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You have Monkeys on your Sales Team!

In Nigeria, being a Sales person is difficult, hence Companies have a difficult task in recruiting and retaining the best into Sales.



Salesmanship is a craft. You get better at Sales Daily. Ability to apply experience makes you an excellent Salesman.



Companies have designed ways to Sell, Courses have been written on Essential Selling Skills, Millions of Dollars have been spent on understanding the Customer/Consumer so that Companies can develop products to satisfy human wants. Unfortunately, Products fail because the Sales Team could not deliver the break-even numbers that would guarantee the product a life cycle. To the Marketing Department, the Sales team are just a bunch of Monkeys. My big question is why leave so much to chance with the monkeys?



Companies are quick to blame dwindling revenue on the Sales Team, and with a fix quick, find a way to get rid of the team.

I have been a Sales Person for 16 years and these are the reasons why:


  1. Unrealistic Targets / Expectations and Timelines: The Salary Scale gap between the Team lead and the Team is ridiculous. Team Leads are not courageous enough to tell Management that the Targets are too large, and neither the IQ to ask for required resources to achieve the set targets. The team lead hence uses victimisation to achieve set goals. Unfortunately, the brightest of the team can smell foul play, either look for another job, or stops trying to achieve the target all together.

  2. Insensitive Leadership/ Bad Coach: A Sales team can be likened to a Football team, everyone is required to win the Match. From the Goalkeeper, to the defence, to the mid field and the striker. A Star player can bring spark to the team, however it does not guarantee your winning the title. Coaches play a role no player can take on, and that is understanding the team. The Coach has to be strong in character and in wisdom. Inability of the coach to align the personal goals of the players and the Club always brews in disaster.

  3. Not Everyone is a Salesman:

    Sales is seen as a profession everyone can do. "Total disaster" Most companies choose the wrong people to be in Sales. Products and Brands have DNA; you need the right intellect to sell your products. A teacher can be a successful Salesman in selling educational products, but might fail at selling shoes. As a team lead, it is disheartening that you have to think and find a way to achieve your numbers, and have a team that is just there to be paid at the end of the month.

  4. If you pay peanuts, you will get Monkeys:
    In most organisations, even the cleaner gets more paid than the salesman. The Company believes that if the Customer is happy, the volumes will be steady. Unfortunately, this is wrong. Volumes are directly proportional to the Emotions of the customers. If you have corroded all your profits as bonuses to the customers, leaving out your Sales Team, your Revenue can not be steady because you cannot control the Customer. However, with the Sales team, with a little twerk in the sales team bonus, you will be amazed at the water that will come out of the stone.

  5. Customers are Smart so why is your Team dumb?
    Choose the best and pay the best to be on your sales team.



I know these are the problems.



A simple answer to a complex problem.



Life is worth living Happy.



Oyinda

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