Chapter 5 Chapter 4 Vocational Skills of Sales Managers

As a successful sales manager, in addition to having professionalism and professional concepts, you also need to master various skills related to the position.Generally speaking, the professional skills of sales managers include business skills and management skills. As the planner, organizer, leader and controller of various tasks in the sales department, the management skills of the sales manager include: organizational skills, planning skills, execution and flexibility skills, resource integration skills, management skills, motivation of subordinate skills, mediation of customers skills and crisis management skills, etc.

A sales manager's job is to carry out sales-related tasks that require careful planning and careful organization.Therefore, strong organizational skills are very important for a sales manager. For example, Guangzhou China Hotel took a "family portrait" of more than 2,000 employees on the first anniversary of its opening, and made it into a postcard and sent it to every guest who has stayed in the hotel.This unique idea was born out of the tight organizational creativity of the hotel's public relations and sales staff. More than 2,000 employees gathered in the same sports field, arranged in 28 neat rows, and some of them wore white uniforms, with red and white alternated to form a Chinese character "中". This organizational work is no less than organizing a sports meeting .Just imagine, if the sales manager does not have certain organizational skills, can such a job be completed within 2 hours?

According to the point of view of management, a sales manager is a manager. Before doing any work, he must make a work plan, including the implementation of the company's established plan; Actual situation, formulate implementation plan.Therefore, in the face of specific markets, sales managers must first have planning skills. The sales manager is the general sent by the company with a battle plan to fight on the battlefield.As a soldier, he must first be an out-and-out executor, a perfect interpreter of the company's combat plan. The mistake that sales managers tend to make is that they are often self-righteous, thinking that the company's marketing department or decision makers don't understand the market, making random plans, and giving random orders.Many of their cognitions are valuable, but they often show the one-sidedness of egotism or local market.Under the guidance of this kind of psychology, the sales manager often discounts the implementation of the plan, which affects the effect of the company's decision-making.

However, just like the understanding of many sales managers, they have the deepest direct understanding of the market. Sometimes, the actual situation of the market has changed a lot from the company's presets. Flexibility to improve the effect of execution.For example, the company ordered the "May 1st Promotion" and held a large-scale road show. If it rained heavily in a certain market that day, it should be changed to indoor activities in time; Flexibility is not for exploiting loopholes, but for better implementation; how to break down the annual, quarterly, and monthly payment plans; how to achieve payment and the pace of payment; whether the company’s guiding marketing plan is completely suitable for the local market , which can be fully implemented, and which need to be more targeted; in order to implement the company's indicators and plans, how to effectively allocate resources in the market; resources in the market are insufficient, how to ask the company for help, etc.

A qualified sales manager, facing the company's indicators, must quickly judge and come up with a corresponding planning plan, so that the company's instructions can be truly implemented. The skills of integrating resources mentioned here include the following aspects. 1. The ability to integrate enterprise resources That is to say, the sales manager must know how to reasonably seek the company's support for himself and the region according to the sales target set by the company, such as manpower support, training support, policy support, and other support such as logistics and R&D.In order to achieve the above goals, sales managers need to do the following:

(1) According to the principle of reciprocity of responsibility and right, strive for greater backstage support from the boss and the company by constantly refreshing one's own sales targets. (2) Handle good relations with relevant departments such as production, supply, sales, and finance to ensure that various support tasks of the enterprise can be timely and in place. (3) Maintain a two-way, interactive, benign communication relationship with your superiors and various departments. It can be regular or proactively invited. By establishing an internal communication mechanism, you can win more and wider support .

2. Skills to integrate market resources The sales manager should be able to fully mobilize and deploy multiple resources in the market according to the company's goals and expectations, instead of simply "waiting, relying, and asking" for the company's market, so as to win the company's trust and value for itself, and let the company Customers are full of confidence in their "steering" of the market and actively support it.To this end, the sales manager must do two things: First, let the market generate resources.That is to say, resources are not "self-generated" by enterprises, but must be provided by the market.Through high price, high promotion, product differentiation, etc., reasonably realize the goal of obtaining resources from the market and using them in the market.Secondly, make full use of customer resources by leveraging our strengths.Relying on the unique market operation mode, we will increase the space for market operation and attract customers to use their resources to do the market, so that everyone who has money will contribute money, those who have no money will contribute energy, and those who have no money and no strength will contribute wisdom.In this way, it is possible to maneuver vertically and horizontally and better control the market.

