that have good product knowledge and service attitude, it will encourage them to return for re-purchase. We would like to perform this so as to achieve the above, getting the right people to work for our company to provide excellent service and attitude towards our customers.

SERVICING THE PRODUCT

Servicing of product is important to make the customers feel that are taken care of and can rely on us even after making a purchase. For example, if a product is faulty, customers would first come to mind that they can look for us for servicing and our staff are knowledgeble and most willing to help them with their problem, fixig it for them. By performing this function, we can show out customers that we are committed to providing the best for them, taking care of their concerns of after-purchases. Being able to solve their problem will then increase our customer’s trust and loyalty towards our brand, which can lead to return customers and customer retention.

3 selling activities that we are less like to perform

Managing Information  

Most people don’t expect to find happiness, working as a customer service job. The reasons for it would be we might encounter harsh customers’ complaints and this would affect the morale of the personnel due to negative remarks received from the customers. Hence our work performance will be influenced and as such our supervisor as well as our inner self would pressurize us to provide quality of customer services to customers to ensure that there is no complaint.  In the long run, we may even loss the passion and interest for the job and in turn lead to a change of job.  

Moreover, there is a high level of work difficulty in providing technical information such as Engineering, evaluation of information gathered, and research and development information associated with the design, production and operation of equipment and that we must be IT savvy and detailed in order for us to manage the above mention information and to analyze it correctly. If we give false or inaccurate information, the whole organization will be affected and be put into danger.

Servicing the account 

Servicing the account can be a tedious job as one could have a lot of duties to cover under his care. Moreover, we need to manage a wide variety of stocks and display and if we are not meticulous enough, there might be risks of injuring ourselves since we are required to set up the display. To cite an example: Requiring setting up a display by displaying merchandise at the top of the shelf, which may lead to us falling down and injuring ourselves. 

No matter how satisfy we are on the stocking up of shelves and the setting up of products displays, we still must seek approval from the headquarters, marketing department and etc. If they do not like and reject the displays, we have to redesign and to stock up the shelves all over again till they accept our displays and that once a month or so, we have to change the ways products are displayed according to seasons and theme requested by the headquarters and thus, it is a very tedious and laborious job to do as we have to put in 110% effort and to come up with unique and authentic designs every time when we are displaying our products.

Moreover, we must also take into considerations with what customers’ likes and dislikes are and to stock the shelves accordingly to their preferences. Next, one must be accountable for the stock by ensuring the correct stock that is to be given to clients. Not all the items on the shelves would be sold (i.e. only some types of items will be sold) and if the organization does not have an inventory system to keep control of the stock, it will be tiresome for us to pack or take goods off the shelves. 

Lastly, handling of advertising need to take into consideration of the signage, notice boards,
in store and online advertisement and need to seek approval from superiors. Today, numerous organizations do produce advertisements with great meaning and are impactful to promote their brands and products so we must ensure that our advertising is in line with our brand strategy and to come out with an enticing advertisement to capture customers’ attention to win customers over from our competition.

Travelling 

Travelling not only increases cost for the company but also decreases the relationships between colleagues and customers. There are times where more than one staff wants to travel to a particular country for outstations; it might create tension between the staff and even conflict, thus decreasing the relationship between colleagues. When on the sales floor, we might have regular customers who always want to be served by us in particular due to the excellent service provided. By appointing us to travel overseas, it decreases our relationship with our customers as customers might not be able to find the staff that they want to be served, thus affecting their moods and even its sales. In the long run, customer might lose their trust in the staff as well as the brand and might even switch to the brand’s competitors for the purchase of merchandise. On top of that, travelling will cost us to lose time. We could use that time to do more things such as attending to customers and even team bonding with the colleagues in the company.