Profit and development are the main goals of each enterprise. In order to stay on the modern market, it is necessary to make a lot of efforts, which in the end must definitely pay off. Any provision of services or the sale of goods is a sale, on which the total profit depends. In order for sales to be at a level, certain people must be engaged in them, who will be able to do it correctly, taking into account the specifics of the product, the wishes of the client, etc.
This article will help you understand the question of how to quickly sell a product or service through a sales department, what tasks this unit faces, and what kind of employees it can consist of. In addition, below we will talk about how to properly create this department, select the right employees and organize their work so that the company can have a constant and stable income.
The importance of the sales department in the enterprise
Any enterprise wants to make a decent profit. Today, among the entrepreneurs conducting their activities within the domestic space, there is a lot of debate about the proper promotion of goods and services on the market. It is often possible to meet when the leader builds the organization’s work exclusively in the “manual” mode, focusing only on intuition, his own experience and case. Often this leads to the fact that every step of sales specialists is overly controlled, and any initiative on their part does not receive approval.
Achieving operational efficiency in the direction of the sale of goods or services is possible only when a clear working system is traced and a certain algorithm of actions exists. Moreover, the structure of the sales department should be formalized, and employees should understand that both the profit of the entire enterprise and its salary depend on their work. It is sometimes difficult to do this, since for the correct implementation of this task it is necessary to have some knowledge.
Creation of a sales department: main tasks and goals
The task of any leader is to build the effective work of each unit in such a way that they can carry out their functions without interruption and without excessive control. Such an attitude to building a management system will allow the director to relieve himself of the performance of routine duties, and devote the free time to global projects, attracting larger clients, negotiations and implementing the development strategy of the company. Of course, each head of the enterprise should have an idea of ​​how to offer goods, and be able to sell them, but he should not be engaged in this constantly. For these purposes, there is a department through which the implementation takes place.
Creating a sales department is a step towards development. The employees of this unit must consciously promote, offer and sell.
In general, the following goals and objectives of the sales department can be distinguished:
- Search and attraction of customers and clients. It is worth noting here that employees should use various methods and techniques of attraction, starting from working with “cold calls”, ending with walking “walks” to potential customers.
- Search for the target audience who will be interested in the product or service offered by the company.
- Sales of main products and related products.
In addition to goals and objectives, we should dwell in more detail on the functions of the department. Of the main functions, the following are distinguished:
- Search for customers.
- Systematic search for new customers.
- Work with regular customers.
- Sale of main and related products.
- Maintaining the necessary documentation.
- Transaction support.
- Processing incoming requests and information support.
Creating a sales department should be based on the above tasks, goals and functions. Setting tasks within their framework will allow employees to carry out their work consciously, and understanding the system will increase the organization’s income.
In order for the creation of a sales department to have a real sense, it is necessary to prepare a series of internal documentation, namely:
- Regulation on the department.
- Job descriptions of the chief manager of the sales department and ordinary specialists.
Most small and medium-sized companies neglect this rule. However, it is worth remembering: when the actions of employees are regulated by certain documents, it is easier for them to understand what tasks they need to perform.
Organizational structure of the unit
It is necessary to determine the structure of the sales department in advance, at the stage of its creation. It should be remembered that in different companies such departments may be more or less in terms of the total number of personnel, but the functions remain unchanged.
Depending on the number of total staff, the size of production and the firm as a whole, the person who works in the sales department is also determined. Positions are usually divided into managerial and ordinary. Guidance may include:
- head (head) of the department;
- Deputy Head;
- general manager.
To ordinary posts of the department include:
- Managers
- specialists;
- assistants (secretaries).
As mentioned earlier, the number of employees is determined based on the volume of production. Thus, if the sales in the company are small, for the first time you will need to hire a chief or manager of the sales department and one or two specialists.
When the volume of goods or services sold will increase, the department expands, first of all, hired personnel who work with a “cold” and “warm” base are hired, and after that a deputy head, secretary or general manager can be involved. Attracting the last listed posts will keep the unit's work in order.
Personnel policy when creating a department
Personnel policy - these are some of the norms that the organization adheres to when working with its employees, and its goal is to maximize the goals of the company and the people who work in it.
A personnel policy exists in every organization, even where an enterprise consists of two or three people, the only difference is the degree of its severity. The importance of this issue in the formation of a sales department is to arrange work using some processes so that employees feel responsible for the fate of the company and the sale of goods, as well as understand the general strategy of the company and can respond to changes in a timely manner.
When forming a sales department, the manager must understand the following:
- Leadership style is fully reflected in the labor efficiency of employees. It should be remembered that sales are not always easy, therefore, the staff of such a unit should not constantly feel the “tough hand” of a boss, but at the same time he should be interested in his work just like the director himself.
