An approach to Sales: Engr. A M M Jahangir Alam ( [email protected])

Product Sales is a creative job for any Sales Person with knowledge on Products, its use/application, knowing market segment having database of prospective clients & their demand, quote appropriate products with configuration according to application field, know competitors data and their strong and weak point versus solution provided, price competition budget of clients, relationship management with end user to mid-level managers & their decision makers like purchasing authority, directors will give successful sales achievement.

Product Knowledge gathering will play major or vital role of a successful Sales Person than any other parameters involved in Sales. Product applications knowledge creates opportunity to make close relationship with customers. A sales person need to make friends in any organization from low to high level decision makers. This is possible by giving appropriate technology as per customer demand and learn together.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. Whenever a customer asking for Solution, the salesperson should provide appropriate technology. Configuring a product according to customer needs, will reduce the prices avoiding unnecessary items included in the quotation. It saves  investments and create confidence between buyer and seller.

Customers are busy with their own jobs and find difficult to gather latest technological improvement. A Sales Person should educate the customer by providing latest innovation in the field of application they are looking for. 

A Sales Person must provide latest brochures and application notes to customers and update their knowledge base. It creates a bridge between buyers and sellers mind.

Technology must reduce the works of a clients and saves their working time and processes. It must have best impact on customers technical needs as well as financial savings.

A Sales Person must prove that his provided technology will enhance the clients benefits than any other competitors product for the same purposes. A details study on competitions should be made before approaching to customer. Sales Persons are visiting customers in the same segment and must create a reference wherein customer may go and see practically how it works well.

Reference customers will advert the products automatically without contacting Sales Person and this will save lots of effort on door to door visits. A happy reference customer will create more happy customers and it is a chain reaction.

A sales person should learn first and apply knowledge everyday to the field which will create more customer base. Customers are the key to make progress. There is no alternative except learning and updating knowledge base. 

A successful Sales Person must be ready with sales materials at any time to offer solutions to a customer. Quick response will create positive impact in closing a deal.

Communication skills are the key to reach customers in time. A Sales Person must communicate with customers faster through Email, phones, WhatsApp, Skype, Wechat, messenger etc. Continuous communication and follow up will help to close the deal in favour of sales person. A Sales Person must be reachable at any time in customer needs.

Leads/ Inquiry Generation:

Lead Generation is challenging job for a NEW Salesperson joined in any company. It can be done though the following processes.

1.     Visiting Customers

2.     Email 

3.     Telephone Calls

4.     Social Media like WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

5.     Advertisement

6.     Exhibition

7.     Seminar

8.     Roadshow

9.     Reference customers, friends, well-wishers, colleagues etc.

10.   Website etc.

Lead/ Inquiry Processing:

Lead Processing is the beginning of a Salesperson to a customer. It is an important footstep which has a big impact on successful closing a deal. WIN is the final destination of this foundation work.

A Lead should be handled properly discussing with customer about his application. 

Leads must be processed as per below steps:

1.     Share the product catalogues and application notes.

2.     Ask customer what the parameters are wanting to get from the machine. Objective of use is important data from customer needs to know to avoid quoting unnecessary optional items which is increase the price as well as burden for customer investment. 

3.     A Product Presentation at customer place will enhance the knowledge transfer between buyer and seller and will place ahead with others competitor if they do not do so. If the competitor does the same, still Salesperson has opportunity to interact more and provide right solution to customer by gathering domain knowledge.

4.     A quotation has to be made by configuring the standard and optional accessories to be included according to application of customer. It will reduce the cost of unnecessary items to be included due to improper knowledge or not interacting the customer well enough at this stage. Any wrong quotation will not serve the purposes of customers and hence it will certainly damage the reputation and relationship with clients. A rework will be costly and sometimes it irreversible. Taking care of customer requirements in this stage are vital job to do for the sake maintaining customer satisfaction.

5.     A Lead an asset to seller and has to be taken care by nursing the customers with numbers of communications and set the final configuration successfully.