Only when sales managers have the ability to integrate resources as above can they better establish their own prestige, continuously enhance their professionalism and professionalism in operating the market, so as to please customers, become popular in enterprises, and better achieve their sales goals. 3. The ability to integrate social resources The sales manager must be able to do a good job in government public relations and relationship marketing with various institutions in the region. The benefits of doing so are: (1) It can and can reduce some troubles. (2) It can make the government give priority to you in the bidding and procurement work.

(3) Joint government forces can increase the reputation of enterprises. (4) Establish a good public welfare image among (public) consumers. The sales manager is the specific executor of business activities, but he is first of all a manager and must have comprehensive management capabilities in order to complete economic indicators.A sales manager should have the management ability in the following aspects. 1. Self-management skills As the saying goes, when the general is outside, the king's order is not acceptable.In this case, the self-management ability of the sales manager is very important.A sales manager must do a good job in the management of work awareness, work status, work rhythm, work efficiency, work goals, work hours, work style and work safety.The more senior the sales manager is, the more complicated the work is, the bigger the team is, the more things need to be dealt with, and the more difficult the work targets need to be achieved. Therefore, self-management becomes more important.Scientific self-management can not only improve the work efficiency of sales managers, but also drive their teams and establish a good corporate image.

2. Team management skills One hero and three gangs.Building a team that can conquer battles will save you worry when doing business.However, building and managing a team is not an easy task. Team management, first of all, is daily business management, with clear goals, clear division of labor, and clear responsibilities; secondly, the establishment of basic rules and regulations, with laws to abide by, and laws to be followed; It is necessary to cultivate a team that is united, enterprising, high-spirited, and hard-working; finally, it is necessary to absorb and cultivate talents.Even the thieves in the movies say that "in the 21st century, talents are the most precious", and sales and success are inseparable from talents.The accumulation of business teams begins with recruitment, continuous training, training and improvement in business tempering, survival of the fittest, and gradually forming a team with a high degree of cohesion, a high sense of identity and strong combat effectiveness.

