Selling dreams

Sales management is essentially about maximising a company’s sales. Sales is the beginning of the revenue cycle for any company. When a purchase order is made, a sale is generated.

The lowdown
Sales management is essentially about maximising a company’s sales. Sales is the beginning of the revenue cycle for any company. When a purchase order is made, a sale is generated. It is completed when the goods or services are supplied, billed and the payment collected. Often referred to as personal selling, sales involve communicating with potential customers, informing them about certain products and persuading them to buy the stuff. The actual act of selling a product follows marketing activities like brand building and awareness creation.

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Clock Work
9am: Reach office
9.30am: Meet sales staff and work on their schedule for the day
11am: Presentations and negotiation meetings
2pm: Quick lunch
2.30pm: Meetings continue
4.30pm: Hold internal meetings to configure strategies
6pm: Fill out call documents
7pm: Write reports of the business done
7.30pm: Check proposals
8.30pm: Call it a day and leave for home

The payoff
At the entry level one can get
Rs4 lakh to Rs5 lakh a year. At the middle level one can get Rs10 lakh to Rs15 lakh per annum. The sky is the limit as one reaches senior levels. Besides salary, performance-linked incentives are lucrative

Skills/TRAITS
. A good command over the language, both verbal and written, is a must
. A strong ability to persuade people and influence their buying decisions
. Awareness of the general business environment
. Must be a good listener
. Ability to devise and offer solutions to the customer’s problem areas
. Analytical ability
. Good reasoning power
. Should be skilled with numbers
. Must be comfortable working on the computer and should be well-versed with presentation software
. A pleasing personality is an added advantage
. Being a fast thinker helps
. Should be a smart worker

Getting there
After completing Class 12 from any stream, one can opt for a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognised university. However, the ideal qualification is a graduate degree or a diploma in business studies coulped with an MBA with specialisation in sales and marketing. Earlier, one could find sales mangers without a management degree. But nowadays, a management degree is a must for making rapid progress in a career in sales and marketing

Pros and Cons
. A defined career-growth path
. Career progression largely dependent on one’s performance
. Opportunity to travel, see places, meet people
. Opportunity to build contacts, both professional and personal
. Good financial rewards, based on one’s performance and targets achieved
. Not a 9-to-5 job
. Ruthless competition
. Since targets must be met, work-life balance is difficult
. One may have to stay away from family for days due to travel