Presentation

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PA 2

Sales Force Recruitment

Sales are the promotion of a new or an established product to inform the target group and make profits. A salesperson is the promoter of the product. For sales to be successful, from time, certain immemorial abilities, either technical or mental, have proved to necessitate success in this field. Accomplished sales representatives at the highest level have had these traits.

Skills and traits were found to be relatively good predictors of success for business-to-business institutional sales.

Skills and traits found to be good predictors of success include research and information gathering, rapport building, closing skills, product knowledge, sales presentation, and many more (Dwivedi et al., 2021). For sales to be made between two businesses, the knowledge of the products of the two parties should be known beforehand; this provides for a curious and informed trait in the sales representative. This provides the parties with an upper hand and an understanding of how the introduction of the new product affects their product. This prevents any of the companies from experiencing a loss of any kind. The institutions should also have a salesperson team with good closing skills, offering a trait of persuasion. In sales, closing the deal is of most importance and the critical aspect of sales. Hence, an institution with a team that can convince and instill a certain positive idea into the minds of the other institution acts as a success to the institution.

Ordering assurance to the business that the sales will be made. The product knowledge skills, which offers a trait of research and curiosity of the salesperson or the team, offers an additional advantage to the institutions, the salesperson or team can offer conclusive and comprehensive information about the product, it prompts the other institution into buying the product because they completely understand what it is they intended to do with it. Assertiveness which offers a trait of decision making, an institution with an assertive sales representative holds an advantage as the representative is well aware of what his company needs and does, and his objectives in making the sales are defined. Objectives can only be defined after an analysis of data and information. Lastly, an institution with a sales representative that creates a good connection with the other institution is at an advantage. It provides a basis for future commitments. Proving advantageous to the company of the assurance of making a sale of an agreed amount at an agreed time to the company. (Shwepker, &Good, 2010)

Skills and traits found to be good predictors in a job in sales.

Skills and traits found to be good predictors in a job in sales include ability, curiosity, intelligence, innovation, and the ability to resolve disputes. Sales are the backbone of most of the businesses and revenue in a country. Institutions hardly offer sales courses. Sales pitching proves to be one of the most challenging jobs one can come across. Being prominent in sales has called for curious, innovative, intelligent, and agile minds. Curiosity as a trait that offers a skillset of research has the sales representatives asking questions; it helps them make connections with target groups, it also helps them learn and widen the scope of how to improve their firm's product. Curiosity gets the salesperson into digging on what the preferences of the customers and proving that their products meet the customers' requirements. Sales also call for an innovative mind as a trait that offers a skill set of observation. The salesperson should aim at fulfilling the needs of the consumer. For that salesperson should come up with in-hand solutions to solve the provided problem. Innovation provides tips on sales. With the ability to move quickly and easily, salespersons need to move from place to place to introduce or emphasize the importance of their products. This calls for a flexible and willing mind to overlook their geographical, communication, or even historical barriers. The intelligence, which offers a research skillset, provides a salesperson with critical analysis and instills them with the required data. These skill sets and traits have proven to be integral in the making of an accomplished salesperson (Agodi, Ahaiwe, & Awah, 2017)

Comparison of salesperson characteristics in trade versus missionary selling.

Missionary salespeople generally work for manufacturers (Weilbaker, 1990). They communicate to manufacturers and retailers on the availability of commodities, whereas trade selling involves competition. Salespeople in trade selling aim to win over other customers at the expense of the competition for homogenous products. The most important distinction between the two is the level of persuasion. In missionary selling, the customers are well known. However, in trade selling, salespersons need to convince their target group to embrace their products and change their previous supplier, subjecting the customers to high risks (Drobyazko et al., 2019). Trade selling also calls for high-level decision-makers and stretches its importance for assertive closing. The salesperson in trade selling aims at closing the deal as soon as it can be possible. However, the deals are already closed in missionary selling since there is minimal competition (Rosson, & Ford, 2016).

Comparison of the most essential characteristics in technical and new business selling

Technical selling involves the pitching of a product one is entirely and able to describe. It aims at providing satisfaction to the consumer. In contrast, the new business selling is the pitching of a new product in the market. The information known to the salesperson may be limited. In contrast, in a new business selling, the salesperson seeks to make profits. The technical salesperson should be curious and aim to deliver the right product over profits.

Good salespeople are born, not made

Are good salespeople born or made? It is irrational to support the above statement, which is mythical. Sure, some people are born with inborn traits that are seen as necessary in pitching a sale, but a talent not well refined is wasted. Salespeople are therefore made and not born. Over the years, the number of people partaking in business-related courses has been rising in both genders. They are signaling an interest in the gaining and refinement of skills among the population. Sales is a skill, and some people can pitch sales faster than others, but this can only happen after some refinements in the set of skills already acquired.

References

Agodi, J. E., Ahaiwe, E. O., & Awah, A. E. (2017). Salesman’s Personality Trait and Its Effect on Sales Performance: Study of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) in Abia State, Nigeria. Journal of Economics and sustainable development, 8(24).

Drobyazko, S., Barwińska-Małajowicz, A., Ślusarczyk, B., Zavidna, L., & Danylovych-Kropyvnytska, M. (2019). Innovative entrepreneurship models in the management system of enterprise competitiveness. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 22(4), 1-6.

Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Rana, N. P., & Raman, R. (2021). Social media adoption, usage and impact in business-to-business (B2B) context: A state-of-the-art literature review. Information Systems Frontiers, 1-23.

Rosson, P. J., & Ford, I. D. (2016). Stake, conflict, and performance in export marketing channels. In Proceedings of the 1979 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 66-69). Springer, Cham.

Schwepker, C., & Good, D. (2010). TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND ITS IMPACT ON SALES FORCE MORAL JUDGMENT. <i>The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, </i> <i>30</i>(4), 299-317. Retrieved August 5, 2021, from http://www.js HYPERLINK "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25765006"tor.org/stable/25765006

Weilbacher, D. (1990). The Identification of Selling Abilities Needed for Missionary Type Sales. <i>The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, </i> <i>10</i>(3), 45-58. Retrieved August 5, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40471383