3. Dealer management Dealer distribution is currently the main distribution method. Therefore, whether to manage dealers well is the key to the success or failure of many sales managers. 4. Financial management A lot of expenses, bills, accounts and income and expenditure are involved in the work of a sales manager. Therefore, a certain amount of financial management knowledge is necessary. 5. Terminal Management With the development of stores and supermarket chains, the decisive battle for terminals has become an unavoidable topic for any brand.Many sales managers are accustomed to the high-handed and unconstrained circulation operation method. On the one hand, they are relatively unfamiliar with terminal operations, and on the other hand, they are unwilling to do painstaking and meticulous terminal expansion and maintenance work. If you don't understand the terminal and can't effectively operate the terminal, the road of the sales manager will become narrower and narrower. 6. Advertising Management In many companies, sales managers only have the right to make suggestions on advertisements. However, even if they only have the right to make suggestions, sales managers should pay close attention to advertisements and play a management role within the scope permitted by the company, so as to improve the power of advertising air support. The advertising management of the sales manager is mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) Suggestions on advertising media, time period (layout), and frequency. (2) Monitor the broadcasting of advertisements. (3) Investigation of advertising effects. (4) Suggestions for improvement of advertisements, etc. Among the management team, one of the most prominent abilities of a sales manager is the ability to motivate subordinates.Through scientific, reasonable and flexible incentive measures, sales managers can achieve management and incentive effects that cannot be achieved by other means.Sales managers must have this inner drive.Sales managers should not only be able to persuade customers, but also be able to drive themselves to motivate sales representatives to take action. Reasonable use of positive and negative incentives.The so-called positive and negative incentives are the combination of rewards and punishments to achieve the purpose of motivating and stimulating the enthusiasm and initiative of team members.Positive incentives are to reward those with outstanding performance and positively influence others.For example, by issuing bonuses, incentive travel, or providing opportunities for further study, etc., the excellent can be made even better, and the underachievers can also be made excellent.Negative incentives are to achieve the purpose of awakening and motivating by imposing economic penalties on individuals who do not meet the standards, and by making them suffer losses.For example, fines and bonus deductions can be used to make those whose performance does not meet the standard suffer losses, thereby stimulating their internal motivation and better catching up. Customers are the root of the performance of the sales team. Although sales managers do not directly operate the market and manage customers, they must also use their own methods to achieve the purpose of influencing and driving customers to better sell products.As the "behind-the-scenes boss" and combat commander of the team, the sales manager can only achieve the goal of controlling customers by better mediating customers and indirectly managing customers.It includes the following aspects. 1. "press" That is, as a sales manager, you must be good at pressing goods.Wells don't produce oil without pressure, and people feel light without pressure.By pressing goods to sales staff and indirectly to customers, it can stimulate the awareness of the sales team and customers to challenge themselves, so as to tap the sales potential and better complete the sales goals issued by the company.It is a basic skill of an excellent sales manager to be reasonable, good at pressing goods, and scientifically pressing goods. 2. "Sparse" It is not enough to just push products to customers, the sales manager must mobilize his subordinates, let them go directly to the front line of the market, help customers distribute products to downstream channels, and finally digest the products to realize the transformation from price to value.It is a stupid way to keep light pressure and not neglect, and it will eventually crush customers to death.Therefore, how to quickly let the product flow quickly and sink to the downstream channel after the successful sales are achieved is a problem that the sales manager must pay attention to. The ability to "sparse" is the biggest test for a sales manager.Sales managers can achieve the purpose of digesting products for customers by training subordinates and improving their distribution capabilities. 3. "Lure" The so-called "seduction" is to constantly show customers and subordinates the bright future of the company, as well as the benefits of cooperating with the company and yourself, such as earning a lot of money, learning things, improving management, and finding a bigger development platform Wait, by constantly throwing "bait" to show them the beautiful side, the brilliant "prospect" and "money scene", so as to enhance their loyalty to the enterprise and the team, and enhance their loyalty to the enterprise and the team. Cohesion and centripetal force stimulate their enthusiasm for work and make sales goals better achieved. 4. "Scare" It is not enough to move it with emotion and lure it with profit.For an excellent sales manager, through indirect and continuous "intimidation" to customers, sometimes the effect of motivation and stimulation can also be achieved.For example, for customers who want to market with policies, you can issue an "ultimatum" of "if you don't change your mind, just change people"; for lazy customers, you can establish terminal files and strictly control downstream channels. Constantly indirect "threats" to change some of its bad market practices. In short, through the cultivation and improvement of the above-mentioned abilities, as a sales manager, you can achieve the purpose of borrowing the strength of others and doing your own business. While controlling customers and subordinates, you can better control your own team and market, and then better Realize the goals of the enterprise and yourself, let yourself strategize, win thousands of miles, constantly challenge yourself, and usher in one success after another. In daily work, sales managers come into contact with very complicated people. They have different