Sales Gurukul

Why End Of Season Sales are an Eyewash.  The moment the seasons are about to turn, the end season sales start happening. The gullible customers think of making the most of end of season sales by buying products which they will end up using during the next season.                                                             (Image Courtesy: flickr. com) Deal savvy customers do not know one real law of sales field. Wanna know what that law is ? Well that law is that all "Sales" offers are meant first for the benefit of business persons then for the customers. End of season sales are meant to clear stocks of seasonal products like summer wear at the end of summer season or winter wear products at fag end of winter season. Traders or Manufacturers plan End of season sales for clearing stocks of these seasonal...

What do stores do with excess stocks when the demand for the same product declines in market A ? Or what do companies do with products which are slow moving ? Yes you guessed it right , they turn to a tactic which has been working since ages when the charlatans used to sell ( they still do but now they are called brand ambassadors) all those health tonics and what not from the road side stalls. Tactics are same as were centuries ago, the only thing that changed is the venue of sales. Road side stalls have transformed into flashy showrooms or online markets. Just as old time charlatans used to ascribe unique slogan to sell their ware like "xyz herb is in it or a snake oil is put into it" to sell their wares, now the marketers use phrases like "Exclusive" "small time offer" or aha "Limited Edition product" or a product on the "occasion of blah blah jubilee of the company we are selling these products". And guess what...

Why do 80% of average and below average students like us Open their books a week before exams are to begin? Simple “study now, as only a week is left, otherwise…”. Why there are long queue in front of utility office two days before the last date of depositing bills? Simple. Only two days left to pay bills otherwise we will have to pay fine. Humans are pushed by scarcity of all types.                                                            Image: IMS MBA Since ages the smart companies and smart people are manipulating the greed of customers and persons. Companies play on the mind of customers by running sales of only a few days. This way companies are able to impress on customers to buy now.  Deal hungry customers flock to these sales promotions in drives and end up buying t...

Sales profession is a very demanding profession. The very survival of most of companies is dependent on the revenues that the sales dept of that company generates. Sales numbers are the most visible and measurable performance metrics and because of this very easy visibility of sales numbers, the sales people are always under a lot of stress to meet their month targets. To achieve sales targets, the sales professionals have to visit different markets to develop those markets and develop sales, distribution, and visibility of their products/services in the markets.  They are always time pressed and time management is a constant challenge for them what with people from different departments calling them for their own reasons. Sales professionals have to juggle many demands in their time and to top it all, they have to keep people from different departments in good humor. Add to it the pressure of achieving month sales targets in today’s competitive environment and you can ...

"How To Travel Better on Sales Tours"  Most of working lives of sales people are spent in travelling. To meet channel partners and customers, sales people have to visit different locations to sell or promote their products/services. If as sales people you utilize your travelling time productively then it can help you increase your skills and also use this travel time to distress yourselves. Another major requirement of sales profession is that of staying outside home ,away from friends and family members in hotels.  Hotels become second homes of most of sales people as here again major part of their working month is spent staying in hotels, and hotels are hotels and not homes. Sales people have to accept whatever services are offered by the hotels. This also helps in developing a lot of patience and tolerance in sales people regarding the food quality or room quality or the kind of services provided by different hotels. Today we will explore some of the ...

Rahul,a Territory Sales Incharge, is deeply engrossed in discussion with a prospect to sell his product/service.  He has worked hard through sales call to arouse interest of customer. The customer is on the verge of making up his/her mind to buy the product, before something happens... Rahul is looking expectantly towards prospect for sales order, when his mobile phone burrrs in his pant pocket. The mobile ringging just breaks the rhythm between Rahul and his prospect. Whole sales flow of Rahul crumbles as he takes up the sales call.  This ringtone of your mobile disturbs your thought process and the thought process of your customer. Suddenly this mobile phone interuption transports you and your customer to an environment different from your current environment which you took time to create .  You just reach for your phone to see the caller and by the time you get back to your customer after attending the phone or silencing the phone,you find that the atmosphere between ...

In sales, the pressure to achieve sales targets is a constant. Sales professionals live with this "stark reality" day in and day out. To maximize sales and corner more/sustain market share, companies hire sales staff to increase the width and depth of its sales and distribution. In a rush to increase footprint of it's products/services, organizations recruit, select and induct employees to assign territories to them for appointing channel partners to increase sales and distribution. When a sales employee leaves an organisation for whatever reasons, then organisation need to fill replacement at the earliest so that the sales territory of ex employee doesn't suffer and no sales loss happen in vacant territory. In this rush to appoint people, lots of "not so good" hiring decisions are made by HR and/or Sales Managers. These decisions to hire people to just achieve sales goals backfire in the long run. A bad hire in sales organization can cost...