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"LISTENING IS KEY"
Peter HunterWHO NEEDS PLANNING?By PETER HUNTERDo you remember your first day as a sales executive of your company? Apprehensive...Keen...Enthusiastic... Motivated...and wanting to create an image of knowing what you are doing and not quite managing it! You would go on a Sales Training Programme, either external or internal on which you would be shown the basic requirements of being a professional salesperson and the course would touch on a subject called Planning/ Organising. (On a 3 day programme it would amount to approx 90 minutes!) and this now makes you an expert on all the "how to's" of getting in touch with and maintaining relations and business with all your customers! Sound familiar? How hard was it for you to get to grips with the protecting, retaining and developing of your customer base but increasing profitable business as well? You say to yourself that the day is too short and do not have the time to plan and anyway it is boring, as you would rather be out there speaking to customers. What about prospecting? (What's that I hear you say?) Looking for and building new business from your existing customers, past customers and customers who have never used you before. Wow, this is some job - it isn't just about talking to people and taking orders. It is hard work and you have to be completely organised in order to do it well. So, how do we get started? Well... I am sure you will agree it requires a lot of EFFORT to make things happen. However, I am sure you will want to bring in the most crucial item of all - LUCK! Do you really believe this? I am sure you wish you had it in abundance. (It reminds me of the story about Gary Player the South African golfer who was told that he had been lucky to have sunk the putt that won him the USA PGA Championship and his reply was... "Yes you're right, but you know, the more I practise the luckier I get.") . However, it does not happen because in the real world you make your own luck by being EFFECTIVE, so if you bring EFFORT + EFFECTIVENESS together it should produce RESULTS, which is what we are tasked to do. It sounds easy when you say it, but when we are confronted with all of the day to day problems that land on our plate we sometimes cannot see the wood for the trees and as we rush around putting all the problems to rest how is it that many more appear.... and we still have to produce RESULTS! There is no secret to good planning, only hard work and discipline. Let us then consider a plan that could be used by anyone, provided they have the discipline and desire to succeed: 1) ORGANISE - a) Where are my existing accounts? b) Who do I need to contact? c) What do they buy? d) How often and in what quantity? e) Lapsed and lost accounts and why? f) Competition g) Who they are and how do they fit in the market place? h) your product range and applications i) Market sectors they apply to, so you can consider new applications and accounts. 2) SET CLEAR OBJECTIVES - They must be specific, measurable, achievable, result orientated and time driven. 3) PLAN- All plans must be flexible and allow you to be able to react to situations as they arise. However, you must also build in a discipline that makes you consider the importance/urgency of any need to deviate from your set plan. This does not mean that you do this too often, but allows you to be flexible in your approach. All plans are theoretical to begin with until they are tried in real life and, whilst circumstances can and will change, you must anticipate problems, review your plans and continuously update them. It is crucial that you consider the amount of TIME you have available to do the job you are paid to do, bearing in mind all the extraneous items that occur in the working cycle, such as: a) Training b) Meetings/Conferences c) Administration d) Queries/Problems There are quite a few more I am sure that you could add to this list. However, you must realise that these take you away from the most important function of all "Facing the customer". Wait a minute - I haven't even considered things that can dramatically affect your time: a) Travel - car/train or plane b) Waiting - reception/office/interruptions c) Parking - Their own/multi-storey or municipal Once again, I am sure you could add some of your own to the list. We all tend to excuse why things are not done and deadlines not achieved by giving, in our opinion, justifiable reasons that help us to feel that we are striving to be successful. It's true that if we spent more time doing, rather than explaining, our objectives would have been achieved. "Prevarication is the greatest thief of time" Remember, your Manager is always looking for profitable sales: you are the key to achieving this and you will only do that by being Disciplined, Determined and Dedicated. |
