If you are trying to secure a Sales Manager Job where you are in control of a sales team or you want a Regional Sales Manager Job where you are in charge of a group of sales managers do you feel it is important to understand how to sell?

If you go for an interview for that sales manager job can you convince your prospective employer you understand the difference between making a simple sales or making a major sale?

Many companies are looking for strong sales managers and exeptional regional sales managers however there are many who think it more important to employ a “technical” type sales person who has a full understanding of the product or service they are offering rather than ability to sell that product.

My take on this is simple, if you want to secure that sales manager job or regional manager job the ability to convince your prospective employer on your sales ability is paramount. I strongly recomend you study the differences between making simple sales and making major sales. Grab a free copy of my ebook right here on the blog.

Go for that interview in a positive and forthright manner and who knows you may secure the very best sales manager job in your region.

The Duties Manager, Sales Manager and Regional Sales Manager of any SALES organization must understand the skills of selling.

I just wonder how many interviews take place for Duty Managers etc where this issue is ever mentioned. For some reason almost all organizations choose their Regional Sales Managers, Sales Managers etc strictly  for their product knowledge.

Obviously it is important to have an understanding of the product or services you sell but from my own experience at Xerox Corporation the new salesman with little product knowledge was usually more successful than many salespeople who had been with the company for years.

One reason could be the fact of not confusing the customer and focusing entirely on the skills of selling. Most of the sales managers, regional managers and duty managers at Xerox understood well the difference between making major sales and making simple sales.

It is still a mystery to me why most sales training material available today still pushes the old fashion methods, covering objection handling. When they do not show the very distinct difference between making major sales and making simple sales.

It is the responsibility of the Duty Manager, Regional Sales Manager and the Sales Manager to clearly understand these differences and pass them on to their sales staff.

When you first visit a customer or prospect you are probably bursting with enthusiasm and just cannot wait to start talking about your product.
What can go wrong?

Well it is very simple really, if you start talking about your product (like most sales people do) it is quite possible your client may just say they are not interested.

This means you may walk away not only without an order but also without understanding a thing about the persons business.

This issue is one of the biggest problems many sales people have. It is absolutely vital you find out who your customer is? Where they come from? Where are they are going?
Who is the decision maker? Are you speaking with the right person? How many branches do they have? How many people do they employ? What do those people do?
What motivates them?

All of these questions are ONLY questions about the customer’s situation. They are not questions about any other issues. These questions must be asked for two reasons.
To give you a clear and concise understanding about your prospects business and how it works.
To give you a solid base and platform to ask questions that may possibly uncover potential problems, which in turn will give you a further platform to ask more questions to find out what those problems mean and what solutions may be available for solving them.

Without the correct answers you may miss the opportunity for any business at all, and even if you do by some sheer chance secure some business there may be other orders left sitting on the table.
Get it right from the start when making major sales.
If you are a professional salesperson ask your regional sales manager if he or she understands the difference between making simple sales and making major sales.

<The threat of recession is an excellent excuse for retailers to blame someone else for their poor performance. Things are certainly getting tougher out there, but retailers whose sales are falling faster than average are losing market share. Simple as that.

Monthly retail sales are are widly volitile, but look at it this way-in the second quarter, UK sales were still 2.2 per cent higher than the previous year.

Marks and Spencer became the poster child for the struggling retailers with lasts months profit warning and a 5.3 per cent drop in UK same store sales for the quarter.

Sir Stuart Rose CEO of Marks and Spencer shrugged off the declines as a symptom of the fact that Marks and Spencer is a “smoke detector” for the rest of the sector.>

Well my take on all this is “I wonder what these people are smoking”?

I am certain the majority of CEO, Regional Sales Manager, Sales Managers etc world wide just do not understand there is a difference between making simple sales and making major sales.

If these people bothered to invest a few dollars in the fantastic books written by Neil Rackham they would soon understand that the lowest price is not the issue here. It simply is correct Sales Training and knowing the serious differences between making a simple sale and making major sales.

Companies around the world devote huge resources and spend vast sums of money trying to recruit and develop leaders at all levels. There is lots of talk about exciting concepts such as “transformational leadership” “emotional intelligence” and the “servant leader”.

Some even advise us that in today’s organization we are all leaders now. So there is great excitement and energy around the whole leadership field. Regional Managers and Sales Managers are supposed to be leaders. We talk of leaders as people who inspire, motivate and stretch mindsets to achieve impossible goals.

They create compelling visions and vibrant places to work. But set against the current socio-economic, business environment I ask whether our current leaders are actually making the grade? I am constantly traveling the world and in the field of “making major sales” I feel things are the same in every country. Most Regional Managers and Sales Managers along with most company leaders are just not aware there is a difference between making a simple sale and making major sales.

What does leadership mean in today’s world?

How well served are we by today’s corporate and political
leaders?

Does the rhetoric of leadership match the current reality?

If so do you understand how to motivate and control a sales force? Do you know how to train your sales force? How much sales training experience have you had? these are all questions requiring a real honest answer not only by your company or prospective employer but also by yourself.

I am constantly being asked questions like “how do I get my salespeople to make more calls?” How do I show my salespeople how to “overcome objections?”.

Well the fact of the matter is many companies employ “Regional Sales Managers” who usually have a great understanding of the company products or services, but very little knowledge of “how to make sales”.

There seems to be very few organizations or businesses who really understand the difference between making simple sales and making major sales.

Very few salespeople, sales managers or Regional Sales Managers understand that overcoming objections is not an issue if the correct questions are put to a prospect or customer at the beginning. Just like my previous post and the cartoon. Most salespeople show their product or solution far to early in the sales cycle and just talk too much.

In the near future I hope to publish some material specifically aimed at the Regional Sales Manager, or Sales Manager of companies involved in making major sales.

If you are in one of these positions within a company or are in line for promotion I suggest you subscribe to my blog now by just filling in your name and email in the box provided. You not only will receive my free ebook but you will be on the list to receive free updates and worthwhile sales tips to make certain you can become the worlds best Regional Sales Manager or Sales Manager with the very best sales force at the envy of any great sales organization involved in making major sales.