origins, genders, ages, religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds, ideas, social experiences, living habits and ways of communication.In the sales process, the seller must first carefully observe the characteristics of the other party, master the customs and living customs of the other party's location, understand the knowledge level and self-cultivation of all social strata, and adapt to the specific requirements of different customers.The social environment is constantly changing, and changes in every factor will have an important impact on sales companies.Such as corporate mergers and reorganizations.The complexity of the social environment and the variability of the situation faced by enterprises require sales managers to have the ability and skills to adapt to changes. Business crises are inevitable.For example, an old man drank three strains to death; during the SARS period, Roche Pharmaceuticals’ inappropriate response to the crisis; in the Sudan Red incident, Heinz’s Beijing sales manager’s improper confession; the spread of the SK-II cosmetics incident, etc., all reflect the crisis. The importance of strain.It is impossible for a productive enterprise to avoid various crises. How to respond is a major test for sales managers. They should become good, and bad things can become good things; For a crisis, sales managers should: (1) Maintain a high degree of sensitivity. (2) Respond quickly when encountering a crisis. (3) Anticipate the extent of the crisis and formulate a response plan. (4) Report in time. (5) Resolutely implement the company's crisis management plan in a timely manner, and do not speak without the company's permission. A sales manager should be a social activist. He must regard the whole society as his working world and have the ability to communicate with all kinds of people.To be good at communication, in addition to having experience and experience, you must also have a lot of information, find a topic that both parties are interested in, and attract a group of loyal listeners and friends around you. We often see that once some people get acquainted with others, they can quickly find topics of mutual interest and are very good at dealing with the partners. The two sides have deepened mutual understanding through conversations, left a good impression on each other, and the relationship can be further developed. Improvement; there are also some people who are at a loss after meeting others only after a few plain greetings.The difference between these two types of people is the strength of social ability.Social skills are a necessary condition for a sales manager to be able to make performance.Sales managers must be good at establishing intimate relationships with people from all walks of life, and must also understand various social etiquettes.In the process of negotiating with customers, there are often some problems that cannot be resolved in formal negotiation situations, but can be satisfactorily resolved in social situations. In order to win the cooperation of all aspects in the work, the sales manager must have certain training in language expression.In many occasions, sales managers are required to introduce enterprises and products.At the negotiating table between buyers and sellers, sales managers need to be able to speak eloquently. Expression ability includes oral expression ability and written expression ability.Although the two have similarities, they are not the same thing.People with fluent writing and quick thinking may not be able to speak well. Some people are good at writing, while others speak clearly.As a sales manager, not only must be diligent in speaking, but also diligent in writing.Writing work plans, work reports, and drafting speeches in daily work all need to be undertaken by the sales manager. Because different people have different differences in talent, ability, personality, life experience, social experience, etc., they may have different views on one thing.And because each person's status, work and living habits are different, when observing the problem from different angles, they will also draw different conclusions.We can find in our daily work and life that some people are good at observing words and emotions, while others are slow to change attitudes of others.This shows that there are certain differences in people's sensitivity and insight. A successful sales lady said: "As long as you observe carefully, you will find that although the opponent is silent, you can find the changes in his inner thoughts and feelings from the changes in his demeanor and expression. For example, under normal circumstances, customers When sitting, I always keep my toes on the ground and stay still; but when I feel nervous, the other party’s toes will be raised involuntarily. Therefore, I can judge by seeing whether the other party’s toes are on the ground or raised. Is his inner world calm or tense? Another example, under normal circumstances, most smokers keep a certain length of cigarette butt when they extinguish it, but under abnormal circumstances, the cigarette butt may be very long. So, if you If you find that the cigarette butt in the opponent’s hand is still very long, but it has been put down and extinguished, you have to be prepared, the opponent may plan to leave.” From the words of this sales lady, we can see her meticulous work style, which is also true. Tell the secret of her success. While promoting and managing the business, the sales manager actually also assumes the responsibility of the company's ambassador abroad.The more well-known a company is, the more contacts need to be made in all aspects.The sales manager stationed abroad must at least develop communication skills in the following two aspects: one is to communicate with various government functional departments, such as industry and commerce, technical supervision, health, justice, quarantine inspection, consumer associations, etc.The second is various media at all levels. For example, if we establish good relations with various government departments and the media, we can gain support and understanding, or at least gain a certain degree of tolerance and trust. Sales managers are under tremendous pressure every day, and have to endure long-term business trips, no fixed residence, and divorce from their wives. For work, many indicators cannot be achieved overnight.Marketing inevitably experiences peaks and troughs. Even if you live a happy life at the peak, whether you can endure the suffering in the trough, and whether you can persevere when the goal is not achieved, are always put to the test for the sales manager.Therefore, one cannot be a sales manager without the ability to withstand and relieve stress.