Your function as a sales manager includes competition analysis to know how your products fare against the others in the market. It also involves working in research, budget and quotas. You must select the proper distribution channels, set the pricing policies, determine the territories, and decide the conventions where your group will participate in. You also decide how incentive programs can be used and how the entertainment policies will be set.

Other responsibilities may include: staff recruitment, training, monitoring sales activities, performance evaluation and customer service. A good combination of all these management skills and people skills are needed to make sure that your sales team will develop accounts and deliver customer satisfaction.

Incentives, on the other hand, challenge you to respond positively to a reward, such as bonuses and commissions. You get to enjoy something because you’ve done well.

The only thing is that the impact of external motivation is temporary. They are short-lived, set limitations and cannot sustain us through bad times.

A primary ingredient for obtaining consistent high performance levels from sales professionals is continuous sales motivation, and the most effective way of maintaining sales morale is to provide them with a comprehensive and innovative sales simulation program. This will help them develop core sales skills through practice, and will also stimulate their sales drive by increasing their motivation levels.

For a sales simulation to produce the desired results, it should be realistic and objective. Participants must be given clearly defined objectives and tasks which must be successfully carried out. Recruiting agencies must realize that candidate support is necessary for long-term career prospects.

When a prospective customer is confronted by a salesman, he goes through a series of mental steps. Keep in mind that a decision to buy is often more of an emotional decision than one based purely on logic or reason. This is an established precept and a salesman, must be guided by it in all his personal contacts. There are six mental steps.
Curiosity – A prospect wants to know why you are there; what you have to offer him; how is it going to affect him.
Interest – Curiosity is replaced by interest as you begin your presentation. The prospect becomes emotionally and intellectually involved in what is being said because he can see himself in the picture. This occurs if you are able to present your subject effectively, knowledgeably, and confidently.

Motivation is a active condition that results from the desire, directional intensity and persistence of behavior to realize a long or short- term goal. Do away with motivation and our sales performance, and our results can be severely messed up. When we are, motivated, our performance shines, and just as when we are de-motivated, we drag ourselves to do the work.
Sales people should not rely on others to push them up or it could cause a big let down. Understanding what motivates us helps in pulling out our determination to succeed. As individuals, we have a set of values that conforms to our way of life and they fuel our behavior.

Give important and relevant data and information. You have to be precise on what you’re teaching, moreover make it seem essential and beneficial. Be certain that anything you offer will make things better and not worsen the situation.

Do not linger on irrelevant details or pointless particulars. Do not engulf your customer with informations that might lead them to confusion, leading them to be puzzled with the primary point of what you’re talking about. Make it short but remarkable.

You have to be more expressive and straightforward rather than being critical in dealing. You have to see through what kind of listener you are dealing with.

One of the key things into the success of trades and deals is good responding skills. Here are some tips you might wanna know about responding when trying to sell some goods. These tips can aid you in being a better listener.

Proper timing in giving responses should should be a skill. The most efficient thing when you’re giving an offer is a feedback at its most initial stage. However, there are quite some incidents when quick replies can be unintelligent. Sometimes, it can lead to the person getting upset or disappointed at something, so your deciding skills might be put to a test.

The attention phase defines the scope of the discussion to be taken up with the customer. Here are several principles to observe in constructing your opening statement regardless of how you plan to approach the prospect.
Speak slowly – Give the prospect a chance to hear every word and adjust to your voice. It takes a few seconds for him to get cleared of previous thoughts and he could miss a considerable portion of your opener. Also, rapid speech gives some people the impression of “high pressure” selling.
Use product Lead-in – Use an opener that is appropriate to the product that serves as a good lead-in in your discussion. Use comparisons, contrasts, anecdotes.

Some questions to ask yourself, especially when you feel your motivation is slipping:

1. What is my meaningful motive? Am I focused?
2. Have I tapped my inner resources? What actions do I have to take to overcome this obstacle?
3. What’s driving me now to do this? Am I afraid or do I believe that I am capable of doing it?
4. Are my expectations high? Is there enough challenge for me or is it too much and unachievable?
5. What is my purpose? Have I set my goal, what do I want to achieve, what to contribute and to whom?

It is important that you do not delay moving from the attention to the body of your presentation – your product message. The main idea is a simple, memorable statement of how the product provides an answer to his. Your objective is to further stimulate the prospect’s interest and to convert the interest into desire. You accomplish this by describing what the product does for the consumer, its actions and its benefits, in a concise, logical manner and with a degree of enthusiasm and sincerity. This is a critical stage in your presentation. If you have not been convincing, there will be no desire on the part of the prospect to purchase.