6.     A List price quotation has to be submitted in this stage and try to get more information about competitors’ activities for the lead. 

7.     Seller should quote best products according to client budget. A questionnaire to ask tactfully and try get budget information will help to plan the battlefield for the seller side. A True Plan will lead the inquiry to a successful finishing of the deal.

8.     Lead Quotation should be submitted alongwith Technical Brochures and Application Notes / Methods and a complete list of customers using the similar products. A list of happy customer reference will encourage the clients to select the product. At this stage client can cross check about products quality and prices with existing clients of similar products. If satisfied, client may consider the product to purchase.

Leads/ Inquiry Monitoring:

Lead Monitoring is another giant step by Salesperson after submission of Quotation and Technical Documents:

1.     Continuous Follow-up or monitoring builds confidence and nursing at this stage is very much import by answering lots of customer queries related to Technical Matters.

2.     A visit to existing customer alongwith NEW Customer and demonstration of products will give more confidence. It will bring customer closer to the Salesperson. A Friendship build-up with end user plays a vital role in selecting brands and source of supply. 

3.     In this stage the customer will communicate with all vendors and justifying the technical and commercial aspects to select right brands and suppliers to make a comparative statement and submit to higher authority for negotiation.

4.     Salesperson needs to get competitors data and pricing by keeping close contact with customer and motivate to keep his brand as top of the choice.

5.     The better the monitoring the better the chance of winning.

Communication:

Strong communication with Manufacturer and Client being Salesperson as catalyst will bring more close relationships between triparty. Salesperson works as media to connect both Manufacturing company and end customer. 

The bonding created in this communication is perfect way to doing the job successfully.

In some big projects, visit alongwith International Sales Manager will be beneficial to enhance and build confidence.

A Product Presentation can be arranged in presence of foreign expert will bring successful sales. 

Negotiation:

After having all effort on Lead Generation, follow up & monitoring, Negotiation is the closing task which needs to be done professionally by the TEAM Leader of the sales team. Team Leader must go physically and meet the mid-level Manager, Supply Chain Manager, General Manager, Director & CEO of the company to feel free to discuss about budget vs. quotation.

There are few steps must be made by TEAM Leader:

1.     Introduction about the company and its product ranges.

2.     After sales support like TEAM of Professional Setup to provide installation, commissioning & training as well as application training if necessary.

3.     Emphasise on Quality of Products, Ease of Use, Longevity of Product, Maintenance Cost, User Base.

4.     If successfully done on the above, allow possible discount knowing competition and budget aspect to meet demand of client. 

5.     Price must not become the major issues in the Negotiation Meeting at the beginning otherwise customer discussion will go into PRICE WAR only.

6.     Finally make the environment comfortable and WIN Business.

Commercial Meeting:

Commercial Meeting with Purchase Team is important to process the order professionally.

In this meeting, customer commercial department will try to get Proforma Invoice with terms and conditions of import as under:

1.     Price on CPT by Air or C&F by SEA basis

2.     Packing & Handling Charges if any 

3.     Price Validity

4.     Delivery Period

5.     Payment Terms: 100% Irrevocable L/C, deferred LC , UPAS LC 180 days, TT in advance etc.

6.     Country of Origin

7.     H.S Code

8.     Port of Delivery

9.     Port of Destination

10.  Partial Shipment: Allowed/ Not Allowed

11.  Transhipment: Allowed / Not Allowed 

12.  Beneficiary Address

13.  Beneficiary Bank Details

14.  Pre-Shipments Inspection : Yes / No

15.  Warranty

16.  Installation, Commissioning and Training

A brief knowledge on LC Terms and Condition need to gather by salesperson to face such meetings. 

Salesperson should gather adequate knowledge on incoterms 2000 to help customer to get the correct invoice at this stage.

Purchase Order / DRAFT LC :

Many customers are issuing a formal order with terms of condition before opening L/C.

