Direct Sales Training:

Jared is an exceptionally good closing manager. He is the manager that closes the difficult deals. One day I asked Jared to tell me his negotiation skills success secret.

Jared said his secret is like the TV show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). Only Jared’s CSI stands for “Customer Selling Investigation.”

Jared explained that when he was a new closer and didn’t close a sale he would do a CSI on the deal. He would interview the salesperson that worked the deal. In most cases he was able to quickly determine the missing ingredients in the deal. Maybe the salesperson did a poor job fact finding with the customer and didn’t know their hot buttons. Maybe they didn’t identify the customer’s main motivation for considering the purchase. Maybe there was a poor product selection in matching the customer’s needs.

Jared’s Realization

Jared said he soon started to realize that as a closer he was more like a report card on how well the salesperson set up the deal.

Jared concluded if he could do effective direct sales training with his salespeople his closing ratio would increase. Jared soon became a sales coach to his people. He helped them improve their fact finding skills, their listening skills and their product selection skills.

Jared’s Almost Magical Closing Improvement

As Jared started doing more sales training coaching his negotiation skills and closing ratio seemed to almost magically improve. And the more he did sales training with his sales team the more his closing ratio skyrocketed.

Your Direct Sales Training Action Item:

Proactively take charge of your own sales training. Take some time to sharpen your fact finding skills and product knowledge skills. Do your own CSI after each deal and analyze what happened and why. Soon you will be working a lot smarted and closing a lot more sales like Jared.

By: David Nassief

Believe it or not, sales jobs may be one of the best career choices during a recession. At first glance, this may sound strange, since people tend to stop spending money during a recession. Naturally, you would think that this would mean sales jobs would be laying people off left and right. After all, if people aren’t buying, why should a company keep on a sales force? Yet, the opposite tends to happen during a recession, and this recession is no exception. For the most part, not only are existing sales jobs safe, but new ones are being created at a brisk pace. Here’s why.

One of the biggest tasks of any company during a recession is to drum up new business. The more new business a company can generate, the better it will do financially and the better chance it will have of staying in business throughout the recession. A big part of the job of a company’s sales force is to generate new business.. Sales people not only sell products, they develop leads. These leads are always important, but are especially critical during tough economic times. Companies want to keep as many people on staff as possible whose primary job is to bring in new customers. That’s why many companies continue to hire sales personnel during recessions.

Further, most sales jobs are both salary and commission-based. This means you get a base salary, and a commission on top of that whenever you sell something. Some companies pay commissions just for generating leads. Depending on how good you are at your job, this can mean a lot of extra money in your pocket. People who are good at sales jobs may find themselves with pockets lined with cash during down economic times, while their non-sales friends are struggling.

Believe it or not, it’s not as hard as you might think to make a sale during a recession. When times are tough, people want to feel pampered to stave off the blues, so they’ll spend money on small luxuries like short stays at a resort, massages, and make-overs. They also always need certain things, like cable and cell phone service, so those may be easier sells than non-essential things, especially if your company is offering a good deal. So, if you’re looking for work during a recession, consider sales jobs. They may just be your ticket to good financial times in a bad economy.

By: Phil Rather

I can make an intelligent guess and safely say that, in our local scenario at the moment, the percentage of the local ethnicity that work for Multinational Pharmaceutical companies are in a severe imbalance. That might not be the case in your country but that is how I see it over here.

What Could Possibly Be The Cause?

I have speculated for quite some times now, and having been exposed with adequate Statistical knowledge, I summed up a few hypothetical reasons:

1. The intrinsic shyness. Since the nature of the job involves selling, and my ethnic is well known for having a strong shell of shyness, they moved away from it. Their mindset simply says selling is equivalent to a con man job.

2. Better work for the Government. This is something children inherit from the parents who inherit it from their parents. It runs in the blood through generations. They would rather spend their entire working life shove papers on desks rather than take their chance selling something.

But like I said, these are hypothetical. It used to be that way. Today, there is only one reason that stick out like a sore thumb and that is:

They Are Not Given The Chance

When I was a manager for a Multinational Pharmaceutical Company (in fact, it was the biggest Pharmaceutical company in 2007), I was the only one from my ethnic in the team of 13 members for the GP sector. I can tell you back then; the biggest selling task for me was not to sell to my 300 odd customers but selling my ideas to the team and my team leader.

It was always an uphill battle trying to measure up with the other more experience team member and more established account or area. Every time during Annual Plan of Action meeting, I end up feeling like an ugly duckling.

I have asked the question once: “Why we do not have more people of my kin in the team?” and the answer I got was always, “If we can find competent candidate, we will do that.”

But the dilemma is: How you develop competency when you are not even given the chance?

Whining Is Not An Option

Thanks to the battle that I constantly have to endure, I am still breathing, alive and kicking, and have the scar to boast. For the rest of you who find yourselves in the similar situation like mine, the ‘minority’, here are a few tips for you to consider if you want to pull through:

Fine Tune Your Mind Set

What works for me last time was this belief that I hold dearly: I do not need the company to survive but the company needs me.

If you read the sentence carefully, you can readily see why the obstacle, mismanagement and mistreatment have minimal impact on me – I was way beyond them. I serve the company for my own purpose and my own purpose only. Others are secondary.

Take Different Road of Action

The tendency for the Senior Management is to box you into certain category based on your attitude, knowledge and skill. They expect you to behave in certain ways and believe me when I say, the best you can do is to upset those expectation – in a positive manner. That means do more than expected, inject more quality and move a notch above.

A respected former Prime Minister once said, “To be able to catch up with others who are ahead of us, move faster than them. If they run, run faster.” I know this means constant struggle but it is all in the mindset.

Persist

No glory is worthwhile if achieved halfheartedly. Giving all that you have got and keeping at it are the way to go.

Be Consistent

I advocate being consistent with upsetting a trend and thinking out of the box. If you are just a ‘me-too’, you chance to success is slim. You might be side-stepped but the main thing is to stay focus on your purpose; not theirs.

Forgive But Never Forget

Every disappointment is a lesson on its own. Every scar has a story to tell. The sum of all that makes what you are today. Use that as a stepping stone and leap to a new territory. I used to get bad rating during a performance evaluation which was done twice a year. If I did badly the first time around, I know exactly how to move around in the next round. I forgive the mistreatment but I would not forget to move ahead.

Know When To Shout Out and When To Shut Up

Minority is akin to a child; a child is to be seen not heard. But who in the sane state of mind ignore a child when the child cries? Know your right but do not blindly fight for it.

We have almost reached the end of this. Even if you follow these tips to the last letter, I make no guarantee that you will have a smooth pharmaceutical sales rep jobs all the way. You will set yourself up against some disappointment and in a Multinational Pharmaceutical company corporate world that is inevitable. It is perfectly alright to lose a battle here and there as long as you got your eyes set on winning the war.

By: Nezrul Hisyam Abdul Ghani