- The material component of labor is fundamental when a person is employed in any job. It often happens that an employee makes a big contribution to the common cause, sees the company's profit, but at the same time receives an underestimated salary. In the case of the sales department, the material interest of the employee must be fully satisfied. The optimal solution in the matter of choosing a payment method is to determine a small fixed rate and a percentage of completed sales. In this case, the sales specialist will be able to show all his creative inclinations and find for himself the most faithful and profitable sales path.
- Each employee needs to develop and advance on the career ladder. Periodically, seminars should be organized under the leadership of the chief director on the topic “How to quickly sell goods” or simply share your experience with employees. In addition, staff can be sent to courses or lectures. It is important to remember that contributing to one's workforce is a contribution to one's business.
- It is necessary to introduce the correct system of sanctions, with which employees should be familiarized in advance. This will help to avoid discipline and “punctures” in the work. However, in this matter, the leader must remain human and try to apply punishments in terms of an individual approach to each employee.
Having formed a certain personnel policy within the company, the sales staff will understand that their work is appreciated, and they come to their workplace and perform tasks absolutely for nothing.
Staff recruitment
When selecting personnel for the sales department, the following points should be taken into account:
- Candidate education.
- Experience in sales.
- Ability to conduct business correspondence, telephone conversations.
- Have an attractive and neat appearance.
As a rule, customers prefer to work with competent, polite and nice people. Therefore, the image of a sales employee must meet customer expectations.
It happens that among the candidates are not always those who would have the proper education or work experience. In this case, the manager must understand that it will take some time to train such a specialist.
In order to determine whether a person is suitable for a vacant position in the sales department, in addition to the usual study of resumes, questionnaires and testing, it is recommended to use the following assessment methods:
- Interviews aimed at the study of competence. This method includes a kind of game in which all questions to the applicant are asked with the intention of determining how much a person understands the work. The questions may be: “Tell me, what sales techniques do you know?”, “What is a cold base?”, “What will you do if a customer refuses to buy?” etc. According to the answers, it becomes clear whether a person will be able to prove himself in a position at a sales hotel. The accuracy of this method is more than 60%.
- “Assessment Center” or situation modeling. It is advisable to create certain conditions for the applicant and invite him to demonstrate his skills. The simulated situation should not be too difficult or stressful. The behavior of a person provides an opportunity to determine his abilities and competence. The accuracy of the method is 70%.
The purpose of a careful selection of personnel in the sales department is to form a cohesive team that will clearly be able to promote and sell products. The selected staff should know in advance, or at least have an idea of ​​how to learn how to sell any product, and help management develop their business. As a rule, the selection of employees is carried out by a specialist in personnel, and if there is such an opportunity, then the head of the company himself.
Sales system development
When creating a department, it is important to build a certain system through which the sale of goods and services will take place. The system will help achieve three main goals:
1. Achievement of the required sales level. For this, it is important to determine the level of guaranteed sales, to designate a sales plan. This moment is important for the business to be profitable, to have the opportunity to grow.
The main work should not be fixated on individual employees, that is, the enterprise should not be dependent on personnel. Each employee can get sick, send on vacation, a business trip or quit at any time for certain reasons. In this case, if this employee was the key, an emergency occurs immediately. Therefore, it is important to achieve such a result when the entire load is evenly distributed across the entire staff.
2. A plan for sales growth. In addition to the guaranteed sales plan, the possibilities of increasing them should be considered. Moreover, all employees must be timely aware of such plans, prepared in advance for their implementation, and also have their own interest.
If the performance indicators of the sales department are growing, then this indicates the possibility of further development. Subject to these rules, each leader will be able to strengthen his business without much effort.
CRM system
When creating a sales department, you should pay attention to the issue of optimizing the work of staff. A tool such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM system) will help you with this .
This software will help automate the work of staff in interacting with customers. The program helps to keep track of sales, make reports, make reports on the work of employees, etc.
All transactions are stored in the database, and the manager, when communicating with the client, can view the history, which allows you to quickly navigate and understand what you need to offer the customer right now. Quick response and understanding helps the client to increase loyalty to the company, which leads to increased sales.
Control and optimization
After the department has been launched, it is important to periodically monitor its activities, adjust the actions of personnel, and, if necessary, resort to optimization.
Optimization includes:
- Audit
- Finalization of the necessary reporting forms, development of a motivation system, analysis of the quality of work with clients, and, if necessary, the development of certain norms and rules.
- Implementation of improvements.
After these three steps, you should monitor the performance for some time and determine what needs to be changed and what needs to be finalized.
Sales Development
The development of the department is a key factor in achieving high sales figures. Performance indicators are:
- Incoming stream of (new) customers.
- Average invoice (purchase) account.
- Repeatability of sales.
- Profit.
Using quantitative and qualitative indicators and comparison, you can understand whether the business is developing or not, as well as how effectively the sales department works.
Conclusion
After reviewing the information on how to learn how to sell any product with the help of a specialized department, it is important to emphasize that by delegating such an important area of ​​the company’s business as sales to professionals, you can increase the available income. However, it is extremely important to consciously build his work and follow the rules that were outlined above.