Then client will send a DRAFT LC for checking. It must be checked by the Manufacturer commercial team before transmission of original L/C.

Original L/C:

Customer will transmit the original L/C and send a copy to send to the Sales Person for order processing and may request for Order Acknowledgement with shipment schedule.

Order Acknowledgement:

Manufacturer will issue Order Acknowledgement after receiving the Original L/C and processing the order internally with Production Team inside factory.

In the Order Acknowledgement all items are mentioned with expected despatch date. This OA needs to be sent to customer for their checking and confirmation that all items are okay as per their order.

Any discrepancy must be corrected at this stage to avoid future complicacy.

DRAFT Shipping Documents:

A draft copy of shipping documents should be collected from Factory Commercial Department and check with the Supply Chain Management of client and any discrepancy must be corrected before issuing original Shipping Documents. This is avoiding mistakes and unwanted situations with clients.

Original Shipping Documents:

Original Shipping Document will be sent from Beneficiary Bank to LC Opening Bank though courier. It contains the below:

1.     Shipping Invoice/ Commercial Invoice

2.     Packing List

3.     Country of Origin Certificate

4.     Bill of Lading (In case of SEA Shipment) / Air Way Bill ( AWB in case of air shipment) etc.

 A copy of original document must be collected and send to client commercial department with copy of all brochures to start the clearance process with their C&F Agents.

Consignment Check:

Customer may call for consignment check in presence of Insurance Company if all items intact without any damage and quantity check as per invoice and packing list.

This is helps customer to claim insurance in case of damage during transportation. 

Customer may complain for items missing to the Manufacturer to claim for the same.

Pre-Installation Requirements:

An email should sent to customer to prepare the Utilities Requirement like Foundation / Work Bench/ Electrical, Water , Steam, Compressed Air Line, Drain etc facilties. 

A Pre-Installation visit by engineers from Seller Company helps to understand the requirements and may discuss in details with the Maintenance Department of Clients.

Installation, Commission and Operational Training:

A Team of Engineers must be sent to customer to conduct the installation, commissioning and training to operators as per installation / operator manuals.

Standard Operating Procedures must be made and hand over to customer with Routine Maintenance Checks.

Warranty:

All equipment comes with standard warranty for 12 months against manufacturing defect under normal use. Any mishandling / Fire Accidents / Electrical Surge/ Natural Disasters like Earth Quake/ Flood damages will void the warranty clause.

During Warranty customer will get Free Service Support with parts.

Beyond Warranty / AMC:

An Annual Maintenance Contract ( AMC ) shall be offered to each customer with Terms and Conditions. This will facilitate customer uninterrupted / exclusive support for products supplied along with discount on spare parts and calibration charges.

Customer may take advantage of ON-CALL -SERVICE facilities in case of AMC not covered. The charges are higher than AMC visit charges and may delay in getting support. 

Spare Parts:

A quick moving spare parts must be kept in stock for ensuring better support to customers. It may give confidence with customer for taking decision on next purchase. 

Spare Parts is profitable business for any company and hence need to keep sufficient stock level all the time.

Customer Database Preparation:

Preparing Master Database is the key of marketing tools to offer product and services. The preparation should be Categorised as A, B, C.

A = New Customer

B= Prospective Customer

C= Existing Customer

In a research it has been found that 60% order comes from Existing Customers and 40% order comes from NEW Customers.

Nursing of Existing customers creates market reputation and bring NEW Customers on board.

Service Database Creation:

Preparation of Installation Database with equipment information like Brand, Model , Serial Numbers, Date of Installation, Warranty Status enable to provide next service support like AMC and On Call Service and diagnostic supports.

Spare Parts can be sold to existing users which will generate revenue all the time.

Consumable Database Creation:

Consumables is another very import sales part of business. Equipment sales happened once but consumable sales is a continuous business.

A Database for Consumables Sales Marketing need to maintain and monitored by SALES TEAM members well to get maximum business from this area of business.