Experience of Marketing
Nowadays the profession of a salesperson is becoming more and more popular. But the question here is not about quantity but about quality of a salesperson. Therefore the crucial issue is the company should hire an effective employee, highly proficient in the sales management. But what is actually a "salesperson"? "Salesperson is an individual who sells goods and services to other entities. The success of a salesperson is usually measured by the amount of sales he or she is able to make during a given period and how good that person is in persuading individuals to make a purchase. If a salesperson is employed by a company, in some cases compensation can be decreased or increased based on the amount of goods or services sold" (BusinessDictionary.com, 2014)
I would like to share my experience of working as a sales person in the clothes shop in hats' department. That means that I met new people every day and worked out one strategic approach to all of them: a smile, a friendly look and the most important - the desire to help. It is an open secret that i have never dreamed to become a salesperson but just decided to give it a try as I had much of free time and wanted to earn money. But after my first working days I was extremely excited because one can not even imagine how many warm thankful words i heard from me customers. People left the shop in a high spirit and many of them came back with their friends. The owner of the shop always told me about the positive feedback from the customers, that inspired me to work hard further.
When I think about the work at the shop an unusual customer comes to my mind. It was a woman considerably advanced in years, with astonishing blue eyes and deep sad smile. She came to buy a hat for her nephew who lived abroad and one could not notice that she desperately missed him. She bought 3 hats after 2 hours talking to me. I realized crucial thing when she left: maybe she will never need that hats, but she wanted to talk to somebody, to share her thoughts and to feel like somebody is listening to her. On that day I understood what does "personal approach" in sales management means. This client took a part of my heart and made me remember her for a long time.
Following this, any good experience can only be valued if compared to a bad experience. I would like to share my sad experience of dealing with a salesperson as well. It happened last winter when I contacted the support manager online in chat. First of all, it was difficult for me to navigate through the website and finally when I found "Chat Now" button I had to wait 15 minutes before the customer support representative joined the chat. I just asked a simple question regarding the service but could hardly understand the reply as the support agent's reply was grammatically poor! After that I tried to clarify the situation though I got short answers like "OK", "Yes" and "No". Eventually, I ended the chat and started searching for another company despite the fact that that company had the lowest prices. As it is said «If a person only buys based on the lowest price, I find it hard to believe they could ever make it as a salesperson." (Thesaleshunter.com, 2014). The support agent only emphasized on the low price of the service but the quality of it was awful! In addition I felt like the salesperson does not really care about me and shows no empathy. «A salesperson showing empathy can gain trust and establish rapport with customers by being on their side and not appearing judgmental. Empathy allows the salesperson to read the customers, show concern, and clearly demonstrate his or her interest in providing a proper solution." (Greenberg, p. 9)
Comparing both positive and negative experiences I can not but mention that the personal approach and the empathy play an important role in the salesperson behavior. I felt disappointed after talking to the support agent because nobody cared about me as a client, in other words I was left to myself with the question to order the service or no. The support agent did not even try to convince me to order something with their company. In contrast to that, my positive experience left an unforgettable impact on my inner world and inspired me to move forward.
The obvious conclusion is that one should work on a daily basis to become a salesperson. "When a sales person is on their way to meet with a prospective client or customer it is so important that they “do their homework” and do more than just skim through their website or brochure. They need to know and believe in the extra value that they can offer their prospective customer and what advantages they have over the competition" (Web2.salesforcesearch.com, 2014). I still hesitate weather to follow the popular trend to gain the salesperson position or not but I am sure in the following I can not name myself an effective salesperson until work out the efficient strategy of customer satisfaction and improve my persuading skills. References
BusinessDictionary.com,. (2014). What is salesperson? definition and meaning. Retrieved 30 November 2014, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/salesperson.html#ixzz3KYTUWZOP
Herb Greenberg, Harold Weinstein and Patrick Sweeney. How to Hire & Develop Your Next Top Performer: the five qualities that make salespeople great. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, pp. 9.
Thesaleshunter.com,. (2014). Bad Salespeople Make Cheap Customers: Sales Training Tip #408 | Sales Motivation and Sales Training. Retrieved 30 November 2014, from http://thesaleshunter.com/bad-salespeople-make-cheap-customers-sales-training-tip-408/
Web2.salesforcesearch.com,. (2014). 5 Signs of Bad Salespeople. Retrieved 30 November 2014, from http://web2.salesforcesearch.com/bid/90611/5-Signs-of-Bad-Salespeople
