The elements involved in building a sales force, especially one that pays for itself and also adds value to any business, are many and varied. The whole purpose and direction of a sales manager needs to be directed to creating a sales force that causes the employing company to expand through increasing sales. This is done by the following general steps: Training sales staff to be able to sell the company product in large volume; correcting how sales presentations are made; handling any customer flaps his sales people make; and then testing and hiring more sales people, to create an ever increasing sales force. This is a continual process that a sales manager must be doing to justify his existence. If he doesn’t, the company cannot expand.

Training to make a good sales person

"Training them to be able to sell the company product in large volume." A very wise American philosopher once stated that all a salesman had to do was to continue to try to interest the customer and the customer would eventually buy, if the sales man continued to try to interest the customer! Like all great truths, they are ‘obvious’ once stated.

So, what does it take for a sales person to continue to try to interest a customer, no matter what objection the customer raises and despite the sales person’s own impulse to ‘give up’ after a while? Lets look at the elements:

The sales patter: The first of these would be a successful sales patter. Here we are talking about getting a hold of someone or several people who are successful, at selling to customers, in the target industry, or a similar industry. Once such person(s) are found, you need to interview them to find out what they DO that made them a success. We are looking for the actions they take and the things they do, not what they think.

The best person to interview for this information is usually the most successful sales person, right there in the company, if one exists. Notes should be carefully made of the actions they take to get a sale and these notes should be very exactly written up and turned into a patter that can later be drilled on new and old members of the sales force.

Advertising and preparation: Next, a series of sale recruitment advertisements need to be created for the local newspaper. The receptionist of the company needs to be briefed on what to do when calls come in. The adverts need to be big enough to attract attention and have enough mystery in them so that people actually call in to find out what its all about.

The receptionist should understand that all she is doing with calls from the advertisements is routing them to the person doing this project. She does not answer questions about what the company is and what is being offered. She simply arranges for them to come in for an interview at a scheduled time or collects their phone numbers so that they can be called back and scheduled to come in, by someone else.

The interview: When applicants for the sales position come in, their interview is very specific and to the point. There are certain very specific criteria that are being looked for in a good sales person. The two main one are, (a) can they persist along a given course? (b) Are they are interested in people?

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